This article explains how to decline a product assignment, what information is required, and what happens after a decline is confirmed.

01/ Introduction

If a product does not meet the requirements for ZDHC MRSL certification — or if there are other grounds for declining the assignment — you can formally decline it from the review panel. Declining sets the assignment status to Declined and makes this visible to the chemical formulator.

Note: A decline can only be issued for assignments that are currently in Under Review status. If you have already assigned active certifications to a product, the decline option is not available while those certifications are active. Remove the active certifications first if you need to decline.

02/ Steps

1. Open the product from the Approvals overview.
2. In the review panel, scroll to the bottom.
3. Click Decline. A confirmation modal opens.
4. Enter a written reason for the decline. This field is mandatory — you cannot confirm a decline without providing a reason.
5. Click Confirm decline. The assignment status changes immediately to Declined.

03/ What happens after declining

• The assignment status in your Approvals overview changes to Declined.
• The chemical formulator can see the Declined status on their product's Certificates tab. They can also see that a decline has occurred, but the written reason you entered is visible to them.
• The product remains in your Approvals overview in Declined status.

Note: A known issue means that declined assignments are currently not automatically filtered out of the Approvals overview. All declined products remain visible in the table. A future update will add filtering to allow certification bodies to hide declined assignments. Until then, you can use the status column to identify and distinguish Declined products from those Under Review or Accepted.

04/ Re-opening a declined assignment

If the chemical formulator wants to reinitiate the review after a decline, they can remove and reassign your organisation from the product. When they do this, the product returns to Under Review status in your overview, and you can resume the review process.

You cannot change a Declined status back to Under Review yourself — this must be initiated by the formulator.

Tips & Notes

Tip: Before declining, consider contacting the chemical formulator directly to explain the issue. In many cases, they may be able to provide additional information or update the SDS to address the concern, avoiding the need for a formal decline.