Safety & Quality Assessment for Sustainability

What it is

Cefic's own definition, from the SQAS home page: "An assessment scheme for chemical companies to evaluate the safety, environmental, security and quality performance of logistics service providers and distributors." The about page carries a slightly different wording of the same definition, adding sustainability.

The process is four steps, in the owner's words: "An independent assessor visits the Logistics Service Providers or chemical distributor's facilities to assess operations." "The assessor generates a report that evaluates compliance with legal requirements and industry standards." "The report is shared with the assessed Logistics Service Provider or chemical distributor and is stored in a secure central database." "It repeats the process every three years."

The assessed company drives the process: it picks its assessor from the accredited list, fills in a Pre-Assessment Document, and authorises the report electronically — the FAQ states that the assessment cannot take place without that authorisation. The FAQ also records that any logistic service provider or distributor may decide to have an assessment performed, on its own initiative or at a chemical company's request.

The output is a scored report. Cefic's FAQ describes a One Page Attestation and Summary Report that can be downloaded, a scoring matrix per country for comparison, and a facility to compare up to fifteen reports.

Cefic's own term for a company that has been through the process is SQAS assessed. Its logo conditions document is explicit about what the logo does and does not say: "An authorization by Cefic to use the logo does not preclude or imply in any sense a judgement on the standards and/or the performance of the assessed company." The logo is granted to logistics service providers and chemical distributors that have been assessed by a qualified and accredited assessor and have agreed to include their report in the SQAS database, which is optional.

Reports live in a closed database: "The database provides easy access and analysis of the reports, and is only accessible to users from the chemical company and authorised Logistics Service Providers or distributors." The assessed company manages the access requests it receives, and any SQAS user can request access to another assessed company's reports electronically.

A joint Cefic–TfS document dated 1 June 2019 sets out how the two systems line up: "In order to avoid duplication of audits, increase acceptance by suppliers and save resources, TfS and SQAS have agreed to cooperate on Audits for Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) – since 2016 TfS has been accepting SQAS Assessments as a substitute for TfS Audits from Logistics Service Providers." The same document fixes the vocabulary: in SQAS the word assessment has the same meaning as the word audit in TfS, both describing an on-site evaluation of a supplier against a pre-defined questionnaire. That document is dated 2019 and its current standing was not re-verified for 2026.

Cefic publishes an accredited-assessor list on its get-assessed page, with filters for auditing territories and accreditations. The list renders dynamically and its entries could not be read during this verification (3 September 2026). The reports themselves and the search for assessed companies sit on the private part of the site, behind a login.

Who owns it

SQAS is run inside Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council — an aisbl at Rue Belliard 40, 1040 Brussels, EU Transparency Register n° 64879142323-90. The SQAS Service Group Operating Rules of 2 July 2020 state: "The SQAS Service Group shall be a Service Group of CEFIC under articles 57 of the statutes and 15 of the by-laws of CEFIC." Article 1 of the same rules forms a non-profit international Service Group under that name, governed by Belgian law; Article 18 provides that a Service Group manager is appointed by Cefic in agreement with the Service Group president.

The 2019 Cefic–TfS document states the operator's role in one line: "Cefic manages the system centrally and ensures its integrity."

The Operating Rules define who reaches the database: members are chemical companies with manufacturing activities in Europe, associate members hold partial or full access, and permanent invitees are logistics service providers or distributors with at least one active report.

On 3 September 2026 the SQAS Service Group member page listed 38 chemical companies, among them Arkema, BASF, Bayer, Borealis, BP, Clariant, Covestro, Dow, DuPont, Evonik, ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell, SABIC, Shell Chemicals, Solvay, TotalEnergies and Wacker Chemie AG.

The about page links sister and regional systems run under other names: CAIA SQAS in South Africa, Gulf SQAS, CRSAS and CWSAS in China, and PRODIR in Brazil. Their legal relationship to Cefic was not verified for this record.

Who assesses it

Assessments are carried out by independent assessors accredited by Cefic. The owner's page states that assessors operate according to SQAS requirements, under the supervision of Cefic.

Qualification runs through training, a written exam, an interview, an online greenhouse-gas exercise, module e-exams, and observed and supervised assessments. Re-accreditation is periodic: "They are required to participate in regular trainings and be reaccredited every three years."

The 2019 Cefic–TfS document describes the method: the evaluations are made by single standardised assessments carried out by independent and accredited assessors using a standard questionnaire, and all SQAS assessments are carried out on site.

Assessment modules (owner's questionnaire set, 2025/2026 versions)

• Core
• Transport Service
• Tank Cleaning
• Warehouse
• Rail
• Container Depot/Transfer Terminal
• ESAD — European Single Assessment Document (chemical distributors)

Validity

Cefic's own FAQ states: "Please note that a SQAS assessment report remains valid for 3 years. After that, the assessment report is archived and is not available anymore for the assessed company." Authorisation to use the SQAS logo runs for the same three years under Cefic's logo conditions document.