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Trending: AzkoNobel, Startups Sustainably Solving Chemical, Packaging Challenges
January 30, 2017
Trending: AzkoNobel, Startups Sustainably Solving Chemical, Packaging Challenges
January 30, 2017
by Sustainable Brands
Finding new post-consumer uses and solutions for products is critical for making the shift towards a more circular economy, but more and more companies are turning their focus to the early stages of product production and development, effectively addressing the sustainability question before it becomes a problem.
Global paints, coatings and specialty chemicals company AkzoNobel is launching Imagine Chemistry, an opportunity to partner with startup firms, students, research groups and career scientists from across the world to jointly exploit their knowledge of chemistry and solve several real-life chemistry-related challenges.
The challenge is part of an integrated approach to further deploy AkzoNobel’s innovation capability in support of its growth ambitions. The company believes that there is tremendous potential even in mature chemistries, and the challenge aims to tap into that as well as uncover new opportunities.
Imagine Chemistry, launched in conjunction with KPMG, aims to address a number of specific societal challenges as well as finding new sustainable opportunities for AkzoNobel businesses. It will focus on finding solutions within the following five areas:
- Revolutionizing plastics recycling
- Wastewater-free chemical sites
- Cellulose-based alternatives to synthetics
- Bio-based and biodegradable surfactants and thickeners
- Bio-based sources of ethylene
In addition, there are “open challenges” for broad ideas in two further areas: highly reactive chemistry and technology, and sustainable alternatives to current technologies. All challenges are business-driven and should go commercial within a three-to-five-year period.
Read more at Sustainable Brands.
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