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How to Partner
Formulator Program Home | About This Project | Findings & Accomplishments | Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative | Publications | Partners and Recognized Products
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The DfE Program offers formulator companies the opportunity to partner with DfE - and use of the logo - when they design or reformulate products with a more positive environmental and human health profile.
Steps to Partnership
STEP 1. Become Familiar with the Project. Read over "Design for the Environment Formulator Program: A Discriminating and Protective Approach to Cleaning Product Review and Recognition" (PDF) (12 pp, 145K) to get a sense of the project goals, framework, and criteria.
STEP 2. Chemical Profiling of All Formulation Ingredients (PDF) (2 pp, 33K). In addition to a full disclosure of all ingredients, applications for partnership should include ingredient profiles. A profile is a compilation of all hazard information available on a chemical and includes detailed structure, physical-chemical properties, human health and environmental toxicology, and regulatory/administrative status. DfE believes that only a qualified third-party profiler has the expertise and objectivity needed to ensure a quality review, with high confidence in the accuracy and reliability of the profile information.
Links to the profilers are listed below:
http://www.nsf.org/business/laboratory_services/cleangredient_lab/Formulator.asp
http://www.toxservices.com/USEPA.html
STEP 3. EPA Assesses Your Ingredients/Identifies Alternatives. DfE will assess the potential health and environmental effects of each ingredient in your formulation and may identify areas for improvement, safer alternatives, or additional information needs.
STEP 4. EPA Discusses its Assessment with You. Once complete, the DfE team will review with you its assessment, recommendations, changes needed to qualify for recognition, and the elements of a partnership agreement.
STEP 5. Entering into Partnership—the Partnership Agreement. The Partnership Agreement documents changes you make in your formulation and plans for future improvement. A sample Formulator Partnership Agreement (PDF) (10 pp, 44K) appears on the DfE Web site (section 8 covers EPA recognition and support). A Partnership Agreement should be tailored to your company and product. DfE will work with you to draft a suitable agreement.
STEP 6. Partnership Begins. DfE and your company decide how to announce the partnership and plan near-term activities. DfE welcomes additional products for review, as well as your ideas on how to improve and strengthen the partnership program. Your company should also carefully review the terms of logo use (PDF) (2 pp, 23K).
Please Note: Submission of data under this program is voluntary. More information is provided below.
How to start a partnership
The DfE Program reviews and recognizes best-in-class wet chemical-based formulations and products. Our review approach, very briefly, is to look at each ingredient in a formulation within its distinct functional class (e.g., surfactants, solvents) and to compare toxicity and fate profiles to identify the safest ingredients. DfE recognition is based on using the safest possible ingredients to make a high-performing, cost-effective product.
To partner with the DfE Formulator program, companies must first create a full profile for each product’s chemical formulation through one of our qualified third parties. DfE has become overwhelmed with interest from cleaning product manufacturers, and has outsourced the profiling process to third-parties. NSF International and ToxServices are currently doing profiling for cleaning product formulators and additional third-parties may come on board in the future.
NSF costs are based upon the number of ingredients in the formulations and the number of products. They have some additional information on their website listed below, as well as a "quick start" package for initiating the process. The contact at NSF is Teresa McGrath at (651) 493-4247 or tmcgrath@nsf.org. She can provide a free quote for NSF’s service after the product information has been submitted. http://www.nsf.org/business/laboratory_services/cleangredient_lab/Formulator.asp
Dr. Ann Marie Gebhart (amgebhart@toxservices.com; 202-429-8794) is the contact for ToxServices. ToxServices charges clients a one-time fee for each ingredient profile. A fee schedule will be provided upon request. The length of time to complete a product review is based on the number of applicants in the queue and the complexity of the formulation. An estimated completion date will be provided at the time that a quote is established for the review.
http://www.toxservices.com/USEPA.html
Following the third party profiling, DfE evaluates the product’s formulation and makes recommendations, if necessary, to the product manufacturer. After the product manufacturer has satisfied DfE’s requirements for the use of safer ingredients, DfE and the manufacture then sign a partnership agreement. For more information regarding DfE’s criteria please see http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/dfe/pubs/formulat/formulator_review1.pdf. DfE does not charge a fee for this service.
How to start a partnership for a new sector
To open a new sector (i.e., product types that DfE has not previously recognized), DfE would prefer that you contact us directly.
Please contact Clive Davies, Davies.Clive@epa.gov
PRA Notice: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 USC 3501 et seq.), and the implementing regulations (5 CFR 1320 et seq.), a Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, certain collections of information involving identical questions to 10 or more persons unless the agency has obtained approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). For each such collection activity, the agency is required to "inform" the respondent that they are not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. Failure to display a valid OMB control number permits a respondent to raise the affirmative legal defense provided by the "public protection" provision in section 3512 of the PRA (see also 5 CFR 1320.6).
The Agency has not yet obtained approval from OMB for this information collection. Until such approval is obtained, these activities are solely intended to provide the Agency with information to be used in the Design for the Environment (DfE) Formulators Project. Until approval is obtained, the PRA's "public protection" provision will prevent the Agency from using any information you provide under this DfE project in a compliance or enforcement context to impose any penalties.
EPA will be announcing the availability of the draft Information Collection Request (ICR) to solicit public comments on specific aspects of the collection activities before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval. Once available for public review and comment, EPA will provide a link here to the document and the related docket.