Covestro as a company: let’s materialize circularity
Our high-performance polymer materials are part of the solution to global challenges. We rely on technologies that reduce energy consumption and emissions in our production processes. The products and solutions we develop replace conventional materials such as glass or metal, which are produced less sustainably or have a less sustainable lifecycle. They also enable entirely new, sustainable applications. We are convinced that our long-term vision on the circular economy brings us closer to our purpose of making the world a better place.
Putting the customer at the center of everything we do, we work closely with partners across the entire value chain to develop tailored, sustainable solutions and drive the circular transformation of our industry. Our ambition is to be a competitive partner for our customers, to shape our portfolio around customer needs and to create lasting value together.
Curiosity is part of our DNA. Click here if you are curious too.
A strategy with clear focus
We offer a broad range of products and services for different markets, requirements, and industries. For this reason, we have structured our portfolio according to business specifics and customer needs.
The two overarching segments are "Performance Materials" and "Solutions & Specialties", consisting of a total of seven business units. Each business unit is organized with a view to its key success factors and integrates all business-critical activities along the value chain.
The why and the how
We are convinced that a company is defined not only by its products, but equally by its holistic framework for action.
What Is Our "Sustainable Future" Strategy about?
Our "Sustainable Future" strategy defines how we combine the economic and ecological aspects of sustainability – being a profitable business and a reliable and innovative partner for our customers while shaping the path toward a more sustainable world with our sustainable and circular solutions.
It comprises three chapters: "Optimize", "Grow", and "Transform". We "optimize" in the short term, "grow" in the medium term, and "transform" permanently. The customer's perspective is always at the center. We implement our strategy through the power of innovation, accelerated digital transformation, the implementation of artificial intelligence, and by expanding our "We Are 1" culture.
Unlocking one's own potential is the foundation for continuous and profitable business success. We focus on three key topics:
Through targeted maintenance projects, we make our operations more reliable and efficient, thereby improving plant availability and increasing our reliability for our customers.
We optimize our cost position by implementing our global "STRONG" program, in which we optimize structures and processes in production and administration to achieve annual savings of €400 million by the end of 2028.
At the same time, we are selectively expanding high-margin business areas and opening up new markets. We are targeting new application fields with strong growth dynamics – across individual product lines and beyond the traditional boundaries of our business units. One of the first application fields within this initiative is robotics.
The third chapter of our Sustainable Future Strategy includes our long-term goals toward climate neutrality and our approach to our vision of a circular economy.
By 2035, Covestro aims to achieve net-zero emissions for Scope 1 and Scope 2. The interim target for reducing Scope 3 emissions is also set for 2035: –10 million t CO₂ equivalents (–30% compared to the base year 2021).
We further are committed to our long-term vision of a circular economy, depending on the transformation of the value chain and the demand and needs of our customers. Our customers' needs are regularly reviewed and analyzed throughout the entire value chain, specifically on the topic of sustainability. This analysis provides Covestro with indications of which Covestro products are particularly relevant to achieving our customers' sustainability goals.
One example of this is mass-balanced products from our CQ solutions. These CO₂-reduced variants of Covestro products not only help our customers but also contribute to us achieving our own sustainability goals – such as climate neutrality.
Further we added a focus topic to our third chapter – working in an agile way with a strict focus on performance to be able to face the challenges of our dynamic world.
Would you like to learn more? Read more about Covestro and sustainability.
Innovation is the foundation of our future viability. We believe that 'Bold ideas become innovative materials for a sustainable future’. Guided by this promise, our mission is to create high-performance material and technology innovations with added values for our customers. We focus on three areas: securing our current business through regulatory compliance and quality assurance, growing in adjacent markets and products, and disruptive innovations for our transformation. Crucial is the commercialization of products, technology, and application innovations, also with the help of digital research and development activities in conjunction with artificial intelligence and the use of quantum computing.
We consistently advance digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) as a fundamental enabler of our strategy. We leverage the potential of AI and digital technologies along the entire value chain and across all corporate functions. Through AI collaboration tools, partnerships with technology companies, algorithms, and machine learning, we unlock additional value creation potential and support our sustainability goals.
Culture and strategic workforce management are further key drivers of our success. Our "We Are 1" corporate culture is based on the values of curiosity, courage, and diversity. It creates an open and inclusive working environment that encourages employees to challenge the status quo and develop new business approaches. Through strategic workforce management, we ensure that our workforce always has the skills required for the tasks of the future.
Purpose
Climate change, a growing world population, urbanization: these and many other global trends pose major challenges for society – today and even more so tomorrow. Covestro contributes to meeting these challenges with its comprehensive range of innovative products and solutions. High-quality plastics are a key to an ecological and thus better future for coming generations.
Vision
At Covestro, we are fully committed to the circular economy and want to help make it a global guiding principle. The circular economy is the key to climate neutrality, resource conservation, and the preservation of nature and the environment. That is why we encourage everyone to actively shape the cycle: use and reuse resources consciously, keep products in use as long as possible, and avoid waste. View materials at the end of their lives as a resource for recycling. And remain open to new, more environmentally friendly raw material sources – such as biomass.
Strategy
The world is constantly changing, and staying ahead requires agility and foresight. For this reason, we introduced the corporate strategy "Sustainable Future" in 2020, which guides us toward our overarching goals even in times of transformation. We continuously ensure that our strategy remains aligned with global developments and our vision of a sustainable future, and we continuously evolve it.
