Abstract Every year hundreds of new chemicals with uncertain life-cycle impacts
on our health and the environment are being developed and introduced to the
market. Reducing the amount and volume of chemicals in use is seen as an important
option for reducing associated environmental effects. Chemical management
services (CMS) is seen by environmental experts as a business strategy that may
allow reduction in the volume of chemicals sold, while maintaining profits from
use of chemicals for suppliers. In traditional business the user would try to achieve
the same reduction with less support from the supplier. The goal of this paper is to
investigate how common performance indicators can be used to monitor the environmental
performance of different chemical management strategies and how CMS
customers and suppliers can safeguard environmental improvements. The paper
draws on experiences from implementing CMS in one of Sweden’s automotive
companies and meetings with European CMS providers.