Sustainability

From October 2023, Evonik in Germany has switched to renewable energy sources such as wind power generation for all electricity used in the manufacturing process of polyamide 12 "VESTAMID^®". All of our products, including those sold in the Japan market, have been switched to using renewable energy.

We also plan to develop and launch "VESTAMID^® RFP" that can reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted in the manufacturing process by up to 50% compared to conventional products, using the mass balance method.

These carbon emissions are from the manufacturing process of the base polymer. Although energy in the logistics and compounding processes will be added to the products that actually reach customers, we believe that the effect of reducing carbon emissions by about 35% in the base polymer part, which accounts for the majority of carbon emissions in the product, will be significant.

Vestamid^® eCO can achieve up to 70% reduction in CO₂ emissions by further utilizing renewable energy, bio-circular resources, and biomass materials as fuel in the manufacturing process.

On the other hand, we have been manufacturing bio-based polyamides such as polyamide 1010 and polyamide 610 as "VESTAMID^® Terra" for some time, but it was found that the CO₂ emissions in the manufacturing process of bio-based polyamide were significantly higher than the CO₂ emissions of polyamide 12, which were reduced by the use of green electricity.

Furthermore, in Europe, there has been growing interest in 'land use' and 'water consumption' related to resin production. Polyamide 12 can reduce water consumption by up to 98% and land use by up to 98% compared to Vestamid^® Terra.

As shown, producing bio-based resins consumes large amounts of water and vast areas of land. Evonik's sustainable polyamides, on the other hand, reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 70% through the use of renewable energy and bio-circular or biomass raw materials, while using significantly less water and land compared to bio-based material.