Grade summary

Nippon Paint, one of ChemScore’s newcomers, ends up in the bottom ten of this year’s ranking, scoring only eight points in total. The company produces three hazardous substances — that we know of. Unfortunately, 92 percent of Nippon Paint’s product portfolio is unknown, since it’s sold outside of EU and US markets, where there are no public records providing information about chemical content. The company has started to minimise material resources and increase circularity within its production process. Still, we were not able to identify any circular products. Nor could we identify any products with biobased or hazardous-free recycled content. Nippon Paint markets less-toxic products through its own channels, but does not advertise any safer alternatives on independent third-party platforms such as ChemSec’s Marketplace. The company receives zero points in the last category, due to a fire that occurred at a subsidiary plant in Thailand and caused one death.

How did we come to this score?

Opportunities for improvement

1. Increase transparency
   Although Nippon Paint has responded to our request for more information regarding the company’s chemicals management, the vast majority is still unknown about Nippon Paint’s production of hazardous chemicals. At least when it comes to public information. In order to allow a comprehensive global evaluation, Nippon Paint should therefore make this information public – especially details regarding the revenue generated outside of EU and US markets. Generally speaking, information about chemicals sold in the EU and the US is available through public records, which is not the case in other parts of the world.
2. Market safer alternatives
   We did identify safer alternatives in Nippon Paint product portfolio, but these are not marketed on any independent third-party platform. Therefore, they are hard to find for downstream users looking to substitute hazardous chemicals. A good place to advertise is ChemSec’s Marketplace, where buyers and suppliers can find and market safer alternatives.
3. Prevent further controversies
   Nippon Paint has been involved in an incident leading to a fatality and should re-design or dramatically improve its Environment, Health and Safety strategy. This would help the company to better avoid incidents and make sure that controls – functioning even when human errors occur – are in place. If an accident or spill should happen, it is important that Nippon Paint identifies the cause and publishes a document on strategies that will be implemented to avoid similar occurrences in the future. It is possible to prevent human suffering and environmental pollution when producing chemicals, but it requires a thorough Environment, Health and Safety system.

Category breakdown