Advancing Entrepreneurship and Start-up Initiatives for Sustainable Chemistry

Are you engaged in a start-up initiative in green and sustainable chemistry? And would you like to share your experience at an international workshop in September 2017 in Berlin? If so a workshop being organised by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) on 14 September 2017 will be of interest to you.

On 14 September 2017, UNEP and ISC3 are jointly hosting a workshop to advance entrepreneurship and start-up initiatives for sustainable chemistry. Case studies will be shared and discussed to identify lessons learnt and generate policy relevant knowledge. 

The workshop is being organised back to back with the 150th Anniversary of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and will bring together a small number of entrepreneurs from developed and developing countries, international organisations and other experts. Entrepreneurs interested in participating in the workshop and presenting their start-up initiatives and lessons learnt should send a brief statement of interest to UNEP by 25 July 2017. 

Selected candidates will present their case study at the workshop. Funding is available to support participants from developing countries. 

UNEP and ISC3 will be looking to support 6-8 young international entrepreneurs engaged in green and sustainable chemistry start-up companies to participate in two back-to-back events taking place in Berlin and seeking to advance a new innovation age for sustainable chemistry.

As well as the case study workshop on 14 September 2017, the other event is a 24-hour ‘Hackathon’ which takes place in the context of the 150th Anniversary of the GDCh on 12-13 September 2017. Selected participants will have the opportunity to participate in and will be sponsored for both events. 

Scaling up sustainability

Global momentum around the concept of sustainable chemistry is growing. In 2016, the concept was recognised for the first time by the United Nations Environment Assembly and work has commenced at the global level to identify best practises. 

As SusChem stakeholders know, an important dimension of sustainable chemistry is to scale up research, innovation and entrepreneurship to develop new and safer chemicals and production processes.

Start-up initiatives and companies can be a strong driver to nurture momentum towards sustainable chemistry, and help close the gap between science, innovation and business application. Yet, while certain sectors, such as the IT sector, are known for a thriving start-up scene, start-up initiatives in area of green and sustainable chemistry are less developed.

One of the topics pursued by the Global Chemicals Outlook-II, mandated by United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in 2016, is to collect state-of-the-art knowledge and identify determinants which may advance (or impede) innovation to advance sustainable chemistry, including through start-up companies. 

Workshop goals

The overall aim of the workshop is to advance at the international level in scaling up innovation for sustainable chemistry and identify opportunities for action in this area. By bringing together green and sustainable chemistry entrepreneurs from developed and developing countries, together with other relevant experts, the workshop will present and review case studies with the goal to identify lessons learnt and generate policy relevant knowledge. Workshop outcomes will feed into UN Environment’s work on the update of the Global Chemicals Outlook in 2018, and other possible activities at the international level.

The Workshop will bring together approximately 10-15 participants leading (or supporting) sustainable and green chemistry start-up initiatives, including 3-4 entrepreneurs from developed countries (e.g. Europe/North America), 3-4 entrepreneurs from developing countries together with other relevant representatives from the private sectors (e.g. financing institutions), representatives of selected international organisations and selected experts. 

The one-day workshop will cover topics including the context of green and sustainable chemistry, knowledge-sharing about sustainable chemistry start-up initiatives, extracting determinants of success and generating policy insights, and identifying opportunities for further work and follow-up.

More information

The workshop is jointly organised by UN Environment, Economy Division, Chemicals and Health Branch and the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) in cooperation with the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the Freie Universität Berlin. Entrepreneurs interested in participating in the workshop and presenting their start-up initiatives as well as lessons learnt should send a brief statement of interest to UN Environment by 25 July 2017 including a brief description of their start-up initiative and how it contributes to advancing green or sustainable chemistry , together with a brief analysis of the useful lessons learnt in the initiative.

For more information, please contact gco@unep.org.

Mainstreaming Sustainable Chemistry with ISC3

On May 17 and 18 the German Environmental Agency and the Ministry of Environment in Germany is organising the conference ‘Mainstreaming Sustainable Chemistry – Launch of ISC3 and ISCnet for Global Cooperation’ in Berlin. ISC3 is the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre, which will be based in Bonn, Germany and will start its activities in May 2017.

The conference programme includes sessions on ‘Sustainable Chemistry and the SDGs: Policy Options to Realise the 2030 Agenda’ including a panel discussion on how to mainstream sustainable chemistry into governmental and business policies and practises; ‘Mainstreaming Sustainable Chemistry: Opportunities and Challenges for ISC3’; ‘Sustainable Chemistry, Sustainable Development, Investment and Economics’ including a panel discussion on the main economic drivers for sustainable chemistry; and the scope, expectations and challenges for ISCnet

The conference also provides an opportunity to meet members of the ISCnet global network, which is open to everyone engaged in sustainable chemistry.

The conference is free of charge and the link to the conference website is here. You can download a flyer on the conference here and a detailed conference programme here.

The conference will take place at the German Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety situated on Potsdamer Platz in the heart of Berlin. Until 1989, the building was actually part of the Berlin Wall and part of the wall was preserved and can be visited inside the building. Please register via the ISC3 website.

What is ISC3?
The International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) wants to support the global breakthrough of Sustainable Chemistry. The project for the establishment of ISC3 was launched in March 2015 by the German Federal Environment Agency. ISC3 will act as a platform for the Sustainable Chemistry community, an incubator and multiplier of ideas and innovations, a think tank and source of inspiration, and as a knowledge base for Sustainable Chemistry. ISCnet will be the global network of all stakeholders, scientists and practitioners engaged in sustainable chemistry approaches. SusChem board members Klaus Kuemmerer and Pierre Barthelemy are members of the ISC3 Advisory Council.

Green and Sustainable Chemistry in Berlin

Following a very successful first edition in April 2016, the second Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference will again bring together international researchers from academia and industry, from authorities and other institutions, to communicate and share the latest developments across the broad and diverse fields of Green and Sustainable Chemistry. The conference takes place on 14 - 17 May at the Hotel Intercontinental in Berlin. 

SusChem board member and Director of the Institute for Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Prof. Klaus Kümmerer (pictured below), is the Chairman of the Conference organising committee. In a welcome message to conference delegates he says:

"Research has shown that reduction in waste, energy and resources not only contributes to a more sustainable growth of industry in developing countries and also improves sustainability of the chemical industry. In addition to improvements in synthesis and issues directly linked to the chemicals themselves it also has been learnt that sustainability issues throughout the life cycle of chemicals and other chemicals products should be taken into consideration. This holds not only for developed but also for developing countries."

Submissions for oral and poster presentations at the conference were particularly welcome on aspects of green and sustainable chemistry that directly relate to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Topics that will be covered at the conference include:

• Mineral resources and recycling
• Resources for organic molecules
• Synthesis and catalysis
• Energy conversion
• Green and sustainable pharmacy
• Legislation and sustainable chemistry
• The UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable chemistry
• Developing countries and sustainable chemistry
• Industry and sustainable chemistry
• Education

You can access more details on the programme for the conference here and registration details are here. Early registration fees are available until 17 March. The twitter hashtag for the conference is #greenchem2017.

Sustainable Chemistry Challenge

Another unique feature of this conference will be the Elsevier Foundation Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge. Projects can be in any field of Green or Sustainable Chemistry, but must be applicable for use in developing countries. The top five candidates will be invited to the conference to make presentations and winners will be selected with an awards ceremony at the end of the conference. The winning project receive EUR 50 000; with a second prize of EUR 25 000 also available.

Mainstreaming Sustainable Chemistry

The Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference is also being organised in cooperation with the inaugural conference of ISC3 and ISCnet: “Mainstreaming Sustainable Chemistry” on 17-18 May in Berlin. The conference programme will cover:

• International political and economic issues of importance for the development of sustainable chemistry
• Results of studies from a project to frame the area of future research by the ISC3
• Drawing up the organisational structure for ISCnet (see below)
• The introduction of the ISC3 executives

This conference also provides an opportunity to meet members of the ISCnet global network, which is open to everyone engaged in sustainable chemistry. The International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) wants to support the global breakthrough of Sustainable Chemistry. The project for the establishment of ISC3 was launched in March 2015 by the German Federal Environment Agency.

Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference in Berlin

The inaugural Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference will take place in Berlin on 3 to 6 April. SusChem board member Prof Klaus Kümmerer, Director of the Institute for Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry at Leuphana University Lüneburg (pictured below) is the chair of the conference organising committee and will be giving an opening address and one of the keynote lectures on green and sustainable products. Fellow SusChem board member Dr Pierre Barthelemy, Executive Director of R&I at Cefic, will also contribute to the session on Context.

The conference will open with a high-level session as part of a comprehensive and wide-ranging programme that features keynote and invited speakers supplemented by more than 75 other presentations and an extensive poster session. Paul Anastas, Director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University and often referred to as the ‘Father of Green Chemistry’ will give the opening keynote lecture.

As the world’s population edges towards nine billion, the strain on the planet’s resources is steadily increasing. In both the developed and developing world there is a growing demand for food, manufactured goods and improved access to clean water and fuel. Over the past 30 years it has become obvious that the products of human manufacture, even those produced to benefit society, can have negative effects on human health and the environment.

The field of Green and Sustainable Chemistry developed to help monitor, understand and limit the impact that chemicals have on our environment. Sustainable chemistry is all about developing new methods to reduce waste, boost energy efficiency and improve use of resources. In this way chemistry can both contribute to more sustainable industrial growth and to a greener economy and environment.

The Green and Sustainable Chemistry conference has a broad scope, addressing many diverse fields of Green and Sustainable Chemistry. The goal of the meeting is to bring together international researchers, from academia and industry, to communicate and share the latest developments across the broad and diverse fields that comprise Green and Sustainable Chemistry.

The conference session topics include:

• Mineral resources and recycling
• Non-fossil sources for old and new organic molecules
• Synthesis and solvents
• Catalysis and engineering
• Green and sustainable products
• Renewable energies
• Overarching approaches and new business models 
• Greenness and sustainability
• Ethics, legislation and economics 
• The Context

The conference will start on Sunday 3 April at 17:00 with a Welcome Reception and the full conference will commence on Monday at 9:00. You can download the full conference programme here and you can register for the conference here.

Chemistry challenge

Another unique feature of the conference will be the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge. Entries for this competition consisted of projects that could be from any field of Green or Sustainable Chemistry but had to be applicable for use in developing countries.

At the conference the top five candidates will be invited to make presentations to a panel of judges. The winners will be selected from these five finalists and an award ceremony will held at the end of the conference. The winning project will receive €50 000; with a second prize of €25 000.

Get involved with Innovation Fusion 2015 in Berlin

SusChem invites you to attend the INNOVATION FUSION event and be inspired by Europe’s best industrial innovators! The European Networking Group (ENG) is hosting the 11th annual INNOVATION FUSION event on 21 22 April 2015 in Berlin. The event will bring together leading experts in R&D and Innovation from the specialty chemical and consumer goods sectors. Cefic and SusChem have secured a 20% discount for all its members that wish to attend the conference.

Amongst the leading industry members that will be joining and leading the discussions in Berlin are BASF, DuPont, P&G, AkzoNobel, Evonik and Air Liquide.

By joining the event, you will be able to exchange best practices, engage in real business stories and discover new business models and emerging markets. The event will address a broad range of topics, from incremental and disruptive innovation to KPI’s in the chemical industry and sustainability throughout the value chain.

More information and registration
You can download the event programme here. SusChem members may use the CEFIC20 discount code when registering online or can contact Joanna Serweta at ENG events directly.

Berlin BIO-TIC Workshop: Use of IB in Bio-Surfactants

BIO-TIC is organising a ‘bio-business workshop’ on the use of industrial biotechnology (IB) in bio-surfactants on 3 September 2014 in Berlin. This will be the first of a series of five workshops looking at product segments and applications in the bioeconomy that BIO-TIC have identified as having significant potential for boosting the competitiveness of European industry and benefiting society by 2030.

The workshop will take place on 3 September at the Westin Grand Hotel, Berlin and will precede the Third ICIS European Surfactants Conference as a satellite event. Registration will be opening soon.

The objectives of the workshop are to:

• identify technological, non-technological and market hurdles for the uptake of industrial biotechnology in bio-surfactants
• develop recommendations and solutions to overcome the identified hurdles 
• contribute to the development, testing and fine-tuning of the BIO-TIC roadmaps 
• bring together industrial biotechnology end users (downstream) with technology providers (upstream), innovation agencies and decision makers to stimulate interconnected discussion and knowledge exchange platforms and processes
• collect data to develop draft indicators to measure the socio-economic and environmental impact of IB and the use of renewables-based products in the European Union. 

Why attend the workshop?
Input from the market and experts in industry and research are vital to build a basis for BIO-TIC’s roadmaps. Therefore, the BIO-TIC team is working to engage with multiple stakeholders across different value chains with activities on a range of technological domains from chemistry and engineering to health and the environment.

The idea is to share knowledge with experts and receive recommendations. BIO-TIC has organised a series of “bio-workshops” across Europe, which started in June 2013 and will continue to the end of 2014. The initial workshops were held at a regional level and addressed all business cases. In 2014, BIO-TIC is holding one workshop per business case at a European level. All bio-business workshops will be announced on the BIO-TIC website.

As the bio-surfactants workshop will precede the 3rd ICIS European Surfactants Conference this means that major experts will already be there, increasing the effectiveness and the participation in the workshop and the benefits of attending both events.

Attendance at the workshop will be free of charge but prior registration via the BIO-TIC website will be required. Details of registration will be announced soon on the BIO-TIC website.

For more information on the BIO-TIC bio-surfactants workshop download the workshop flyer or contact the BIO-TIC secretariat.

More details on the 3rd ICIS European Surfactants Conference: - Understanding the key market drivers, trends, challenges and regulations impacting the region’ that takes place on 4 and 5 September can be found on the conference website. You can download a brochure for the ICIS event here.

What is BIO-TIC?
Funded by the European Commission, BIO-TIC was launched, as an FP7 project, with the aim to establish an overview of the opportunities and barriers to biotechnology innovation and propose approaches to address them.

Modern use of industrial biotechnology (IB) is critical in a bio-based economy. Deploying the full potential of biotech innovation will enable the European industry to deliver high-value products to consumers and create new commercial opportunities. New feedstock demands will lead to synergies amongst SMEs and large industrial partners. New technological developments will boost European export of technology and facilities by bringing some of Europe’s top sectors together: chemical industry, engineering and renewables.

However to date, major hurdles continue to hamper the full exploitation of biotechnology in Europe. These hurdles may vary from technological bottlenecks to limited availability of venture capital and fragmented policy frameworks.

BIO-TIC seeks to define product segments and applications that promise significant potential for Europe’s industry and society by 2030. We have now identified five major “bio-business cases” which are EU-competitive and have the potential to introduce cross-cutting technology ideas.

These are:

• Bio-plastics PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates) and PLA (polylactic acid)
• Building blocks 
• Bio-fuels 
• Bio-surfactants 
• CO2-based chemicals 

Based on these business cases, we are developing three in-depth “bio-roadmaps”. These will focus on the market potential, R&D priorities and non-technological hurdles of IB innovation. In particular, the market roadmap will provide market projections upto 2030. The technology roadmap will focus on setting R&D priorities and identifying needs for pilot and demonstration of plant activities. Last but not least, the non-technological barriers roadmap will identify regulatory and non-technological hurdles that may inhibit industrial biotech innovation reaching new market opportunities. The second draft version of the roadmaps is already online while the final version will be released in July 2015.

All BIO-TIC roadmaps, can be downloaded from our Partnering Platform. For more information about the BIO-TIC FP7 project visit our website.