2017 Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award Winners: Innovators

Profiles for each of the 2017 Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award Winners in the Innovators category have been compiled in order to provide you with a better understanding of why each organization was recognized as an award winner. The winners in the Innovators category are listed below.

• AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry, Chicago, IL
• BASF Corporation, Florham Park, NJ
• JOSELI LLC, Reno, NV
• Rivertop Renewables, Missoula, MT
• Stepan Company, Northfield, IL
• The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI

See the listing of all 2017 Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award Winners.

AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry, Chicago, IL

AkzoNobel is recognized as an outstanding Safer Choice Innovator. The company is a global paints and coatings manufacturer and a major producer of specialty chemicals. Safer Choice commends AkzoNobel for its strong external communications and stakeholder involvement efforts. Safer Choice also recognizes the company's development of data to support safer chemicals designations. For example, in recertifying two of its nonionic degreasing surfactants, AkzoNobel coordinated with a third party to conduct a human liver metabolite study. The protocol had to be approved by the EPA, so the three parties worked closely together, and the two surfactants were ultimately recertified. Safer Choice applauds AkzoNobel’s innovation efforts around making its products more environmentally safe.

BASF Corporation, Florham Park, NJ

BASF is recognized as an outstanding Safer Choice Innovator. BASF has been a supporter of the Safer Choice program since joining the Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative in 2008. Safer Choice applauds BASF’s commitment to innovation in safer chemistry, as demonstrated by its continued addition of new Safer Choice-qualified surfactant chemistries to CleanGredients®, and appreciates its efforts to expand awareness about the program. BASF has also demonstrated a commitment to innovation with the implementation of its Sustainable Solution Steering, a product evaluation methodology developed to drive sustainable products in resource conservation, health and safety, and other categories.

JOSELI LLC, Reno, NV

JOSELI LLC is recognized as an outstanding Safer Choice Innovator. JOSELI is a green technology company with more than 25 years of experience producing and marketing organic products for the agricultural, livestock, and fisheries sectors. Safer Choice applauds JOSELI’s commitment to the program, exemplified by its development of DustOut, the first dust control product formulated with safer ingredients and the environment in mind.

Rivertop Renewables, Missoula, MT

Rivertop Renewables, a bio-based chemical manufacturing company, is recognized as an outstanding Safer Choice Innovator. The company’s sodium glucarate corrosion inhibitor became the first of its kind to secure full approval on the Safer Chemical Ingredients List in July of 2016. Since that time, Rivertop has worked to introduce the Safer Choice program and its benefits to businesses in the industrial corrosion inhibition market. Safer Choice commends Rivertop’s outreach and advertising efforts to raise awareness about the program and promote safer chemistry.

Stepan Company, Northfield, IL

Stepan Company is recognized as an outstanding Safer Choice Innovator. Stepan is a sustainable and global chemical solutions company that actively educates formulators and distributors about the Safer Choice program. It has advanced the use of safer chemicals through its participation in and support of CleanGredients® and by working with customers interested in securing the Safer Choice label. Safer Choice commends Stepan for its development of safer surfactants and promotion of the Safer Choice label on its website and in newsletters. Stepan submitted two new ingredients for Safer Choice certification in 2016.

The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI

The Dow Chemical Company is recognized as an outstanding Safer Choice Innovator. Safer Choice commends Dow for its participation in Safer Choice Summits and involvement in ingredient reviews for new and existing chemicals. The company’s efforts to develop alternative products that meet or exceed conventional performance requirements, such as BLUEDGE^TM, an alternative to the flame retardant HBCD, and safer surfactants, such as CleanGredients-listed ECOSURF^TM EH-9, demonstrate its commitment to safer chemistry through innovation.