{"id":13480,"date":"2022-09-28T06:05:12","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T12:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ulprospector.com\/knowledge\/?p=13480"},"modified":"2022-10-31T13:25:50","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T19:25:50","slug":"pc-sustainability-our-goals-as-a-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/13480\/pc-sustainability-our-goals-as-a-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability: Our Goals as a Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TwoThis article pulls together sustainability information offered in Prospector and some new trending information for the reader. I implore you to look at all the articles to gather information. Whether you are looking for data on a particular company\u2019s efforts or perhaps the way they represent what they are doing, that is all valuable in understanding and being able to convey to others. There are approximately 40 articles on sustainability in the Prospector Knowledge Center<\/a>. And almost 250 on the American Coatings Association website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sustainability\u00a0is a societal goal that broadly aims for humans to safely co-exist on planet\u00a0Earth\u00a0over a long time. Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and therefore vary in the literature and over time. Sustainability is commonly described along the lines of three dimensions (also called pillars): environmental, economic and social<\/strong>. In everyday usage of the term, sustainability is often focused mainly on the environmental aspects. The most dominant environmental issues since around 2000 have been climate change, loss of biodiversity, loss of ecosystem services, land degradation and air, water and land pollution. Reducing these negative impacts on the environment would improve environmental sustainability.I<\/sup><\/p>\n

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Image courtesy of Interactive ESG Guide: Materiality Assessment | Workiva<\/a><\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The core skills with which a graduate leaves college or university are highly sought after, especially in a modern world looking to drastically reduce carbon emissions and discover and develop the technologies of the future. Sustainability draws on politics, economics, philosophy and other social sciences as well as the hard sciences.\u00a0Sustainability is one of the newest degree subjects that attempts to bridge social science with civic engineering and environmental science with the technology of the future. When we hear the word \u201csustainability,\u201d we tend to think of renewable fuel sources, reducing carbon emissions, protecting environments and a way of keeping the delicate ecosystems of our planet in balance.\u00a0There are many schools that now offer a technical degree or MBA in Sustainability and Environmental compliance. Johns Hopkins University, Arizona State University, and Virginia Wesleyan University are just a few of many universities offering programs.<\/p>\n

One of the few good things that came out of the pandemic is the liberal use of webinars to communicate information to people. I was surprised by the number of articles on sustainability<\/a>, in particular, that I found on the Prospector Knowledge Center website. Thirty-nine, to be exact, in approximately 18 months. But don\u2019t take my word for it; go to the endnotes section and peruse the webinars. Arkema<\/a> is by far the largest contributor to them, with all the large companies supplying communication, with such notables as the Dow Chemical Company<\/a>, Covestro<\/a>, DuPont<\/a>, and many others<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem with sustainability is getting consensus within an organization and between organizations. New research reveals large consensus gaps between leaders and stakeholders on sustainability performance. This misalignment obstructs the link between sustainability and profitability. Executives must strengthen their organizations\u2019 sustainability DNA through a three-stage cycle of change: diagnose, define and develop. Businesses can deliver greater financial value in tandem with positive environmental and societal impact if they are able to close consensus gaps and operate more sustainably.<\/p>\n

Although this article is coatings-focused, and the tendency for people to think about coatings is paint-centric, a large need and growth area is in food packaging. The demand for paper-based packaging solutions as an alternative to incumbent single-use petroleum-based polymers for food packaging applications is ever-increasing. Paper-based packaging enables direct options for recycling and, in the case of unintended leakage, avoids the formation of microplastics through natural biodegradation. Substitution of the plastic film with paper formats will reduce product shelf-stability and increase food waste. Enzymatically polymerized microcrystalline glucan (MCG) as a functional additive in natural rubber (NR)-based coating formulation has been used recently in food packaging development (August 2022). NR coating formulations containing 0\u201350 wt % MCG were fabricated at a constant coating thickness with continuous solid content. The influence of the MCG on the wet and dry strength, rheology, adhesion strength, and barrier properties such as moisture, oxygen, and grease barrier of the formulated coatings was found to be similar to the petroleum-based product. The optimized NR\/MCG coating displayed promising mechanical properties as well as oxygen and oil barrier properties. Overall, the formulated NR\/MCG paper coatings exhibited excellent wet strength in conjuncture with outstanding barrier properties, indicating their potential as a sustainable alternative in the food packaging industry.ii<\/sup><\/p>\n

The most recent trend in sustainability is looking to reduce the carbon footprint or carbon capture as a business opportunity. And of course, there are companies that look to capitalize on tracking and sharing carbon capture and ESG reporting. Companies suggest that you share your ESG performance with your investors, clients and staff by creating an inspiring, on-brand website. Sustainability is not just an action. Companies have realized that manual report updates and redesigns every year by automatically syncing your public site with your data allows you to see how effective your site is and that people have read your report by tracking visitor engagement.<\/p>\n

There are many aspects of sustainability, and it is again suggested that the reader look through the references cited to gain a more thorough understanding of the topic.<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy of Sustainability Services & Strategies | Accenture<\/a><\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n