Iconic sneaker and apparel producer Nike has released an open-source circular design guide, created to give its fashion-industry peers a common language for sustainable design. The guide highlights ChemFORWARD as a source for hazard data and safer alternatives that unlock the economic potential of the circular economy.

Heine brings decades of experience and leadership in green chemistry and engineering, alternatives assessment and multi-stakeholder collaboration which will accelerate ChemFORWARD’s efforts to enable a prosperous, toxic-free future for people, the planet and commerce. She is the ideal technical leader to drive ChemFORWARD’s mission to equip industry leaders who want to do the right thing with reliable access to authoritative material health data.

Through the partnership, H&M will help ChemFORWARD refine and scale its chemical-hazard screening and assessment tools to be the most trusted source of verified, actionable data available to the fashion industry as well as other global manufacturers.

The new modules feature ChemFORWARD’S free screening tool, MaterialWise powered by the Healthy Building Network’s Pharos database. The tool offers users full access to more than 100,000 known chemicals of concern, along with information about common uses and exposures and why certain hazards matter. Modules guide users in such undertakings as running their own product-redesign workshop or shifting an organization’s business strategy to prioritize material health.

Google and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation have released a new paper discussing the role of safer chemistry and better materials selection in the circular economy. The paper identifies MaterialWise a precursor to ChemFORWARD as a leader in providing the transparent, verified, and affordable data manufacturers need to make products suited for the circular economy.