“We have to move on to the next step”

The vision of Suschem, the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry, is to boost chemistry, biotechnology and chemical engineering research, development and innovation in Europe. Nachrichten aus der Chemie asked Ger Spork, head of the Suschem management team, what is sustainable at Suschem and how European chemistry can meet the challenges of the next years.

Nachrichten aus der Chemie: Sustainability is a top buzzword today. Can Suschem rightly call itself ”sustainable”?

Ger Spork: Suschem tries to address the sustainability aspect in everything it does. Still, the pace of development is so rapid that we must focus on the real elements of sustainability and not just go on wasting our energy on half measures. The recent crisis has shown that not all economic development — especially at the pace of the last 20 years — has been sustainable. We have discovered that not only chemistry must be sustainable but the financial sector as well — that the two must go hand in hand.

So there is no blanket “green” answer for sustainability: eco-logical and eco-nomic must both be sustainable in the end. As a platform, Suschem tries to address sustainability c

Magazin