Sustainable development

In 1987, the United Nations defined Sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (UN Documents, Our common future. Chapter 2). Later on, at the 2005 World Summit on Social Development it was noted that this vision requires compromising on three pillars: protection of the environment, social equity, and economic demands.






Helping to define the company policies on sustainability goes beyond the single responsibility of top management. Sustainable thinking is an attitude, and every employee with the right mindset will certainly find opportunities in his or her area of expertise to propose small social, environmental or economic changes that will help advancing towards a better future.

The R&D manager in charge of New Product Development has a significant responsibility in this area. Examples of bottom-up actions that can be pushed from the R&D department include:

• Actively participating in sustainability sectorial initiatives, such as Responsible Care (Chemical industry) or Sustainable Cleaning (Detergents manufacturers).
• Propose plans for the continuous reduction of waste in consumer products or industrial processes, including eco-design principles.
• Promote Carbon Foot Print and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). Companies like CyclusVitae, a spin-off of the UNESO Chair of Life Cycle and Climate Change, offer excellent expert services in LCA.
• Promote partnership and share best practices with suppliers and costumers with clear sustainability programs.
• Actively promote the substitution of materials with questionable environmental profiles.