Every few years the focus of corporate social responsibility changes. The direction of this has now begun to point towards the chemical industry and now is the time to take action.

Society wants all the benefits that the chemical industry provides with none of the negative health and environmental problems. As the public demand for more sustainable products continues to increase, so too do the top-line benefits of Green Chemistry. This is a wide issue that affects almost every industry.

Green Chemistry represents a market opportunity that itself will grow dramatically from $2.8 billion in 2011 to $98.5 billion by 2020, as is detailed in our latest report on the Business Case for Green and Sustainable Chemistry.

CSR policy, by incorporating the concepts of Green and Sustainable Chemistry into their business model can markedly improve a company’s turnover. Furthermore, there are profound top-line gains to be made by companies who adopt Green Chemistry as an innovation tool in the creation of new products and processes.

Ecochem is a reaction to the need for change and innovation currently present in the chemical industry. The incorporation of CSR in taking advantage of the new opportunities that are emerging shall ensure engagement with consumers. There shall be new awareness to thinking, and new ways of working together throughout the values chain, which requires the understanding of new technologies; the innovation-orientated perspective offers considerable opportunities for competitive advantage. This is highly beneficial over rival firms by opening up to potential new clients, allowing for differentiation in a crowded market, and increasing sales and revenues through expanded production capacity and lower costs.

An example of such top-line benefits is from a company called NatureWorks, born out of a joint venture between US agricultural processing giant Cargill and Dow Chemical. NatureWorks’ polymer polylactic acid (PLA) has the potential to revolutionise the plastics and agricultural industries by offering biopolymers to substitute for conventional petroleum-based products.

The concepts of Green Chemistry are continually surfacing in more and more areas of the chemical industry. BASF – the world’s leading chemical company has combined economic success, social responsibility and environmental protection. BASF’s focus on innovation has been demonstrated through their latest ad campaign emphasising the necessity of ‘good connections’ whilst accentuating that they “create chemistry for a sustainable future”.

Like BASF, many other businesses, many of which are represented at Ecochem 2013, are realising the top-line benefits and are quick in applying sustainable practices into their production processes, or into the products themselves, in order to achieve this advantage. 

If Green Chemistry follows the path to ubiquity that Sustainability has within the chemicals industry, the predicted market potential will almost certainly become reality.

Ecochem will bring the entire chemical value chain to discuss greener technologies and issues around CSR, hosting talks from world-renowned chemists as well as industry including Dow, BASF, Clariant, Evonik, DuPont, INEOS, Nestle, Nike, Volkswagen, P&G, L’Oreal – all to inspire and equip the leaders of tomorrow.

For free registration to the Ecochem Exhibition, Technical Conference and Innovations Seminars, One-to-one Partnering and Networking Events please register here.

To understand why and how you can take advantage of this market opportunity, Ecochem have published a free report “The Business Case for Green Chemistry”. Download your free copy now.

Ecochem

Ecochem

Ecochem is the sustainable chemistry & engineering platform with a new vision for the future of the chemical industry. Ecochem is dedicated to the promotion and development of less-toxic, more environmentally benign and sustainable solutions which are both profitable to industry and beneficial to society.

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