IV. Enabling policies and action to support innovative solutions © Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock Part IV Enabling policies and action to support innovative solutions About Part IV Advancing a chemistry that is fully sustainable is dependent on scaling up innovative solutions; engaging new actors; and putting in place enabling policies. Innovative solutions complement long-standing measures to achieve the sound management of chemicals and waste, as discussed in Part III. They are an essential element in achieving the sound management of chemicals and waste. While the topics discussed in Part IV have been the subject of discussions and action taken at national and international level to varying degrees, they have by and large not received the attention warranted in the context of chemicals and waste. Opportunities therefore exist to explore their role in a beyond 2020 framework. Relevant enabling policies and actions include education reform; support for technology innovation and financing; innovative business models; sustainable supply chain management; private sector metrics and reporting; fiscal incentives; and the empowerment of workers, consumers and citizens through information and participation rights. In exploring these topics, Part IV thus also draws attention to the contributions that can be made by a diverse range of actors, including entrepreneurs, academics, retailers, policymakers and citizens. Contents 1/ Envisioning and shaping the future of chemistry 504 2/ Green and sustainable chemistry education: nurturing a new generation of chemists 515 3/ Strengthening sustainable chemistry technology innovation and financing 524 4/ Evolvingandnewbusinessmodels 542 5/ Fiscal incentives to advance sound chemicals management and sustainable chemistry 555 6/ Sustainable supply chain management for chemicals and waste in the life cycle 564 7/ Sustainability metrics and reporting: measuring progress, strengthening accountability 575 8/ Empowering and protecting citizens, workers and consumers 586 References 604 503 Global Chemicals Outlook II 1/ Envisioning and shaping the future of chemistry Chapter Highlights Innovations in chemistry, together with non-chemical alternatives, have significant potential to address societal needs and sustainable development challenges. Sustainable chemistry is evolving as a holistic concept that embraces green chemistry, and that may serve as a reference for innovations in (or related to) chemistry. The market for green and sustainable chemistry is growing in all regions, but is still modest compared to the overall chemistry market. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, and digitalization of the chemical industry, provide opportunities to advance sustainability in the chemical industry. A balance is needed between embracing the potential benefits of chemistry and recognizing challenges (e.g. the importance of addressing legacies). 1.1 Solutions shaped by chemistry innovation (Sarathy, Gotpagar and Morawietz are on the horizon 2017). For more than a century the chemical industry Todaythissituationisevolving.Lowerprofits has led innovations in areas including from bulk chemicals, recent innovations in pharmaceuticals, plastics and consumer chemistry and advanced materials, and the electronics that have transformed the way people challenge for the chemical industry to help meet livearoundtheworld.Inparticular,theperiod theSustainableDevelopmentGoals(SDGs)are from the 1950s through the 1970s witnessed a creating new opportunities for chemistry to help wave of innovations in chemistry, with dozens meetsociety’sneeds.Examplesarenumerous of new chemicals and compounds discovered and include the following: andcommercialized.From1980,however,new product development slowed down and few › Revolutionizing energy storage and battery newblockbusterchemicalsenteredthemarket. development: Fast-charging solid-state During that time the global chemical industry batteries, based on chemistry innovations, focusedonexpandingtonewmarkets,often have the potential to revolutionize electric selling chemicals invented long before such mobility.Notonlycantheybecharged10 aspolyvinylchloride(PVC)(inventedin1913), times faster than traditional lithium-ion polyethylene(1936)andpolypropylene(1954). batteries, but they are safer as they cannot Return on investments from growth in new catchfire,aremorereliableandarelonger markets was more attractive than the return from lasting. 504 Part IV Enabling policies and action to support innovative solutions using renewable energy not only reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; it also advances circularity in the chemical industry by providing chemical feedstocks that are notderivedfromoilorbio-basedmaterials. › Developing “advanced materials”: This involves developingmaterialsandmodifyingexisting ones to obtain superior performance in regard to one or more characteristics that are critical to the application under consideration, such aswaterproofingtextiles.Thesematerials can also have completely novel properties, asseen,forexample,innanomaterials. While such opportunities are promising, more thorough assessments are needed to obtain a full(orbetter)understandingofthesustainability aspects of these innovations, taking into account thecriteriaandtoolsdiscussedinPartIIIandin theremainderofthischapter. Research across the disciplines of chemistry, biology and computer science is particularly promising.The2018NobelPrizeinChemistry, forexample,wasawardedforpath-breaking research on how chemists produce new enzymes, © NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis, a thin solid-state battery leading to new pharmaceuticals and cancer treatmentsandlesswaste.Anotherpromising development is the use of advanced software › Improving the biodegradability of bio-based and supercomputers to design molecules and plastics: Biodegradable plastics, derived assess the properties of chemicals, including their from agricultural or wood-based biomass, hazards.Thesedevelopmentshavesignificant are compatible with home and municipal potential to advance the sound management composting systems, have less environmental of chemicals and waste, and to complement impact and can be incorporated into other measures in order to achieve sustainable compostinginfrastructure.Theycanalsoform productionandconsumption. feedstocks for bioenergy and other circular economyapplications. Chemistry is at the core of future industry sectors › Creating sustainable building materials: Chemistry plays a key role in creating a The contribution of chemistry to a range of end new generation of sustainable and high- marketswaspresentedinPartI.Someofthese performing building materials. Examples markets are of particular relevance to shaping include transparent wood, green concrete, the future of sustainable development – from wood foam insulation, and earthquake the transportation industry, to the construction resistantbricks. industry and urbanization, to food and packaging, to waste management. For example, the › Turning carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and wastes into transportation and construction industries have chemical feedstocks: Creating feedstocks a range of requirements that can be met through that are not fossil fuel-based from CO2 chemistryandsustainablematerialsinnovations. Chapter 1. Envisioning and shaping the future of chemistry 505 Global Chemicals Outlook II Figure 1.1 Examples of how chemistry contributes to industries expected to play important roles in the future (adapted from World Economic Forum [WEF] 2017, p. 7) Examples of relevant products Projected growth rates from chemistry and advanced for key innovations materials Annual sales of electric vehicles Plastics, composites and battery Electric vehicles 2020: US dollars 4.9 million technologies Mobility Market size for drones* Plastics, composites and battery Drones 2015: US dollars 10.1 billion technologies 2020: US dollars 14.9 billion Mobile devices in use Substrate, backplane, transparent Smartphones and 2015: US dollars 8.6 billion conductor, barrier films and tablets 2020: US dollars $12.1 billion photoresists Mobile and smart devices Flexible displays Market for AMOLED** displays Substrate, backplane, transparent (e.g. wearable devices, virtual reality, 2016: US dollars 2 billion conductor, barrier films and TVs) 2020: US dollars 18 billion photoresists Fixed broadband speed High-speed internet 2015: 24.7 Mbps Chlorosilane for ultrapure glass Connectivity and 2020: 47.7 Mbps computing More efficient and Processor logic gate length Dielectrics, colloidal silica, smaller integrated 2015: 14 mm photoresists, yield enhancers and edge circuits 2020: 7 mm bead removers *Defence,commercialandhomelandsecuritysectors**Active-matrixorganicLED Figure1.1showshowchemistrycontributesto sector,thewell-knownconceptofIntegrated industrieswhichareexpectedtoplaykeyroles PestManagement(IPM)promotesarangeof inthefuture. biological measures to eliminate or reduce the useofpesticides. Innovations also include non-chemical alternatives The concept of non-chemical alternatives 1.2 Green and sustainable chemistry: is receiving wide attention, including by setting the standard international policy bodies such as the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), in Lessons learned from innovations in chemistry research and innovation, in the private sector, and by non-governmental organizations Some chemistry innovations, acknowledged (NGOs).Althoughadefinitionoftheconcept for their positive contributions to society, were ofnon-chemicalalternativesdoesnotexist, recognizedyearslatertohaveunexpectedand the connotation