White paper
Sustainable Materials Technology
Sustainability impacts business in many market sectors. Business leaders across the chemicals and materials sector are looking to their business development and technology teams to understand how they can best meet the resulting challenges of sustainable development and achieve commercial advantage.
Responding to these challenges is not straightforward. Furthermore, the level of investment in sustainable materials development remains uncertain. One example of this is the chemicals giant Evonik, who state that R&D spend specifically on ‘greener chemistries’ has not increased, but rather ‘environmental performance’ has become a key factor in the selection of research programmes. Studying the Dow Jones Sustainability Index reveals that all the major corporates in the materials sector, including Akzo Nobel, DSM, BASF, Bayer, Dow Chemical, and Süd-Chemie, are now active in developing sustainable materials solutions.