Innovative services, win in green

• Contribute to green through three levels, namely: energy conservation and emission reduction, green products, and funding green projects.

• Set up a public open day to invite the public to visit the company and popularize green knowledge.

• Integrate different businesses within the company and consider green issues.

• Set up many project rooms, concentrate the strength of each department, and engage in research and development of green products.

• Conduct comprehensive energy efficiency inspections on all of the company's factories in China to improve energy conservation and emission reduction.

Degussa, the world's leading specialty chemical company, changed its name to Evonik in 2007, meaning winning with innovation. This innovative industrial group is determined to achieve a win-win situation with the environment. The group spends nearly 58 million euros on environmental protection every year, involving four aspects: water, soil, air and noise.

Evonik aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent in 2014. More than one third of the target has been achieved since 2004. In the past two years, water consumption and production waste have been reduced by 35% and 20% respectively.

Evonik plans to invest 2 billion euros in the improvement of energy efficiency by 2010 and achieve the goal of increasing energy utilization by 20%. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive project called "Energy Inspection" has been actively carried out at all production sites and joint ventures in China.

Speaking of all this, Yu Dahai, President of Evonik Greater China, was deeply touched. He said that Evonik's green strategy is of great significance. It can help the entire chemical industry in China raise the threshold, thereby promoting various industries closely related to the chemical industry to better achieve a win-win situation with the environment.

Environmental protection: the chemical industry has a bright future

What is the relationship between environmental protection and the innovation of chemical concepts?

The traditional chemical industry is to produce and then sell chemical products. Due to the development stage, the pollution of traditional chemical industry is inevitable. Take Europe, for example, the chemical industry was also a polluting industry in the 1950s and 1960s. There is no pollution in Europe now, and I think there will be no pollution in China in 20 or 30 years.

The new chemical concept, or Evonik's chemical concept, is that we not only sell products, but also help customers solve problems. Chemical industry is no longer an industry that consumes energy and raw materials, it can help achieve energy conservation and emission reduction.

I always think that the chemical industry is an indispensable industry in the national economy and people's lives. Some people deny it because of the pollution problem in the industry. I think it is wrong. This is not a problem of the industry itself, but a problem of management.

The current situation in China is that the entry threshold for the chemical industry is too low, and some small chemical plants do not even meet the environmental protection standards stipulated by the state, causing great damage to the environment. As a multinational company, we want to help China raise the threshold of the chemical industry.

On the other hand, the chemical industry is so closely linked to other industries that you could even say it's not an industry. For example, the automobile industry is related to chemical industry, the textile industry cannot do without chemical industry, and construction requires chemical industry.

There used to be a saying in Degussa, the predecessor of Evonik, that everyone enjoys our company's products every day. Brush your teeth in the morning, nylon toothbrush is our company's product, toothpaste also contains our company's additives, ingredients in shampoo, driving car tires, eating breakfast and drinking a cup of tea, Lipton tea extraction process uses our company of chemicals.

Therefore, the green significance of the chemical industry is of great significance, beyond the significance of an enterprise and an industry.

What can enterprises do to contribute to environmental protection and green GDP?

I understand, three levels. The most basic thing is to do a good job in energy saving and emission reduction in the production process.

You can then proactively contribute to the green with your products. For example, lithium batteries for automobiles can be realized through new materials developed by us, green tires that can reduce the rolling resistance of tires and fuel consumption, and plexiglass made of high-energy polymer materials, which can reduce the weight of aircraft. This is determined by the characteristics that the chemical industry is closely related to many industries. It can contribute to environmental protection with its own products.

Third, sponsor some environmental protection projects and activities, and fulfill corporate social responsibility in public welfare undertakings.

We will do all three levels, but focus more on the first two. The first level is a must, and the second level is what we think Evonik can play its own strengths.

You said that public utilities are not the focus of your focus. Is this related to the industry Evonik is in?

This is also where we need to strengthen, specifically, to strengthen contact with the public and increase the public's understanding of us. In September last year, we held our second public open day, opening our doors for the public to visit.

The ability of chemical companies to do this, I think, also reflects a kind of self-confidence. We have managed well. I hope you will come to visit. This is also an opportunity to popularize chemical and environmental knowledge to the public. I remember when a small school came to visit, the teacher said that only the best students can come. I hope that some of these students may be able to join the chemical industry in the future.

We also want to increase employee pride through such initiatives. When talking about chemical companies before, everyone frowned and said you were a polluting industry. I want them to be able to proudly introduce their business to relatives and friends.

We displayed a variety of products, such as diapers for children and sanitary products for women, all of which use our raw materials. Skin care milk is also a chemical product, and Coca-Cola is also a chemical product. Without our company's hydrogen peroxide bleaching, there would be no white paper to write on. A lot of people were surprised, oops, I really don't know.

We put a plexiglass and a hammer at the scene, and let everyone hit it with the greatest strength. A young man told me what to do if you smashed it, and if I told you to smash it, I could give you a big prize. We play slides on the side to introduce the difference between plexiglass and other glass.

Green Technology: Brainstorming, Encouraging Innovation

How Evonik compares to the rest of the industry in terms of the first two levels that Evonik is better at - "greening" production and "greening" products Features?

Our Evonik is engaged in the specialty chemical business, which is in the middle of the chemical industry chain, connecting the upstream semi-finished products and downstream manufacturers in various industries, such as daily chemical companies, automobile companies, and pharmaceutical companies. our downstream. This puts us in a very good position to truly understand the needs of downstream customers and to "green" production and products through our R&D and technological innovation.

In addition, another part of Evonik's business area is energy. We can combine chemical industry and energy to consider green issues across fields, which may be unique to Evonik. What products do we have, what technologies do we have, and what are the needs of the market, we design our products from this perspective. This is what our Shanghai R&D center is doing. This R&D center not only supports sales in China and Greater China, but also supports sales in Asia.

The technology developed by Evonik in Germany is very advanced, and the products are excellent, but we need to see if it suits the needs of Chinese customers. The requirements of Chinese customers are different from those of German customers. For example, the Chinese auto industry is different from the European auto industry. Chinese consumers have different aesthetic needs for car color, shape, and interior assembly design from other markets. This is not only a matter of color and shape, but also needs to be supported by materials. In addition, some of the latest technologies in Germany are often products suitable for the high-end market, while a large part of China is in the mid-end market, which requires local research and development.

Green technology and R&D innovation are closely related. How does Evonik encourage R&D innovation?

We have established a number of S2B centers. S2B is the abbreviation of science to business, which means science to market. This R&D model itself is very innovative. We arrange scientists, scientific researchers, and market personnel to work in one building, give play to the advantages of market personnel in understanding market demand, and solve the problem that traditional R&D personnel only focus on the invention of technology and products themselves. The problem of unclear understanding of market demand and unclear cost demand. Tying them together can shorten the development cycle.

In addition, we have established many project houses, that is, project houses, whose purpose is to concentrate the strength of various departments of the company in research and development. There are dozens of people in each project room, from the business department and the scientific research department. Like a small company that has just started within the company, they have company protection and their own budget, and the excess part is responsible for their own profits and losses.

Each project room has only three years of operation. After three years, the project evaluation agency will evaluate the projects in the project room, and either successfully transfer it to commercial use, transfer it to the business department, or fail to dissolve it successfully. About half of the projects will be cancelled. Naturally, it is a big blow to those whose projects are canceled, but companies need to concentrate resources and not waste resources on projects that have no hope. These people can propose new projects, and those who are engaged in scientific research and marketing can propose to form new project rooms.

The project room solves the problem of lack of innovation power of traditional business department for us. The business department always tends to make old products, because old products sell well, but new products do not sell well, because new products require a lot of resources and take a long time, and they may not be successfully developed for five years. Four of the five projects were unsuccessful. But you can't be short-sighted and have to do new projects. For the development of new projects, we separate it from the traditional business and do it in the way of project rooms.

What are some examples of brainstorming?

Too many. For example, in December last year, we signed a cooperation contract with Mercedes-Benz to make lithium batteries for automobiles. Mobile phones and computers have long used lithium batteries, why can't cars be used? The lithium batteries of mobile phones and computers are separated from the positive and negative electrodes by a plastic film. In theory, they are not 100% safe, but the batteries of mobile phones and computers are small and will not cause problems in actual use. The car will not work, the breakdown will cause an explosion. We developed a diaphragm made of ceramic material to solve this problem. We are the first ceramic material, and then the researchers thought that it could be used in lithium batteries, especially for lithium batteries with high energy, so they thought of automobiles.

Marketers find battery manufacturers, they are not interested, they say, new products come out, what should I do with my old products? We found the automotive industry across customer groups. The automotive industry said that it is very good. Every car has a battery. If the lithium battery is used, the weight of the car can be greatly reduced. This product is very popular. We also think of customers in scientific research.

Actually, this lithium battery can be used even more. We know that there is excess electricity at night and insufficient electricity during the day. If a large lithium battery can store electricity at night for use during the day, we can save a lot of power plants, because the number of power plants is adapted to the daytime. peak required.

Innovation is not just about R&D, innovation is everyone's business. Many times, when one person thinks of something and speaks it out, the other person thinks it is good, and he will think of other places where it can be applied, so communication is very important. In fact, sales staff can see many problems and needs in the market, but they can't easily think of the company's products without a research and development background.

How to convince customers to accept greener new products, especially if there is no price advantage?

This is a good question. You know the government is very difficult to convince, if the official is more concerned about GDP than the beauty and environmental protection of the city, and at the same time our product price may be twice as much as others, he will say it is too expensive. What are the features and highlights of our products? How to promote it to him? How to make him accept it? Environmental protection and beauty are our characteristics. Although the price may be twice that of others, our service cycle is twice that of others, and the annual cost is not only not high, but may even be lower.

As the economic growth pattern gradually changes, I believe our company's products will be more and more useful. Taking urban expressways as an example, many cities use cement or glass as sound insulation boards. Cement as sound insulation boards seriously affects the beauty of the city, and glass is very unsafe. However, Evonik has a material that is very suitable for use as sound insulation panels for highways. It can reflect sound and reduce noise; it has strong light transmission and strength, it is beautiful, it is not easy to be broken, and its service life is longer than The general material is much longer. Best of all, this material is 100% recyclable. The Beijing-Tianjin high-speed railway uses this kind of sound insulation board.

What effective energy saving and emission reduction measures has Evonik adopted in its own factories?

In terms of energy efficiency, we conducted an energy check, and went to all the factories in China to do an energy efficiency check. Like a physical examination, we learned how much raw materials and costs each factory can save in terms of energy.

Evonik sets targets to reduce gas emissions every year. Our point is that there is also a lot of energy in the exhaust gas, and you can turn the exhaust gas into raw materials. Even if you meet the national standards in terms of emissions, the exhaust gas is always harmful to nature, and from the perspective of raw materials, it means that there are still unused raw materials in the exhaust gas you discharge. Therefore, energy saving and emission reduction will affect your competitiveness.

I remember there was a professor in Scotland who did research on waste chemistry, how to turn waste into raw materials. We are also considering doing some of this work.