How Safe and Sustainable by Design NAMs Support Earlier Safety Decisions

For too long, safety came after innovation: invent, produce, test and fix. Safe and Sustainable by Design NAMs support a different approach by helping predict risks before a product even exists.

Safe and Sustainable by Design, or SSbD, brings safety, environmental sustainability and functionality directly into the design phase of chemicals, materials and products. Rather than addressing risks only after they appear, this approach aims to anticipate them earlier and guide innovation towards safer and more sustainable solutions.

What Safe and Sustainable by Design Means

SSbD integrates safety considerations into the innovation process from the beginning.

In practice, this means anticipating hazards early, designing out risks before products reach the market and minimising environmental impact across the lifecycle. It also means guiding innovation towards solutions that combine safety, sustainability and functionality.

This represents a shift away from correcting problems after development. Instead, safety and environmental sustainability become part of the design process itself.

How Safe and Sustainable by Design NAMs Support Innovation

New Approach Methodologies provide the predictive power needed to support this shift.

Advanced in vitro models, computational toxicology and AI can help predict hazards earlier and guide smarter design decisions. By generating information during the design phase, NAMs make it possible to consider potential risks before a chemical, material or product is fully developed.

Safe and Sustainable by Design NAMs therefore connect early hazard prediction with practical design decisions. NAMs support the prediction of risks, while SSbD uses these insights to guide the development of safer and more sustainable solutions.

Why This Matters for Safer Innovation

The combination of SSbD and NAMs can support several important changes in the innovation process.

It can help identify safer molecules before they are synthesised and predict toxicity and environmental impact earlier. Human-relevant models can also be used to guide innovation and support a better understanding of mechanisms of toxicity.

This understanding can help design hazards out rather than addressing them later. At the same time, these approaches can reduce reliance on animal testing.

The objective is not simply to generate more information. It is to use predictive insights early enough to influence design choices and guide innovation towards safer molecules, materials and products.

From Test and Fix to Predict and Design

The central shift is straightforward: moving from test and fix to predict and design.

In the traditional sequence, products are invented and produced before being tested and corrected. SSbD proposes that potential risks should instead be considered during the design phase.

NAMs provide the predictive power to identify hazards and potential impacts earlier. SSbD turns this predictive power into design decisions intended to improve safety and sustainability.

Together, they support a more proactive approach in which risks are anticipated, design choices are informed earlier and innovation is directed towards safer and more sustainable outcomes.

Supporting Earlier and More Sustainable Decisions

Safe and Sustainable by Design NAMs can support a shift towards earlier, smarter and more sustainable safety decisions. By combining predictive toxicology, in vitro models, computational toxicology and AI with the SSbD approach, potential risks can be considered before they become established in a finished product.

The result is a move from reacting to risks towards predicting them and designing with them in mind.

Readers can learn more through the Commission Recommendation on revising the European assessment framework for safe and sustainable by design chemicals and materials.