Circularity of Engineering Plastics and a Low-Carbon Future

Covestro delivers a keynote speech at the Online Seminar ”Sustainable Industrial Cooperation Between Taoyuan and Germany”

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly changed our lifestyle and industrial operations; however, the issue of global warming never ceases. After countries worldwide and international enterprises have set their net-zero goals, it is especially critical to realize sustainability in the post-pandemic era.

Invited to participate in the online seminar “Sustainable Industrial Cooperation Between Taoyuan and Germany”, jointly hosted by the German Trade Office Taipei and Taoyuan City Government, Covestro delivered a keynote speech explaining the connection between raw materials and product sustainability from the perspective of the chemical engineering industry, particularly the critical role of engineering plastics in the market.

Roy Cheung, a Covestro speaker and Global Head of Sustainable Solutions for Engineering Plastics, said, “As countries worldwide have set targets and policies for climate neutrality, low carbon development has become the global trend. High-value engineering plastics like polycarbonates can help industries and customers in our downstream applications achieve their sustainability goals. Marching towards the circular economy transformation, Covestro started to provide the world’s first zero-carbon footprint polycarbonate in late 2021 in Europe, as one step closer to the circular economy.”

On 1 March this year, Covestro announced its plan to achieve net-zero* emissions by 2035. To achieve this goal, Covestro has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) per unit of product by 54% in 2021 from 2005. We have advanced our sustainability goal, planned to be achieved by 2025. The next milestone is to reduce GHG emissions directly from production (Scope 1) and outsourced energy (Scope 2) by 60% to 2.2 million tons by 2030. In the long term, Covestro aims to use only renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power and alternative raw materials such as biomass, waste, carbon dioxide or hydrogen in its production processes. In addition, Covestro will announce in 2023 its long-term emission reduction targets for GHG emissions (Scope 3) indirectly generated throughout the upstream and downstream process of the value chain.

Covestro’s sustainability solutions portfolio include engineering plastics containing post-consumer recycled and renewable raw materials from bio-circular sources, which help customers achieve their sustainability goals such as reduction of plastic waste, and decarbonization of supply chain. Furthermore, Covestro works with the Taiwanese social enterprise REnato lab to release the circular design guidebook for the electronics and electrical industries, who are transforming its products and business models into a more circular fashion. With such guidebook, product designers can adopt circular design strategies and think about how to effectively recycle products at the end of the product lifecycle from the very start of the design process.

As a pioneer in circular economy and climate neutrality, Covestro has received the ISCC Plus mass balance certification for its many production bases worldwide and can provide its customers with the high-performance polycarbonates and the rigid foam precursor MDI, etc. products containing renewable raw materials using mass balancing approach. They have the same quality as their fossil-based counterparts and can be applied directly without changing manufacturing processes, while reducing the carbon footprint of the applied products, thanks to the partial replacement of fossil-based raw materials.

Axel Limberg, Executive Director of the German Trade Office Taipei, said, “Sustainability is one of the most decisive topics in the 21st century, involving all aspects of our lives. As societies place an increasing value on it, only sustainable business models will be able to compete and hold its own on the markets. Many German businesses in Taoyuan already take their responsibilities by implementing sustainability measures within their companies, produce sustainable products, or do research on it. We believe that through knowledge exchange German and Taiwanese companies can learn from each other and jointly work towards the achievement of ambitious goals set by our governments.”

It takes the efforts of the entire value chain with partners in the governmental sectors and the society to achieve the vision of climate neutrality, especially in the post-pandemic era when cooperation between industries is necessary and critical. For example, the world’s first climate neutral polycarbonate launched by Covestro is a combination of green electricity used in the production, as well as the use of renewable resources from its upstream suppliers with the entire supply chain being certified by ISCC Plus. Covestro is looking forward to working with more partners in the industrial chain. It is the only way for us to achieve a more sustainable and climate neutral future, creating a wonderful world!

The website of the online forum “Germany and Taoyuan Working Together for Industrial Sustainability: https://pse.is/448u9u

About Covestro:

Covestro is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components. With its innovative products, processes and methods, the company helps enhance sustainability and the quality of life in many areas. Covestro supplies customers around the world in key industries such as mobility, building and living, as well as the electrical and electronics sector. In addition, polymers from Covestro are used in sectors such as sports and leisure, cosmetics and health, as well as in the chemical industry itself.

The company is committed to becoming fully circular and aims to become climate neutral by 2035 (scope 1 and 2). Covestro generated sales of around EUR 15.9 billion in fiscal 2021. At the end of 2021, the company had 50 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 17,900 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).

Find more information at www.covestro.com
Follow Covestro on Twitter: https://twitter.com/covestro

Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro’s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

 

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