VinylPlus sets record straight for global PVC sustainability
The VinylPlus Sustainability Forum didn’t shy away from the difficult issues facing the sustainability of the global PVC industry at its annual meeting, which took place in Madrid. Rose Brooke reports on the key highlights from the event.
The cultural melting pot of Madrid made a fine backdrop for the VinylPlus Sustainability Forum 2018, which explored the topic of ‘Meeting Societal Needs’.
General Manager of VinylPlus, Brigitte Dero, opened by touching on the shifting sands of international politics and how circular economy in plastics has evolved since the last meeting in Berlin in 2017.
“PVC has made enormous progress but we cannot relax,” she said. “In the context of negative public opinion we must continue to make PVC even more sustainable.”
Sustainability Challenges
The first session homed in on the PVC industry and sustainability challenges facing the US, Australian and Indian markets, as well as the PVC windows market.
General Manager of Formosa Plastics Corporation, Dick Heinle, took a holistic standpoint on the challenges facing the PVC industry, which, he said, needs to encourage more young people into it to help bring sustainable solutions to allow the industry to serve an ageing population, align with industrial capacity reform and shrink its carbon footprint.
PVC is primarily a North American and European technology. This was one of the main hypotheses presented by Matthias Koch, Head of Strategic Marketing for VEKA, who presented the changes and obstacles facing the international PVC windows industry.
Koch revealed that the key to bringing more sustainable PVC solutions for construction to emerging markets is “glocalisation”, which means combining the global essence of companies such as VEKA, with a local footprint and competence of a management team.
India at an “interesting point”
Where infrastructure is required on scale, Reliance Industries’ Aruna Kumari revealed the Indian market is at an interesting point in its evolution thanks to industry reforms, efficient access to capital, and especially the Modi government initiative of Make In India.
She noted that maintaining a sustainable PVC industry should be a priority and, with the guidance of the global PVC industry, India can achieve this. This sentiment of support from the wider PVC industry was echoed by Chief Executive of the Vinyl Council of Australia, Sophi Macmillan, who noted that thanks to its collaboration with VinylPlus and the ECVM, her organisation has been able to “punch above its weight” as a relatively small group.
Public focus
A panel discussion followed, bringing together decision-makers from Japan, Thailand, the ECVM and North America.
Moderator Aine Curran, President of the Vinyl Institute of Canada and Chair of the Global Vinyl Council, was not afraid of shining the spotlight on the PVC sector’s shortcomings, namely communication with the public compared to environmental groups such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
“There’s no question that they’re talking to consumers. We haven’t spent a lot of time talking to the public and I think one of the decisions we’ve made is to make an effort to decide what audiences to focus on,” she said.
Fit for purpose?
Day two tackled the thorny issue of whether policy framework regards sustainability is fit for purpose.
They keynote presentation from Club of Rome Co-President, Anders Wijkman, set the tone for the morning and lamented the oversimplification of circular economy. A circular economy implies total energy recovery, but some will always be lost.
Nevertheless, Wijkman was optimistic. When referring to big brand owners such as Unilever and P&G, he said in 10 years they have come a long way as sustainability pioneers.
The weight of the challenges facing the global economy were reiterated by UNIDO’s Nilgun Tas, who revealed that 65 billion tons of raw materials are extracted and used every year. This is 22 kg every day per capita and, only seven per cent will be re-used or recycled.
Magnifying the details
Next a panel discussion put the magnifying glass over the governmental standpoints either supporting or curtailing progress for sustainable PVC production, use and recycling. Circular economy loomed large, and Timoteo de la Fuente Garcia of DG Grow, supported the theme of scrutiny within both the circular economy and government by reminding the PVC industry to be mindful of the fact that circular economy focuses only on the material resource, and that there is energy hiding within that.
Brigitte Dero revealed that VinylPlus is engaging in global engagement strategies to 2030, including working to become climate neutral and achieve greenhouse gas neutrality, supporting the Green Cities for the Future Initiative and support giving PVC products a second social life.
VinylPlus supports the bigger message of global communication to achieve sustainability.VinylPlus Chairman Josef Ertl put succinctly: “VinylPlus is a lighthouse project in the quest for a plastics circular economy.” Indeed, it is an organisation that is taking its stewardship seriously.