Today, virtually all companies endorse sustainability. At the same time understanding of sustainability differs. So, how can we give it a precise definition? Is it just environmental management? Resource efficiency? Circular manufacturing? Decarbonisation (some say not to call it decarbonisation as carbon is important for our living)? Zero emission? To understand how the sustainability agenda is evolving, we had email interactions with Nitin Sharma of Clariant IGL Specialty Chemicals Ltd. and Samir Somaiya of Godavari Biorefineries whose views are presented here.
Views of Nitin Sharma, CEO and General Manager, Clariant Clariant IGL Specialty Chemicals Ltd.
According to Nitin Sharma, sustainability is no longer a compliance exercise but a core business strategy that drives innovation, competitiveness and long-term growth. He believes the future belongs to companies that integrate circularity, digital technologies and low-carbon solutions to create value for customers, society and the planet simultaneously.
Chemical Industry Digest (CID): What exactly does sustainability constitute for your company? How is it influencing your strategy and investments? Is it also a business opportunity?
Nitin Sharma (NS): At Clariant, sustainability starts with our purpose: “Greater Chemistry–between people and planet.” We believe specialty chemicals have a unique role in helping society address major challenges such as climate change, resource efficiency, circularity and sustainable consumption. For us, sustainability is therefore one of the four pillars of our business strategy, alongside Customer Focus, Innovative Chemistry and People Engagement.
This strategic approach directly shapes how we innovate, invest and grow. We have committed to science-based climate targets, invest around CHF 30 million annually in sustainability-related measures and focus our innovation efforts on three high-growth areas: Health and Sustainability-Conscious Consumers and Brands, Energy Transition and Circularity.
We see sustainability as a significant business opportunity because our customers increasingly need solutions that help them reduce emissions, improve resource efficiency and meet their own sustainability commitments.
In fact, sustainability-driven innovation already contributes to our growth, proving that sustainability and competitiveness can go hand in hand. As we often say: the future belongs to solutions that are good for business, good for people and good for the planet.
CID: How important is circular economy thinking in your manufacturing and product lifecycle strategies?
NS: For Clariant, circularity begins at the design stage, not at the waste stage. The traditional “take-make-dispose” model is no longer viable for a resource-constrained world. Our focus is on designing products that use fewer virgin resources, enable recycling and remain valuable for longer within industrial value chains.
A good example is our global EcoCircle initiative, which brings together recyclers, converters, brand owners and technology partners to develop circular solutions for plastics.
We are also increasing the use of renewable and recycled feedstocks, such as rice bran wax-derived additives and bio-based surfactants. For India, where resource efficiency and waste management are becoming major industrial priorities, circular chemistry offers a powerful opportunity to decouple growth from resource consumption.
CID: How is your company redesigning products and processes to make them greener? Do you audit your existing portfolio through a sustainability lens?
NS: Yes, and that is a critical part of our approach. Sustainability is not only about developing new products; it is also about continuously improving and innovating what already exists.
Through Clariant’s Portfolio Value Program, we systematically assess pro-ducts across their entire lifecycle–from raw materials and manufacturing to use and end-of-life impact. In 2025 around 88% of our portfolio met our sustainability criteria.
This process has led to tangible improvements, from replacing substances of concern to increasing renewable content and improving resource efficiency.
A good example is Exolit® OP Terra, which builds on an already halogen-free flame retardant technology by incorporating renewable raw materials and renewable energy in production.
CID: What does sustainability leadership look like in practice for Clariant in India?
NS: For us, sustainability leadership means translating ambition into measurable action. In 2025, Clariant reduced its global Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 11% compared with the previous year, keeping us firmly on track toward our science-based climate targets and net-zero ambition.
This progress was driven through a combination of energy-efficiency improvements, increased use of renewable electricity and the replacement of fossil fuels with lower-carbon alternatives.
India is playing an important role in this journey. Our Bonthapally site became Clariant’s first climate-neutral production site for Scope 1 and 2 emissions. We achieved this primarily by replacing coal-fired steam generation with biomass derived from agricultural waste, alongside operational efficiency improvements and the use of renewable energy.
CID: What role does R&D play in accelerating sustainability initiatives within your organisation? Are you collaborating with startups, academia, or technology providers to develop sustainable solutions?
NS: R&D is central to Clariant’s sustainability agenda: it turns sustainability goals into commercial products, safer formulations and lower-impact process solutions. Clariant uses R&D to steer its portfolio towards more sustainable products through tools such as the Portfolio Value Program, which evaluates products across lifecycle sustainability criteria and directs R&D toward sustainable innovation.
It also combines sustainability with open innovation so that new ideas can be sourced and scaled faster across the business.
Clariant also follows an open innovation model, collaborating with startups, academia and technology partners to accelerate solution development.
In India, its Application Centers and Regional Innovation Center support local co-creation and application testing.
Our participation in RECEIC (Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Industry Cooperation) strengthens this ecosystem approach to build capabilities across sectors and value chains and accelerate the circular economy transition.
It enhances collaboration across the value chain, supports faster validation of circular-economy solutions and improves alignment with industry partners in India.
CID: How are digital technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, Industrial IoT and Digital Twins helping improve sustainability performance? How do you see AI transforming sustainability management and operational efficiency in the chemical sector over the next decade? Any deployment of these technologies in your company?
NS: Digital technologies are improving sustainability mainly by turning operations from periodic, manual control into continuous, data-driven optimization.
In chemicals, AI and Machine Learning improve energy efficiency, reduce waste, support circularity and help identify lower-carbon operating choices; Industrial IoT and digital twins add the real-time data and simulation layer needed to act on those insights faster.
AI should also make sustainability management more integrated: instead of separate reporting for emissions, energy, water and safety, companies will
use connected models that combine operational and ESG data into one control system. That will improve operational efficiency because the same data model can drive production, maintenance, compliance and sustainability decisions together.
Clariant has its generative AI tool, Clarita, is used across labs, offices and production sites, including monitoring energy consumption and recommending process improvements.
Clariant also launched CLARITY Prime, a digital service for syngas plants that uses real-time plant data plus machine-learning-based catalyst performance projection and health alerting.
CID: Are customers increasingly demanding sustainable and low-carbon products? How is your company responding?
NS: Absolutely. Sustainability is at the core of our strategy. Many of our customers have set ambitious climate and circularity targets and increasingly expect their suppliers to help them reduce emissions, improve resource efficiency and provide greater transparency across the value chain.
This trend is particularly visible in sectors such as consumer care, packaging, transportation and energy, where demand for bio-based, circular and lower-carbon solutions continues to accelerate.
At Clariant, we see this as a major growth opportunity. Our innovation strategy is focused on three key areas – Health and Sustainability-Conscious Consumers and Brands, Energy Transition and Circularity–which are expected to drive around 70% of our future growth.
We are expanding our portfolio of sustainable solutions, from bio-based ingredients and circularity-enabling additives to catalysts that support cleaner industrial processes.
In 2025 alone, Clariant catalyst technologies helped their customers avoid approximately 45 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, demonstrating how specialty chemistry can create both business value and sustainability impact. We increasingly believe that the most successful innovations will be those that help customers achieve their sustainability goals without compromising performance or competitiveness.
