Sasol

Grade summary

Sasol has a large portfolio of toxic chemicals and has decreased its score in the first category from two points last year to one point this year. The production of problematic chemicals is one reason for the poor…

SASOL produces/uses 18 highly hazardous substances – 18 SIN List chemicals, 3 PICs, and 2 HHPs – 4 of which are included on the EU’s REACH Candidate List. None of these highly hazardous substances are either banned or severely restricted, with set dates when production needs to cease (no Authorisation List substances, and no POPs). The company produces no persistent chemicals.

Please note that there is no available data for the 70% of the company’s production that takes place outside of the EU and US. Lower EU/US production means higher uncertainty with regard to the total production of hazardous chemicals, which will have a negative impact on the company’s score in this category.

Sasol has a method in place to screen and assess the sustainability of its products, which includes the intrinsic hazards of ingredients in the screening process. However, it does not exclude substances with toxic properties from its new products. Sasol actively markets safer alternatives on ChemSec Marketplace, but not on its own website. The company has no true circular product, process or innovation. Sasol does not use biobased resources. Nor does it source and treat recycled materials in a sustainable way, which is one of the key elements of a circular economy. Sasol is not actively reducing the hazardous waste it generates.

The South African company does not produce only sustainable products, nor does it have a phase-out strategy for hazardous substances that go beyond regulatory compliance. It shares chemical safety information on its website and is following a credible code of conduct standard. Sasol responded to ChemSec’s attempts to communicate around its ChemScore ranking, but it does not share any information about what kind of chemicals it produces in regions with low regulatory demands for transparency (e.g. Asia). Sasol does not have a circular economy program in place, thus lacking objective and measurable circular economy targets.