Depending on one’s perspective, California’s Green Chemistry Initiative, with its vast array of burdensome requirements, trade secret concerns and potential to ban certain products, will either cause business to flee from California, or will simply be a nonburdensome continuation of what businesses are already doing to remove chemicals from their products. The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle.
As the law initially ramps up over the next five years or so, with only a small number of products to be targeted, few businesses will be directly impacted. Over time, however, as more products are considered and the law gets woven into the fabric of the state’s regulatory environment, it is possible that 10, 15 or 20 years from now, the law will touch nearly every business and product in California within its reach, and may influence nationally the green chemistry landscape.
