Covestro wins prestigious Good Design Award for pioneering sustainable design innovation

Covestro, a world-leading supplier of advanced polymer materials, has received the prestigious Good Design Award for its work on transforming recycled engineering plastics into premium design materials using groundbreaking Color, Material and Finish (CMF) solutions. This recognition underscores Covestro’s commitment to turning sustainability into a true design differentiator—allowing brands to create products that are both environmentally responsible and aesthetically compelling.

Originating from Japan, the Good Design Award is one of the world’s most respected design recognitions, honoring excellence in design across products, architecture, software and services for their contribution to quality of life and society. The award-winning project, “Transforming Sustainable Materials into Desirable Designs,” was developed in collaboration with the Colour & Imaging Institute at the Art & Science Research Center of China’s elite Tsinghua University. It demonstrates how recycled materials from end-of-life applications can be revived through material expertise and innovative design to deliver both sustainability and sensory appeal to consumers while achieving commercial success.

“This Good Design Award recognizes Covestro’s pioneering efforts in sustainable material innovation,” said Mathieu Jung, Head of Global Color and Design at Engineering Plastics Business Entity, Covestro. “We are demonstrating that sustainability and premium design are not only compatible but mutually reinforcing. We believe that recycled plastics have also a usage beyond black and non-visible parts and should be used to create products with a distinctive identity that consumers actively seek out.”

At the heart of the project are five nature-inspired CMF themes—Earth, Water, Stone, Gem, and Black & White—­developed through a rigorous process of market research, consumer surveys, expert interviews and big data analysis. Unlike traditional approaches that often downplay the unique qualities of recycled materials, Covestro’s CMF methodology enhances and celebrates them. By applying these strategies to recycled polycarbonates, the project transforms this engineering plastic into premium design elements that resonate emotionally with consumers while meeting stringent performance requirements, addressing a critical gap in scaling the circular economy.

The technical foundation of this design innovation lies in polycarbonate’s exceptional recyclability. End-of-life products such as water bottles made of polycarbonate are collected, sorted, shredded, cleaned, and reprocessed into high-performance granules. These granules are then given a second life in premium applications—showcasing how circularity and high design can co-exist.

These CMF solutions are already being applied in sectors ranging from luggage to premium furniture, demonstrating the commercial viability of sustainable design approaches. The market response confirms that recycled materials can be positioned as premium features rather than compromises.

This award-winning project is part of Covestro’s broader commitment to design for circularity. The company has developed comprehensive circular design guidelines that put its circularity expertise at designers’ fingertips, promoting mono-material and modular designs that facilitate end-of-life recycling. Through industry collaborations and innovative approaches to material development, Covestro continues to advance circular design principles, helping brands create products that contribute to a more circular future.