Companies need to anticipate future trends and developments in time to be economically successful in the long term. Clariant achieves this through close collaboration with customers and in some cases also with consumers. Results from »innovation workshops« for example are incorporated into product development and ensure sustainable value creation. Clariant wants to optimally serve future markets with above-average growth potential and has launched an Open Innovation initiative for this purpose in 2015: Ideas and solutions are developed in collaboration with external innovation specialists.

Clariant has already designed the innovation process itself based on sustainability perspectives. The Sustainability Index for research and development projects (CSIR&D) was established, in order to make projects comparable and to assess their degree of advantageousness. An assessment of the relative sustainability of new products under development is possible using this index, which is mandatory for all major research and development projects. In this manner, Clariant wants to pursue the most sustainable ideas and approaches, but at the same time ensure that all products developed today are still viable and competitive tomorrow.

The CSIR&D is used to assess the products to be developed based on the criteria of cost-effectiveness, environmental compatibility, and social responsibility. This evaluation includes the use and origin of raw materials, production processes, energy efficiency as well as the sales volume potential and societal benefits of use. The results allow a comparison of projects with cost-benefit ratios and sustainability levels. The index provides transparency and competition between projects and motivates project managers to align their projects with sustainability goals from the start – from the initial idea through to market readiness and market launch.