OECD Will Hold Webinar on Safer and Sustainable Innovation Approach for More Sustainable Nanomaterials and Nano-Enabled Products

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will hold a webinar on November 3, 2022, on the safer and sustainable innovation approach (SSIA) for more sustainable nanomaterials and nano-enabled products. According to OECD, SSIA is an approach aiming to boost safer and sustainable innovations by integrating safety and sustainability at an early stage of the design phase of innovative materials, products, applications, and processes. SSIA combines the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD), Regulatory Preparedness (RP), and Trusted Environment (TE) concepts to identify and minimize sustainability impacts, as well as potential health and environmental risks in the innovation process. OECD states that SSIA relies on early dialogue between industry and regulators and is facilitated by a “Trusted Environment.” SSIA aims to anticipate the regulatory challenges posed by innovative nanomaterials, nano-enabled products, or other advanced materials by minimizing the gap between technological innovations and the development of suitable risk assessment tools and frameworks. OECD notes that it is organizing the webinar to increase awareness of this approach and gather input from potential users, such as innovators and regulators, to ensure its applicability.

A summary of OECD’s report entitled Sustainability and Safe and Sustainable by Design: Working Descriptions for the Safer Innovation Approach is available in our September 12, 2022, blog item. More information on OECD’s report entitled Moving Towards a Safe(r) Innovation Approach (SIA) for More Sustainable Nanomaterials and Nano-enabled Products is available in our December 29, 2020, blog item.