Drivers of Sustainability

Environmental catalysis has its potential in improving innovations in the field of catalysis and highlighting the new directions for research driven by market, social, and environmental needs. Therefore, it can be concluded that environmental catalysis plays a key role in demonstrating the role of catalysis as a driver of sustainability by improving the quality of life and protecting human health and the environment... 

As shown in Fig. 9.3, the major drivers of sustainability are ecological balance, resource availability, business reputation (brand value), climate change, and economic viability. 

Berry, L.L. (1999) Discovering the Soul of Service The nine drivers of sustainable business success. New York Free Press. 

Interestingly, each of these major drivers also represents one of the three dimensions of sustainability, namely Profitability (affordable energy), Planet (climate change) and People (social stability). No single energy solution seems to address these three dimensions satisfactorily. It appears therefore inevitable for mankind to progress towards a complex and delicate mixture of energy sources and carriers to properly balance the three Ps of sustainable development. 

The chemical industry has to revitalize the drivers of innovation to proactively generate sustainable competitive advantage. Innovative breakthroughs can happen in a variety of dimensions, including not only new compounds, applications, and processes, but also new services and business models. 

Chinese demand has been the main driver of the world petrochemicals recovery since 2002, and while scenarios exist under which China s demand falters, the consensus view is that it will continue, and that petrochemical prices will be sustained at high levels until new capacity comes online. The products elevated price levels and margins are likely to attract new investments in the next few years. At this point the products seem likely to resume the cycle of overinvestment leading to a price bust later in the decade, followed by a period of underinvestment leading to a new price spike several years later. While the drivers of the price movements contrast with those of crude and natural gas and are more inherently shortterm, they ensure similar and continued price volatility. 

Stemming the drunk-driving problem seems to be a matter of sustained attention and action by law enforcement and citizens action groups. Drivers perceptions that arrest and conviction are likely consequences of drunk driving also are important. Alcohol s effects on sex and aggression are major topics of social interest and concern. To understand alcohol s association with aggressive behavior it is necessary to take into account characteristics of the aggressor and situational factors, only one of which is alcohol. 

To corroborate and explore the importance of the drivers commonly cited in the literature, in 2004, BRIDGES to Sustainability (BRIDGES), in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC (PwC), developed a survey addressing the chemical industry s view of sustainability and its response to sustainability issues. BRIDGES,... 

For DuPont, the business case of sustainability lies in it being a growth engine. Sustainability is the driver of innovations, both technical and in delivery to the market. Finding solutions to global societal needs, such as access to clean energy, safe food, shelter, and information, presents new business opportunities for DuPont and the industry. 

While there are many factors supporting the business case for sustainability at 3M, the main drivers for sustainability are operational excellence, organic growth, and risk management. Each of them is linked to corporate business initiatives. 

SCIENTIFIC, POLITICAL, AND INVESTOR DRIVERS OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SUSTAINABILITY AN NGO PERSPECTIVE... 

Catalysis is thus a driver for sustainability and societal challenges [51] and for a sustainable energy [52, 53[. New demand for applications (e.g., the area of biorefineries [54, 55[) and new advances in both the ability to control catalyst characteristics through nanotechnologies [56, 57[ and to understand catalytic reactions [58-62] have greatly renewed the interest in catalysis and changed the research topics and approaches with respect to few years ago. We could thus conclude that catalysis is not only a key element for the sustainability of chemical processes but also that the recent advances in this area have further enhanced its critical role. 

It is therefore necessary, particularly in Europe, to adopt a new approach to industrial chemistry, leading to the development of technologies/processes that require lower development costs and investment, and may thus be introduced more quickly to the market, allowing at the same time a better sustainability of the entire chemical sector. Rethinking the development model of the chemical industry is not only a necessary element to a sustainable chemical production but also the key factor to ensuring the role of chemistry as a driver of innovation in developing countries, a statement often cited, but not always transformed into action. 

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