How to Create a Formulation in SciveraLENS

In SciveraLENS, the term “Formulation” refers to a group of chemicals that you’re interested in tracking. This could simply be a list of ingredients you want to assess or could be a complete product’s formulation. There are several ways to create a new Formulation in your account. The method you choose can depend on the type of information you have available, your preferred way of working, and/or the number of chemicals you’d like to track in SciveraLENS.

(1) Create a new Formulation

To start, click on the green “+” button on the right side of Formulations.

(2) Select the type of Formulation you want to create

There are 5 methods available to create a new Formulation in SciveraLENS.

You can click on any of the “?” icons to learn more about each Formulation creation type.

Each of the first four Formulation creation methods will walk you through a 5-step data entry process. You will be asked to:

1. Enter basic information about the Formulation including a unique Formulation name and optional supporting details.
2. Enter your chemical ingredient information by CAS RN and their concentrations.
3. Add other Formulations or generate a request for data. If you have already created Formulations in your account that you would like to include in your new Formulation or need to gather chemical ingredient information from someone else, you can do so in this optional step
4. Attach supporting documentation like SDS, TDS, lab reports, polymer forms, etc. in this optional step.
5. Choose from over 400 lists and sublists against which you would like to screen your chemicals. Check out our tip on marking favorite lists for easier selection.

The fifth Formulation creation method, Request and Formulation Assembler, allows you to create a Formulation by combining Formulations or requesting data rather than starting by entering CAS RNs. Use this method if you would like to simply send a request for information to a supplier or import assessment results from a received Formulation.

Which Formulation creation method to choose mainly depends on the format your data is in and we’ve provided some detailed guidance on which Formulation creation method to choose below.

In summary:

Quick Formulation allows you to quickly add chemicals to SciveraLENS by entering in CAS RNs for your chemicals of interest by typing them in or copying and pasting them from a list. Quick Formulation can be a great way to quickly add a new Formulation with just a few chemicals or a long list of chemicals. No concentrations are required for Quick Formulation. To add a chemical or chemicals without a concentration, simply enter one CAS RN per line. If you would like to include a concentration for your chemicals, simply add a comma after each CAS RN and then enter your concentration (e.g. 234-56-7, 0.4). All concentrations in SciveraLENS should be entered as a decimal (e.g. 80% would be entered as 0.80, 5% would be entered as 0.05). You can always check that you entered your concentrations correctly when reviewing your Formulation Detail and assessment results.

BOS Builder is a step-by-step web form for entering chemicals in SciveraLENS. (BOS stands for “Bill of Substances,” a common data document used to communicate the chemicals, materials, and components in a product.) You can use BOS Builder to create a new Formulation in 5 easy steps.

1. Name your new Formulation and add any basic information
2. Add your chemicals of interest to the new Formulation
3. Add any child Formulations (requests for new information, already created Formulations, etc.)
4. Attach supporting document
5. Assign the lists (if any) you’d like to track against this new Formulation

BOS Builder is ideal for quickly adding a new Formulation of just a few chemicals. It’s handy for adding formulations or for adding a group of chemicals with similar functions for a quick alternatives assessment. You can also use the autofill feature to look up CAS RNs or common names for chemicals. Just like with Quick Formulation, you’ll need to enter your concentrations as a decimal (e.g. 80% would be entered as 0.80, 5% would be entered as 0.05). You can always check that you entered your concentrations correctly when reviewing your Formulation Detail and assessment results. The BOS Builder tool is our recommended Formulation builder option when needing to complete a request for certifications like Screened Chemistry as there are additional fields available in BOS Builder that are required for certain programs.

Upload BOS allows you to upload a spreadsheet file of your chemical data right into SciveraLENS using a very basic format. We have created a template to make this process easy to use. One of the most effective uses of the BOS Upload method to create a Formulation is for a chemical inventory or Basic Substance List (“BSL”). Many companies manage a BSL for all of the unique chemicals used in a process, a facility, or across their entire enterprise. Uploading a spreadsheet with your company’s BSL can be a very useful way to track those chemicals against your lists of interest, and follow those chemicals for their underlying Human and Environmental Health attributes. Many of our users copy and paste content from a .csv file or spreadsheet into a Quick Formulation so they don’t have to format the file according to the template.

Upload SDS allows you to import a PDF file of a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) right into your SciveraLENS account. The system will take the product name and chemical ingredient information from your SDS and create a new Formulation using that information. You will then be asked to review this data for accuracy and completeness before moving on to assigning lists for screening. Many suppliers will initially only be able (or willing) to communicate their product chemicals via the Safety Data Sheet. The SDS Upload tool in SciveraLENS can make the data entry process very fast, accurate, and efficient. You can create a unique Formulation for each SDS or PDF upload.

Request and Formulation Assembler allows you to start by linking existing Formulations or requesting chemical ingredient information from others rather than entering individual CAS RNs.

(3) Enter your chemical information

Once you choose your Formulation Builder method, name your Formulation and add any supporting information for your Formulation. Each Formulation name will need to be unique.

Enter your chemical ingredient information. When entering individual chemical ingredients, enter each chemical by CAS registry number and concentration. Concentrations should be entered as a decimal (ex. 80% should be entered as 0.8).

Link existing Formulations or generate a request for any sub-supplier formulations needed to complete your Formulation.

(4) Attach supporting documents

If you have any supporting information for your Formulation (e.g. SDS, TDS, Polymer and Ethoxylated Alcohol form, etc), you can attach them here. Click Browse then Upload File. If not uploading any documents, click Continue.

(5) Select Lists for the list screening step

Select from over 400 lists and sublists for screening chemicals in a Formulation. When you have completed list selection, click on Submit to complete your new Formulation. If you don’t select any lists, your assessment results will not show any list screening results.

Once you have clicked on the Submit button for the List Selection step, we will process your Formulation instantly so you can view the assessment results from our toxicology team. Check out the rest of this chapter to find out how to interpret your assessment results.

Which Collection Creation Method to Choose

It’s easy to create Formulations and enter chemicals into your SciveraLENS account. In fact, you have five options to choose from when it comes to adding Formulations. But how do you know which option to choose? Here’s a quick cheat sheet!

Generating a Request for Data Using SciveraLENS

To gather information from a supplier, you will be able to initiate a request directly through SciveraLENS.

When building your Formulation, you’ll see a step called “Add Formulations”. This is an optional step in the Formulation Builder process. “Add Formulations” is where you can link existing Formulations or generate requests for data. Select the green “+” button to begin the request process:

Select “New Request” from the drop-down menu and then “Create Request”. Once you select New Request for the Formulation, SciveraLENS will show you the Create a Request form:

When you complete and submit this form, your suppliers will receive an email inviting them to create an account for a SciveraLENS free data entry user subscription or login to an existing account. With each SciveraLENS account, users can enter formulation information and share it with you in redacted form meaning CAS RNs will be hidden from their share and proprietary information will be protected. We offer a limited free data-entry account so suppliers can respond to up to 5 requests before needing to upgrade to one of our paid subscription plans.

Here are some quick tips when filling out the request form:

• We recommend using the name of the product or formulation you are requesting from your supplier in the Request Name field.
• Make sure you include the contact information of the person who will be able to input the chemical ingredient information you need.
• Your message to your supplier can be as simple or as detailed as you like. If you are working on a specific certification like Screened Chemistry, we suggest including information specific to the program for which you need the supplier’s formulation information (like disclosure requirements, timelines, etc.). We also recommend including a note letting your supplier know that all chemical ingredient information will be redacted by default when shared through SciveraLENS. This means that no ingredient identifying information will be shared when the Formulation is shared. Below is some sample text you can use when sending a request in SciveraLENS. (We have a sample message for a Screened Chemistry request in another section of the User Guide.)“Dear (Contact Name),
  We are using SciveraLENS, a software solution developed by Enhesa, to better understand the chemicals used in our products and processes. SciveraLENS provides helpful assessment results like list screening and chemical hazard assessments on each chemical so we can identify problematic chemicals and safer alternatives ultimately creating safer products. Please enter your formulation for [PRODUCT NAME] into SciveraLENS. [ADD IN ANY SPECIFIC DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS] The system will allow you to provide the required information to us without disclosing confidential ingredient information. All data are kept in confidence by Enhesa.
  Please let me know if you have any questions or feel free to contact the support team [sustainablechemistry.​support@enhesa.com​]. Thank you.”
• The concentration field should be completed with the concentration (ex: 0.2) of the ingredient within your product. Your supplier will not see this information.
• There are three additional selections available in the request form that may be helpful:

• I am requesting confidential full formulation disclosure as part of this request – Confidential Full Formulation Disclosure (CFFD) is often required if you are pursuing certification or if you are responding to a customer disclosure requirement. CFFD includes 100% of all known ingredients including any sourced materials from suppliers, any known impurities >100ppm in the final formulation, and if you are required to comply with certain M/RSLs, all ingredients or impurities listed on the M/RSL at any concentration at any detectable limit. By checking this box, we will ask your contact to confirm that they have met these disclosure requirements prior to sharing with you.
• Automatically import Formulation when recipient responds to the request – By checking this box, when a supplier responds to your request, the system will automatically import the assessment results on your behalf for simpler processing.
• I am requesting additional data for further certification. This box will automatically be checked if the data gathering is related to a request you have received for data needed as part of a certification program like Screened Chemistry. If this box is checked, more information must be collected for the request to be considered completed. If the box is not checked and you are collecting data that will be used to request certification or scoring, please select this option.

Once you have sent the request to your supplier, you will receive a confirmation email and your supplier will receive the request via email to the address you entered in the Formulation Request Form. You can view your requests in the Sent Requests menu or as a placeholder in your Formulation details.

Managing Your Requests in SciveraLENS

If you have sent a request for information to your sub-supplier, you will be able to track and manage these requests using SciveraLENS. Click on Sent Requests in your SciveraLENS account to view any requests you have sent and see the status of each.

“In Progress” means that the request has not been completed yet. When a request is sent, we will send out automated reminder emails to your contact. We’ve also provided a “Remind” button that enables you to send a reminder to a supplier if needed on a specific request. While SciveraLENS provides one place to manage these requests, sometimes a personal email can be very helpful as suppliers often respond best to their direct requests from customers. If you need to change or update the specific person who will be filling out the request, you can do so by clicking the three dots and selecting “Edit the Request”. You will then update the contact information and message accordingly.

Once your request has been completed, you will be able to “Review the Formulation” or bill of substances for the Formulation submitted and then Import the Formulation into your SciveraLENS account. You will need to Import the Formulation in order to view the assessment results (while maintaining any redaction set by your supplier) and incorporate that information into other Formulations or Certificate requests. You can import the Formulation from the Sent Requests page or the results will be imported if you selected the Automatic Import box during the request process.

Editing your Formulations

Once you’ve added your Formulation into SciveraLENS, your new Formulation will be listed on the Formulation Index page.

There are three dots on the far right of each Formulation line. If you click on these, you have the options to

• View
• Manage/Edit
• Generate a Screened Chemistry or EIM Certificate Request
• Download a CSV of your BOS
• Share your assessment results
• Archive your Formulation
• Tag your Formulation

By selecting Manage/Edit, you can manage each element of your Formulation. You can edit the basic information about your Formulation, CAS RNs, and concentrations as needed. You can also edit any Linked Formulations or Requests, Attachments, or the Lists assigned to a Formulation.

Updating and Managing your Formulations

You can update any part of your Formulation once created. Select Manage/Edit from your Formulation menu. This will bring you to a summary of your Formulation with tabs that correspond to each part of the Formulation. On any given tab, if you click “edit”, you will be taken to the edit screen and be able to update the details.

Basic Info:

In the Basic Info tab, you can update things like the Name of your Formulation and update or add any supporting details that may be a helpful reference for you later.

Make any changes needed, and hit Save and Return.

Chemicals:

By clicking on the Chemicals tab, you can view and edit any CAS RNs that you have added to your Formulation. You can add or remove CAS RNs and update fields like Designation, Type, SCIL Function, Concentration and any other fields that may be required for certain certification programs and green chemistry initiatives.

Linked Formulations:

When setting up a Formulation, you have the option to link existing Formulations, include Formulations you have received from others, or create a new request to be included in your parent Formulation. In this tab you can review, make edits, or remove any linked Formulations.

Requests:

The Requests tab will show you any requests that you have created as part of your Formulation. Again, you can review, make edits, or remove any requests on the Requests tab. If you would like to edit information about who the request was sent to, you can make those changes in the Sent Requests page found in your left-hand navigation menu.

Supporting Documents:

Need to attach a document to your Formulation or remove one you have linked previously? You can make any changes to your attachments in the Supporting Document tab.

Assigned Lists:

The Assigned Lists tab will show you any lists you added when creating the Formulation. Under this tab, by clicking the Edit button, you can add or remove lists as needed using the Search Lists function. To view all available Lists, please visit your Lists menu in the left-hand navigation menu. Read more about the Lists tracked in SciveraLENS here:
https://www.enhesa.com/sustainable-chemistry/support/user-guide-scivera/faqs#faqs-list-screening

Importing Updates to a Received Formulation

If you received a Formulation from another SciveraLENS account and they have made updates to the Formulation, they can send these updates to be imported by you.  Once the Formulation has been updated and shared, you will receive an email notification that a Formulation has been updated.

In order to receive the updates they will need to be imported into your Formulation.  To do this, log into your SciveraLENS account.  Find the Formulation that has the updates and go to Manage/Edit.  Click on the Linked Formulations tab.  If updates are available there will be an Import button; click to import the updates.

Interpreting Your Assessment Results

After you create your Formulation, you have instant access to the list screening results and comprehensive Chemical Hazard Assessment results for each Formulation under the Details tab. We have several other dashboards available including a Summary tab and program-specific dashboards to preview your Screened Chemistry score, Nike Innovation Assessment results, and others. These additional dashboards will be applied to your account based on your program needs and interests.

Dashboards:

The Summary Dashboard is going to provide you with a “roll up” score for each child- or sub- Formulation in your Formulation. For example, if you create a Formulation for a formulation and have included some Received Formulations or Requests, you will see a summary line for each with an overall list screening and Hazard Category (“HC”) result. In addition, we’ve included a donut chart to help you visualize a summary % by HC score. The % is based on the summary score, rather than the individual CAS RN scores.

The Details Dashboard provides detailed results for each CAS RN across the whole Formulation, which presents all chemicals in a table and provides you with an easy way to review list screening and chemical hazard assessment results for each chemical.

List Screening Results

SciveraLENS allows you to easily assign one, several, or all of the hundreds of lists and sublists we track on a daily basis to help you stay current on regulatory, industry, authoritative, and corporate governance trends. The most common “List” of chemicals we track is what’s called a Restricted Substance List (RSL). These are lists published and updated by various authorities and organizations. A well-known RSL is “The Proposition 65 List”, more formally known as “Chemicals Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer or Reproductive Toxicity.”

Other lists of interest include authoritative lists published by academic or scientific organizations such as the United Nations International Agency for Research on Carcinogens (“IARC”). Non-governmental organizations (“NGO”) publish what are commonly called “screening lists” of chemicals with specific characteristics of concern. Many industry groups and companies refer to these screening lists in setting governance policies on chemicals on products or processes.

Lastly, organizations are increasingly developing “preferred lists” or “positive lists” of chemicals that have been screened for specific uses and show comparatively preferred human and/or environmental health attributes. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains a Safer Chemical Ingredients List (“SCIL”) that can be a useful reference when seeking preferred alternatives for specific applications.

Keeping up with all of these lists and their nuances and changes is a time consuming and challenging task. Our toxicologists not only maintain these lists and keep them updated in our system, but also include CAS RNs that are included on a list as part of a chemical group or chemical family. SciveraLENS begins its chemicals management process doing these basic list-checking steps for you and keeping you up to date on any changes to your chemicals of interest using alerts.

You can quickly see what type of list your chemical(s) appear on and whether or not your concentration exceeds any threshold levels for a particular list using our color coded triangle icons:

List Type	No list hits: There are no list hits for the chemical(s) in your Collection	List hit: The chemical(s) is on the indicated list(s) and either no concentration threshold is included or the concentration for the chemical in the Collection exceeds the concentration thresholds in the indicated list(s)	List hit but under threshold: The chemical is on one or more list(s), but the concentration in the Collection is below the concentration threshold for that chemical on the indicated list(s)
Regulatory
Authoritative
Organization
Hazard
Preferred
Inventory
Group

For chemicals that appear on a list as part of an identified chemical group, you will see this icon:

Chemical Group

Human and Environmental Health Screen Results

Chemical Hazard Assessments (CHAs) provide information about how each chemical impacts human health and the environment. These assessments are completed by certified toxicologists by compiling many, many data points and providing a summary score or assessment for each “endpoint” or characteristic based on the research conducted.

SciveraLENS makes use of an easy to understand “traffic light” system for communicating assessment results for human and environmental health attributes of specific endpoints and for a chemical overall.

A solid green, yellow, red, or black light indicates sufficient authoritative or experimental evidence for an unequivocal hazard assessment.

When half of the light is gray, this indicates limited evidence is currently available for the endpoint and our Toxicology Team has made use of systems such as modeling software, quantitative structural activity relationship (“QSAR”) methods, or expert judgment to complete the assessment.

You can click on an endpoint or light for a specific endpoint assessment that will present the underlying references and explanation for how our team reached the specific conclusion indicated by the light.

 Green is good. Green lights signal an overall assessment for a chemical or a specific human or environmental health endpoint shows evidence of low hazard.

Yellow is acceptable. Yellow lights signal an overall assessment for a chemical or a specific human or environmental health endpoint shows evidence of moderate hazard.

Red indicates concern. Red lights signal an overall assessment for a chemical or a specific human or environmental health endpoint shows evidence of high hazard.

Black indicates high concern. Black lights signal an overall assessment for a chemical or a specific human or environmental health endpoint shows evidence of high hazard.

The light blue and gray light indicates an endpoint or chemical overall that does not show list evidence of concern, but after additional work by our toxicology team, we are not currently able to conclude an assessment. Data are currently not sufficient for an assessment.

Light blue means a hazard assessment has not been completed for that chemical. Our Toxicology Team adds chemicals and endpoints to its assessment queue for deeper review via the expert methods mentioned above. The team prioritizes this additional review based on subscriber interest in chemicals across the SciveraLENS system. If you would like to expedite an assessment for your work and provide a firm date for completion, contact our Toxicology Team at sustainablechemistry.toxteam@enhesa.com to receive a quote and a completion date to accelerate the assessment. This verification is required to move forward with certain programs like Screened Chemistry.

We also provide summary assessments for human and environmental health screen results to provide you with a quick summary or determination for easy reference.

The “HC” or Hazard Category Score is based on an algorithm very similar to EPA Safer Choice and other hazard assessment methodologies. To calculate this summary score, our team uses Core Endpoints (CMRD/PBT) and Supplemental Endpoints (all the rest) to summarize 23 human environmental health characteristics into a simple colored light and action:

• Red light – overall high concern, replace
• Yellow light – overall moderate concern
• Yellow/Green light – overall moderate/low concern, acceptable
• Green light – overall low concern, preferred
• Grey light – insufficient information to summarize, incomplete

We also provide a “✓” for each CAS RN to indicate the verification status of the Chemical Hazard Assessment and HC score.

SciveraLENS Human and Environmental Health Endpoints Explained:

SciveraLENS generates an overall hazard assessment for each chemical present in a Collection. Each assessment is done manually by our team of toxicologists and is provided to you through SciveraLENS so you have access to critical chemical ingredient information needed to make safer chemical decisions. To complete our CHAs, our toxicologists use a combination of authoritative lists, regulatory lists, experimental data, modeled data, analogous data, and expert judgment. Please keep in mind that these assessments are more than list screening. While some of the lists that we look at are based on specific ways that chemicals impact humans and the environment, a CHA looks at specific characteristics for each chemical including those that aren’t restricted or regulated.

Scivera has published a summary of our hazard assessment methodology and we invite you to learn more. If you could like more details, please visit our SciveraLENS GHS+ Hazard Assessment Framework for specifics on Hazard and Dose-Response Assessment criteria by endpoint.

SciveraLENS generates a hazard assessment at two levels for a chemical:

• Endpoint Level Hazard Assessment
• Chemical Level Hazard Assessment

Endpoint Level Hazard Assessment – Where data and/or expert judgment enable an assessment, our board-certified toxicology team generates a hazard assessment for up to 16 Human Health, 4 Ecotox and Environmental Fate, and 3 Physical Hazard endpoints.

Human Health Endpoints include:

• Carcinogenicity [C]
• Mutagenicity-Genotoxicity [M]
• Reproductive Toxicity [R]
• Developmental Toxicity [D]
• Endocrine Activity [EA]
• Acute Dermal Toxicity [atd]
• Acute Oral Toxicity [ato]
• Acute Inhalation Toxicity [ati]
• Systemic Toxicity (Single/Repeated Dose) [st]
• Neurotoxicity [n]
• Dermal Sensitization [ds]
• Respiratory Sensitization [rs]
• Dermal Irritation[di]
• Eye Irritation [ei]
• Aspiration Potential [ap]
• Sensory Irritation [si]

Environmental Health (Ecotox and Environmental Fate) Endpoints include:

• Bioaccumulation[B]
• Acute Aquatic Toxicity [AAT]
• Chronic Aquatic Toxicity [CAT]
• Persistence [P]

Physical Hazard Endpoints include:

• Environment Transformation Products [etp]
• Reactivity [r]
• Flammability [f]

These Physical Chemical Property endpoints are Supplemental Endpoints. Supplemental Endpoints are a critical component of the overall assessment category, but due to limited data availability, some data gaps are allowed for these endpoints while still generating an overall hazard assessment category for a chemical.

You can sort a Formulation by the assessment results for each endpoint by going to the Formulation detail report and clicking on a specific Formulation of interest. In the Formulation detail report, hover your pointer over the endpoint of interest. This will present the full name of the endpoint in a help bubble. Clicking on the endpoint header will sort the Formulation in ascending/descending order based on the direction of the arrow.

Note: Underlined endpoints are CORE endpoints. All Core Endpoints must have conclusive assessments for the chemical to have a conclusive assessment overall.

Chemical Level Hazard Assessment – Our toxicologists consider all 23 endpoints to provide a summary-level (Hazard Category) score for each chemical so you can make quick decisions when needed.

> Responding to a request in SciveraLENS