Chemical Industry Challenged to Step Up

Submitted by Richard Blume on May 22, 2009 - 5:27pm.

Last week our Founder, Dr Karl-Henrik Robèrt, and CEO David Cook spoke at the Vinyl 2010 industry summit in Berlin, Germany where the next steps in the industry's voluntary commitment to sustainability were discussed.

Since we released the 2000 report on PVC and Sustainability in partnership with the UK Environment Agency, The Natural Step has engaged with many leading companies in the industry helping to bring a systems and vision-oriented approach to tackle the challenge of sustainable production and management of man-made materials, such as PVC.

At the event Karl-Henrik gave an overview of The Natural Step Framework. In 20 years of dialogue between the scientific community and engagement with industry TNS has developed a robust and proven approach that has rewarded industry pioneers with unparalleled pay-back – the result of strategic choices informed by a systems perspective of sustainability.

David Cook challenged the industry to step up: “Innovation for un-sustainable products is a complete waste of time, and a tragedy”, he said. He highlighted the need to focus on sustainable satisfaction of needs, end-use, a broader ‘plastics’ industry perspective, a global outlook to any new industry initiatives and rigorous assessment using sustainability principles, as critical to the industry’s next step.

Deep industry transformation through collaboration and a much broader commitment to sustainability education within the sector were also key points to follow-up on the great progress made by Vinyl 2010.

In line with this challenge The Natural Step, in partnership with Blekinge Institute of Technology, is pleased to invite chemistry industry professionals to join the second intake of an innovative distance learning programme, scheduled to commence in September 2009. The course will bring together individuals and organizations committed to the creation of sustainable value chains as a means of competitive advantage.

You can read more about the course Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry on our website and you can contact me for the course brochure and further enquiries.

The Vinyl2010 Webcast is available at the following links:

Vinyl2010 Webcast - http://www.vinyl2010berlin2009.org/ - select the Chapters tab to go to the TNS presentation “Creating a strategic framework for sustainable development that can meet industry’s needs”
TNS Slide Presentation - Karl-Henrik Robert / David Cook

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