Now in its fifth year, the Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF) in Riyadh has emerged as a major event, where 100 top leaders and thinkers from around the world gather to discuss the most critical issues affecting industry in the Middle East and beyond. SABIC is always a major participant, and this year, CEO and Vice Chairman Mohamed H. Al-Mady took the opportunity to underscore the importance of bringing “the next generation of corporate innovation” to the global challenge of sustainability. His remarks, entitled “The Future of Basic Chemicals,” were part of a special panel on sustainability, and built on the conference’s 2011 theme, “Innovation as a Means to Competitiveness.”
“Heavy industry, with its constant innovation, has driven positive change in every aspect of life,” he said. “However, we now recognize that the products and benefits of industrial innovation, along with expanded consumption, have placed a serious burden on the planet – including concerns about climate change and long-term supplies of basic food, energy, water, and vital raw materials.”
“No region is exempt from these forces of change,” he recognized. “Major industry must migrate our model from one of extraction and single use of finite raw materials, to one of conservation. We must focus in all key areas -- from feedstocks, manufacturing processes, distribution, customer processes, consumer-use impact, end-of-life recovery, and multiple cycles of raw material use -- much like nature has always done.”
Mr. Al-Mady told the panel that SABIC’s Sustainability Program focuses on innovating across the entire value chain, with this comprehensive view in mind. “Within our operations, SABIC is putting additional focus on alternative and renewable feedstocks, reducing our footprint through process excellence, and driving efficiency in our EMDAD distribution system. Within our product portfolios, we are providing customers with technologies that reduce the footprint of their product through lightweight-high strength polymers. We are recycling and transforming materials at the end of their end of life into revitalized industrial inputs. And, we are developing technologies that treat carbon dioxide not as a waste but as a raw material.
“We believe that the future or basic industries is very bright due to the magnitude of society’s needs,” Mr. Al-Mady concluded. “But, success will come to the corporations that have done what successful corporations have always done: Achieve a culture of innovation, engage the entire work force in the journey, and never take their eye off of evolving customer needs. While I am proud of our accomplishments at SABIC, we recognize the journey has just begun and that we are not dealing with a passing fad -- but rather, a transformation into an Industry that designs and innovates for sustainability"