Genomatica Presents Sustainability Impact Calculator and Petroleum Alternative

Genomatica has launched a sustainability impact calculator to help companies reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and replace petroleum-derived butylene glycol with the company’s Brontide natural butylene glycol.
Genomatica has launched a sustainability impact calculator to help companies reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and replace petroleum-derived butylene glycol with the company’s Brontide natural butylene glycol.
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Genomatica announced the launch of its sustainability impact calculator. The interactive tool helps personal care companies support their sustainability claims and achieve transparency when using Brontide (INCI: Butylene Glycol) as an alternative to petroleum-derived butylene glycol.

Related: ActivON’s Activonol-3 Natural Glycol Replaces Petroleum Derivatives

The impact calculator’s estimator predicts environmental footprint savings when replacing petroleum-derived butylene glycol with Genomatica’s plant-based alternative. Personal care companies can use the calculator to measure the impact of using larger volumes of natural butylene glycol in a single product or an entire product line by entering the volume intended for use. 

Lifecycle Assessment

The sustainability impact calculator uses data from Genomatica’s peer-reviewed Brontide life cycle assessment (LCA) ISO 14044, as reported by sofw Journal. According to this report, Brontide natural butylene glycol can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 51%, compared with conventional production. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator can be used to calculate this data further to provide users with three additional equivalencies including: greenhouse gas emissions from the number of cars driven for one year; emissions avoided by incandescent lamps switched to LEDs; and carbon sequestered by tree seedlings grown for 10 years. 

Consumers and Sustainability

Genomatica’s recent sustainability survey results underscore the importance of claim substantiation and greater transparency within the U.S. personal care products market. As previously reported, Genomatica’s 2020 survey revealed that 85% of Americans have been thinking about sustainability the same amount or more during the COVID-19 pandemic and of Americans who have been more sustainable lately, one in three (32%) say it’s because they’re buying more sustainable products.

Previously: Genomatica Collaborates to Create Creo, a Cannabinoid Company

Brontide Natural Butylene Glycol Specifics

Regarding Brontide natural butylene glycol, Genomatica reports the ingredient can specifically reduce global greenhouse gases by 1.92 kg CO2 per kilogram used, compared with conventional production. This means the ingredient has the potential to reduce global greenhouse gases by nearly 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year, and eliminate the use of 50,000 tons of acetaldehyde—a carcinogenic and mutagenic ingredient used in conventional production methods, according to the company.

In addition, Genomatica has notably earned credibility for its Brontide natural butylene glycol production process, including the 2020 Green Chemistry Challenge Award given by the EPA and the 2017 ICIS Innovation Award.

“The personal care market can take a major step toward sustainability by formulating their products with Genomatica’s Brontide natural butylene glycol instead of petroleum-based alternatives,” said Damien Perriman, Genomatica’s senior vice president of specialty products. “Our sustainability impact calculator is just one of the ways Genomatica is helping personal care companies to quantify their greenhouse gas savings and accelerate an industry-wide transition to more sustainable products.”

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