Clariant Takes Major Step in Sustainability

Clariant Takes Important Sustainability Step Clariant, a focused, sustainable and innovative specialty chemicals company, announced that it has reached an agreement to establish a groundbreaking development platform with the WEF and major chemical companies by 2023. Under this framework, a new independent entity will be designed as a Project Development Company intended to share early-stage development risks, support partners in creating joint projects aimed at co-investing in the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies, and to operate on a pre-competitive basis. This agreement follows a two-year collaboration among the founding companies of the LCET (Low Carbon Emitting Technologies) initiative with the WEF, including Air Liquide, BASF, Covestro, Dow, Mitsubishi Chemical Corp, Royal DSM, SABIC, SIBUR and Solvay. The joint venture represents a transition from an information-sharing platform to an implementation tool aimed at accelerating greenhouse gas reduction in the chemical production chain. Clariant CEO Conrad Keijzer said: "Chemicals are present in almost all products of daily life. They are required for more than 95% of products manufactured worldwide. For this reason, most industries are customers of the chemical industry. Our role is to enable our customers to reduce their carbon footprint. To overcome these challenges, we need to share technologies and collaborative approaches." Martin Vollmer, Chief Technology Officer at Clariant, said: "We are working together in the LCET initiative to jointly address critical technology challenges that no single company can overcome on its own." "For our industry's transformation to net-zero emissions, alongside our exceptional research and development expertise in biomass valorization areas focused on agricultural waste streams for the production of advanced biofuels and bio-based chemicals, we want to actively contribute in support of innovative, high-performance catalysts." The LCET initiative aims not only to foster R&D alliances, but also to enable joint ventures or start-ups and to reduce investment risks.