"Lease programs are emerging as a safer, more environmentally friendly way to manage chemicals."

" Imagine if instead of making a list, buying groceries and sometimes running out of milk or ending up with spoiled food in the fridge, you engaged a company that helped analyze exactly how much food your household uses each week based on the meals cooked and eaten. That company would then deliver precisely the right amount of food for seven days of breakfast, lunch and dinner and charge you based, not on volume of food purchased but on meals consumed. Such a system could easily pencil out as better for your budget and for the environment.

This is essentially the idea behind chemical management services, also known as chemical leasing. To reduce waste and the inefficiency (and corresponding environmental burdens) that can easily occur in buying and handling individual chemicals — particularly for a large company that uses lots of different chemicals — businesses around the world have begun to shift from buying chemicals as such, to purchasing the services those chemicals provide."

Elizabeth Grossman reports for Ensia September 15, 2014. [2]