Sustainability

We live in a world of an ever-growing population with increasing demands but limited resources. As the global voice of the chemical industry, ICCA is committed to helping the world overcome its most pressing sustainability challenges.

Learn about ICCA’s
position on sustainability

Innovation is the Key

Innovation is the key to overcoming our world’s sustainability challenges. For more than 30 years, our industry has fostered sustainable development practices, contributed to innovation, and created a culture of continuous improvement through our flagship Responsible Care^® program. This environmental, health, safety and security performance initiative is the foundation of our commitment to sustainable development. However, our commitment to sustainability goes beyond safe chemistry. Chemistry plays an essential role in driving progress across all three dimensions of sustainable development – environmental, social and economic – and is helping to address and overcome the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges.

Taking Action Today

ICCA is taking action today – investing and deploying new products and technologies around the globe, especially in countries that need it most. We are helping to provide clean drinking water, deliver a safe, adequate food supply, and ensure deadly diseases are eradicated through groundbreaking medicines and medical treatments. We are also helping to improve energy efficiency in today’s modern transportation vehicles and buildings to contribute to a less carbon-dependent society. By using new renewable energy sources and technologies that depend on innovations in chemistry we can become more efficient, affordable, and scalable.

Transformative Change

Achieving a cleaner, more efficient global landscape requires more than just action, it relies on transformative change. As the manufacturers of innovative, life-enhancing products and technologies, the chemical industry is playing a unique role in overcoming our world’s sustainability challenges.

Our industry is committed to enabling resource conservation and efficiency and innovations in product design that extend product lifespans, and unlocking the value of materials that have traditionally been viewed as waste. Through our two flagship initiatives, Responsible Care^® and the Global Product Strategy (GPS), ICCA is committed to advancing safe handling and use of chemicals in our own operations and throughout the supply chain.

Partnership for the Goals

ICCA is putting the power of chemistry to work and partnering with stakeholders from around the globe – from small- and mid-sized chemical companies in emerging economies, to non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations – in order to unlock solutions to society’s biggest challenges in a safe and sustainable way.

In partnership with SAICM stakeholders, we are driving change from traditional business and policy structures to more flexible yet effective models that facilitate innovation.
ICCA partners with UN Environment to strengthen value chain collaboration and catalyze action in support of achieving the SDGs.

Making the World a More Sustainable Place through Chemistry

By harnessing the power of chemistry’s essential benefits and collaborating with those committed to making the world a more sustainable place, we can help a growing population make the best use of the world’s scarce resources, drive innovation that supports the 2030 agenda, and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Chemical Industry Plays Crucial Role in Regional Economies in Every Corner of the World

According to a 2019 report, The Global Chemical Industry: Catalyzing Growth and Addressing Our World’s Sustainability Challenges, the chemical industry touches nearly every good-producing sector, making an estimated $5.7 trillion contribution to world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through direct, indirect and induced impacts, equivalent to seven percent of the world’s GDP, and supporting 120 million jobs worldwide.

Read the full report
Key findings infographic