Achieving Sustainability Goals Today via Mass Balance

Increasingly, manufacturers and brand owners are incorporating sustainability goals into their companies’ strategies. Often, these goals, like net zero or zero waste, set targets long into the future, matching the scale of industry ambitions to make the dramatic changes society demands. Yet, as is implied, hugely ambitious sustainability goals will take time, massive investment, and persistent fortitude to achieve, leaving two important questions: 1) where to start, and 2) how to make an impact today, profitably.

Manufacturing chemicals from sustainable feedstocks, enabled by mass balance supply chains is a starting point for achieving hugely ambitious goals, while making an impact today. Additionally, mass balance enabled feedstocks can provide continuous sustainable benefit well into the future.

Sustainable feedstocks are derived from agricultural raw materials and wastes, as well as post-consumer and industrial wastes. The measurable sustainable benefits occur at the beginning of the supply chain, and the raw materials are audited by third parties to ensure the generation of sustainable materials did not cause adverse social or environmental effects. Using sustainable feedstocks in the supply chain contributes to achieving various sustainability goals, such as:

- Displacing conventional virgin feedstocks,

- Lowering carbon footprint,

- Increasing recycling rates, and

- Decreasing plastic waste.

Applying mass balance chain-of-custody supply chain techniques allows the benefits of sustainable feedstocks to be accessed and exchanged throughout the supply chain without significant initial capital investment. Chemical manufactures can utilize existing infrastructure to process sustainable feedstocks concurrently with conventional chemicals. Companies report and market the benefits achieved from processing sustainable feedstocks by recording in chain-of-custody documents received from suppliers. Importantly, coproduction of sustainable and conventional feedstocks means that performance of end products are unaltered by the inclusion of sustainable feedstocks. Thus, sustainable goals can be achieved today, profitably, without sacrificing product performance.