Safe and Sustainable by Design

Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) is at the heart of how we integrate sustainability into our products and business, ensuring we meet market demands and customer expectations.

Our co-creative approach starts with a deep understanding of the customer's needs, objectives, and boundaries. Using these insights, we design sustainable options that empower customers to choose the best path forward, balancing product performance, cost efficiency, and sustainability.

We are working towards increasing the share of SSbD solutions by taking action in three key areas aligned with our purpose and vision.  

• Improving the design of our existing products. 

• Ensuring all new products meet SSbD standards.  

• Collaborating with existing and new suppliers to introduce safer and more sustainable raw materials.  

Ahlstrom’s products meeting SSbD criteria are effective, safe, and sustainable, posing no unacceptable risks to people or the environment, and operating within environmental limits from creation to disposal. Products not yet meeting the criteria present opportunities for improvement and growth. 

The product assessment is done by scoring the product against different sustainable and safe chemical criteria. The criteria include:

• the plant performance where the product is manufactured
• the composition of raw materials
• end of life possibilities
• sustainable product performance and ability to serve sustainability trends in the specific end market(s).

The criteria also considers the use of chemicals with high carbon footprint and/or harmful or very harmful chemicals and how they are used if applicable.

Each criterion is scored from 1 to 5. All product categories scoring a total above 3.5 are considered safe and sustainable by design and products scoring below are considered either neutral or have the potential for improvement