This interview follows a panel discussion at Newsweek’s event “Pillars of Stability: Building Resilient Systems” during Climate Week NYC. O’Brien spoke on a panel session titled “Innovation by Design” alongside CRH and Meta. Teknor Apex develops materials that deliver specific performance advantages, including durability, UV protection and processing characteristics.
How is sustainability changing what "high performance" means for your customers today? High performance now means technical performance and meeting impact and regulatory targets—they go hand in hand. Customers want materials that perform reliably, improve efficiency and support circularity without compromising quality or productivity.
That's progress with a conscience: performance and responsibility as the same goal, not competing ones. How is Teknor Apex using its Ventures Group to bring emerging materials into the business and industrialize them? Our TekVentures Group helps us identify promising technologies earlier and connect these innovations with our formulation expertise and manufacturing capabilities.
That allows us to move innovative materials toward commercial applications faster and at scale. You made the point that sustainability shouldn't be a tradeoff with profitability, but something that can actually drive efficiency and value. Where are you seeing the strongest business cases for sustainable materials today, and where does the economics still need to improve?
The strongest business cases are where sustainability also improves efficiency and resilience—reducing waste, lowering energy use or improving product performance. The biggest opportunity is continuing to scale emerging materials, so costs become more competitive. The strongest case for sustainable materials today resides in the packaging space, which is being supported by EPR legislation.
Regulation drives accelerated participation, and when properly supported by policy it can also drive innovation and cost competitiveness like with the solar industry in the late 90’s early ‘00’s. What needs to change in the innovation and commercialization process to shorten the timeline of scaling new materials? Partnership and responsible innovation needs to happen in the initial ideation and starts earlier collaboration and commitment with brands across the value chain.
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