Sustainability Trends
Driving the sustainability transformation
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 has become a guiding principle for countries, organizations and companies. Industries and companies use market dynamics to deliver sustainable solutions, competing on cutting-edge technologies to win the trust of customers by generating value for society.
For us, it is important to understand which sustainability-related trends and standards will shape the future. Based on these insights, we can formulate strategies accordingly, managing risks and seizing opportunities to generate value for society. Together with the management consultancy A.T. Kearney, sustainable natives and Impact Hub Berlin, we have asked a crowd of sustainability experts and practitioners from around the world to answer questions about upcoming trends and standards. How can industries transform towards sustainability - economically, socially and environmentally?
The study revealed trends in seven industries that are important for our businesses: Agriculture & Food, Automotive & Transportation, Energy & Utilities, Engineering & Construction, High-Tech & Electronics, Consumer Goods & Retail, and Pharma & Health. Risk and opportunity impacts derived from the research have been discussed with BASF experts through a series of workshops and will be part of our future strategic work.
Cross-regional top five trends
Sustainability experts all over the globe were asked to rank various sustainability trends by the relevance for their industry and region. The following trends were shown to have high to very high relevance, cross-regionally, for the seven industries selected in the survey, making a top five ranking possible.
Engineering & Construction
- 95% Energy efficiency & renewables
- 90% Green & climate-friendly materials
- 80% Sustainable infrastructure projects
- 75% Digital & building information modeling
- 75% Affordable & shared housing
Agriculture & Food
- 85% Regional & local food
- 80% Ecosystem protection
- 80% Innovative technologies
- 75% Organic farming & pesticide minimization
- 75% Food waste reduction
- 75% Small farming & fair trade
Automotive & Transportation
- 90% Emission-free mobility & transportation
- 80% Public transportation & cycling network expansion
- 80% Urban multi-modal mobility & sharing
- 75% Electric vehicles
- 55% Production simplification & automation
Consumer Goods & Retail
- 80% Reuse & recycling
- 80% E-commerce & consumer data
- 80% Fair & social impact supply chain
- 80% Non-toxic, natural components
- 75% Human rights in supply chain
Energy & Utilities
- 95% Renewable energy systems
- 90% Energy efficiency
- 75% Decentralized energy models
- 75% Smart data-driven energy management
- 70% Water management
High-Tech & Electronics
- 75% Mobile-empowered social business models
- 75% Digital disruption in employment
- 70% Smart electronics
- 70% Sustainable energy use for electronics
- 65% Human rights & fair supply chain
Pharma & Health
- 85% Accesss and affordability of health
- 85% Preventive health
- 80% Digital health processes
- 75% Healthy nutrition
- 65% Social impact of health system