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Shaping Digital Sustainable Development in Chemical Companies

                         Practitioner’s Section
                         Shaping Digital Sustainable Development in
                         Chemical Companies

                         Wolfram Keller* and Nadine Bette**

                          *       CHEM4CHEM, Vösendorfring 44, 64380 Roßdorf, Germany, wkeller@chem-4-chem.com
                          **      CHEM4CHEM, Vösendorfring 44, 64380 Roßdorf, Germany, nbette@chem-4-chem.com

                          DOI: 10.17879/22139568338; URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-22139569180

                          Both, digitalization and sustainable development are two megatrends with signifi-
                          cant impact on the chemical industry in Germany through to 2025, according to a
                          recent survey among 60 chemists. Digitalization is as seen a driver for sustainable
                          development, even though there is no quantitative correlation in the importance
                          of the two megatrends. When implementing Corporate Digital Sustainable Re-
                          sponsibility (CDSR) chemical companies need to find the right balance between
                          business, technology, society, responsibility and mindset-related facets that chem-
                          ical practitioners refer to when arguing in favor of digitalization being a driver for
                          sustainability or against it.

1 Introduction                                                    2 Progress of sustainable development
                                                                  in the chemical industry
    Germany’s chemical industry has taken a
leading role in Responsible Care (VCI, 2011) –                        The origin of sustainability is closely con-
nowadays referred to as Sustainable Develop-                      nected to major accidents, e.g. at Seveso
ment (Sachs, 2015) – since about 25 years. Digi-                  (Kramer et al., 2019), Bhopal (Eckerman and
talization, a second, steeply evolving mega-                      Børsen, 2018), Houston Chemical Complex (U.S.
trend, is not new either. However, its break-                     Department of Labor, 1990) and Exxon Valdez
through in the chemical industry has begun                        (Cohen, 1995) in the 1970s and 1980s. In the mid
only recently, marking the beginning of Digital                   -1980s, the global chemical industry took coun-
Sustainable Development (DSD) (RNE, 2018). An                     ter action in response to these disasters and to
empirical survey among 60 chemists identifies                     gain back its ruined trustworthiness. Today,
some preconditions and obstacles for                              sustainability is subject of numerous multi-
“Corporate Digital Sustainable Responsibility”,                   stakeholder initiatives like Responsible Care
the extended corporate governance (Werder,                        (VCI, 2019, I, II; Delmas and Montiel, 2008; King
2018), Digital Sustainable Development, the                       and Lenox, 2000), Together for Sustainability
process to make it happen, and ultimately the                     (TfS, 2019), Chemie3 (Chemie3, 2019), Platform
desired Sustainable Development Goals (United                     for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE,
Nations, 2015).                                                   2019) and Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW,
                                                                  2019), and an integral element of the strategy
                                                                  of many big chemical companies (BASF, 2019;
                                                                  Clariant, 2019; Evonik, 2019; Linde, 2019; Wack-
                                                                  er, 2019, I). In this decade, chemists and chemi-

Journal of Business Chemistry 2020 (1)                       1                           © Journal of Business Chemistry
Wolfram Keller and Nadine Bette

 cal engineers have developed first technically            mical industry can be defined “an embryonic
 and – at least partially - economically feasible          concept aiming at seamlessly integrating the
 industrial-scale approaches for product rede-             two time-shifted and often independently ma-
 sign, reuse, mechanical and chemical recycling            naged approaches of CSR and CDR in order to
 (Werner and Mertz, 2016; Johnson, 2018; Stark,            resolve de facto and potential conflicts of inte-
 2019; Stephan, 2019; Strathmann, 2019). The               rest to achieve a company’s SDGs”. Here are
 chemical industry is on a good way to achieve             some examples of these conflicts:
 the desired Sustainable Development Goals                  A blockchain system negates the risk of
 and by 2050 will likely be able to be carbon                 trusting a single organization through dis-
 neutral (VCI, 2019, III).                                    tributed ledgers and reduces overall costs
                                                              and fees of all kind of transactions by cut-
 3 Progress of digitalization in the                          ting out intermediaries and third parties.
 chemical industry                                            However, its required resources have signifi-
                                                              cantly increased in the last few years. It cur-
                                                              rently consumes more energy than many
    Unlike Sustainable Development, digitaliza-
                                                              countries, such as Denmark, Ireland, and
 tion in the chemical industry is still in its early
                                                              Nigeria (Binance Academy, 2019).
 stages. Since about 5 to 10 years, bigger rather
                                                            Super computers offer a quantum leap in
 than mid-size chemical companies have begun
                                                              computing power, e.g. 1 to 2 quadrillion floa-
 to leverage information and communication
                                                              ting-point operations or 1 to 2 petaflops per
 technology, electronics, and the experience of
                                                              second. However, its electricity consumption
 automotive industries with digital technologies
                                                              at full capacity is approximately 600 kilo-
 and applications (DECHEMA, 2016). Many of
                                                              watts, and the water-cooling system requi-
 them have appointed Chief Digital Officer(s)
                                                              res up to 60,000 liters of water per hour
 whose primary task is to define and execute
                                                              (BASF, 2018).
 their company’s digital transformation road-
                                                            A simultaneous digital and sustainable
 map (Schmidt-Stein, 2018; Wacker, 2019, II; Bu-
                                                              transformation impacts a chemical com-
 sinessTech-Company, 2019, I to VI). Still, the
                                                              pany’s future revenue and profit, but also
 emphasis of the digital transformation road-
                                                              public reputation, core values, culture, busi-
 map is often on technical aspects. True Corpo-
                                                              ness model, technologies, products, services
 rate Digital Responsibility (CDR) needs to go far
                                                              and employees, i.e. financial and non-
 beyond, e.g. including compliance with legal
                                                              financial dimensions. If mainly financial key
 obligations, digital ethics, interactions with
                                                              performance indicators, e.g. the Return on
 society, chemical suppliers and customers, and
                                                              Investment (ROI) for the transformation and
 the enablement of employees for chemical in-
                                                              the Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) for
 dustry 4.0 with its modified jobs and compe-
                                                              the ongoing business, remain the bench-
 tences (Keller, 2018; BAVC, 2018; Lade, 2019).
                                                              mark for investors and shareholders, busi-
                                                              ness cases are instrumental, however rarely
 4 Corporate digital sustainable                              suitable to base not primarily financial deci-
 responsibility, a feasible composite?                        sions on.

    Can CDSR facilitate chemical companies to                 The authors have undertaken an empirical
 exploit potential synergies between the two               survey among 60 chemists in the chemical in-
 megatrends, sustainability and digitalization,            dustry in Germany to identify the relative im-
 while striving to fulfill their Sustainable Develo-       portance of sustainability and digitalization by
 pment Goals? In this context CDSR in the che-             2025. They look at mutual interdependencies

Journal of Business Chemistry 2020 (1)                 2                          © Journal of Business Chemistry
Shaping Digital Sustainable Development in Chemical Companies

 and potentially missing competences required                       In addition, 53 data sets including values for
 to pursue CDSR .                                               each of the three hypotheses were sorted in
     Participants represent different levels of                 declining order choosing “Digitalization is a
 education (Bachelor, Master, PhD), years on                    driver of sustainability” as lead parameter,
 duty, company size (corporation, big, mid-size                 shown as solid line in Figure 2. The depending
 and small company) and management level (1                     parameters “importance of digitalization” and
 through to 4). The survey is hypotheses-based,                 “importance of sustainability” are displayed as
 with respondents indicating their degree of                    radar charts underneath. The heterogeneity of
 agreement with each proposed hypothesis, u-                    the diagram corresponds well with poor corre-
 sing a percentage scale.                                       lation coefficients of -0.10 in case of digitalizati-
     The first hypothesis “By 2025 Digitalization               on and +0.07 regarding sustainability.
 will play a major role for chemists and engine-
 ers” achieves 83% level of agreement (sample
 size 56). The distribution of responses is surpri-
 singly homogenous. There is no trend between
 the responses and the level of education, years
 on duty, company size, and management level.
     78% level of agreement (sample size 56) is a
 clear indication that also “Sustainability will
 play a major role by 2025 for chemists and engi-
 neers”. The pattern of responses is almost iden-
 tical with that of the role of digitalization by
 2025.
     The average level of agreement that
 “Digitalization is a driver for Sustainable Deve-
 lopment” scores at 70% (sample size 53, Figure
 1). This view is very consistent within each and
 across all clusters.

 Figure 1 Degree of agreement to the hypothesis „Digitalization is a driver for SustainableDevelopment” depending
 on the level of education, management level and company size (source: own representation, 2019).

Journal of Business Chemistry 2020 (1)                     3                              © Journal of Business Chemistry
Wolfram Keller and Nadine Bette

  Figure 2 Lacking correlation between the importance of digitalization as a driver for sustainability .
  and the importance of digitalization and sustainability by 2025 (source: own representation, 2019).

     To understand the full bandwidth of related                        Business cluster: Key arguments that
 comments from 100% euphoria to 100% skepti-                        “Digitalization is a driver of sustainability” in-
 cism, all comments made were classified in five                    clude the better control of sustainability-
 clusters: business, technical, society, responsibi-                related technical and management processes
 lity and mindset. Within each cluster responses                    and energy management, all leading to higher
 were distinguished by supporting and impe-                         technical and human resource efficiency and
 ding notions. The number of comments in each                       bottom-line improvements. Major concerns
 (sub-)cluster was divided by the total number                      address data availability, format, integrity, and
 to calculate comments’ relative frequency.                         security and management decision-making
 (Figure 3).                                                        timeliness and effectiveness.

  Figure 3 Hypothesis “Digitalization is a driver of sustainability” Distribution of supporting and impeding arguments
  by cluster and overall (source: own representation, 2019).

Journal of Business Chemistry 2020 (1)                        4                                 © Journal of Business Chemistry
Shaping Digital Sustainable Development in Chemical Companies

     Technical cluster: On the positive side, be-                    Mindset cluster: Only 12% of all comments
 nefits through big data and artificial intelli-                 address the attitude of managers and
 gence to drive sustainable processes, products                  employees. Leadership by example and indivi-
 etc. dominate by far. Excessive energy con-                     dual freedom to act are seen instrumental for
 sumption, high dependency on state-of-the-art                   DSD. The biggest concern addresses low wil-
 IT infrastructure and the ability to handle giant               lingness and readiness across all levels of the
 quantities of data are the top concerns.                        company, from shop floor to C-level, to cope
     Society cluster: Respondents are – with few                 with change associated with DSD.
 exceptions - aware of the driving role of poli-                     In summary, regardless which role digitali-
 tics, educational institutions and the chemical                 zation and sustainability will play by 2025, 58%
 industry in defining and providing boundary                     of the participants (degree of agreement ≥
 conditions for DSD. There is considerable skep-                 67%) are strong believers that digitalization is a
 ticism that educational institutions assume                     key enabler for DSD, 32% (agreement between
 sufficient responsibility by not including digita-              34% and 66%) have mixed feelings, and 9%
 lization and sustainability comprehensively                     (agreement ≤ 33%) see no or a limited driving
 enough in their curricula.                                      role of digitalization.
     Responsibility cluster: Respondents consider                    DSD is significantly affecting chemists’ job
 clear responsibilities instrumental for DSD. On-                profiles, required skill sets and training needs.
 ly 20% see their company in charge, not a clear                 Training needs in the context of digitalization
 vote for “corporate responsibility”. The lack of                (Keller, 2018; Gruß, 2018; Lade, 2019) and those
 commitment to digitally enabled sustainable                     addressing sustainability (Keller and Knoll,
 chemical and management processes and ma-                       2020; ILO 2019; Graf and Reuter, 2017; ILO and
 nagement’s hesitation to invest in required                     CEDEFOP, 2011) have been defined. Contrary to
 training are the two main concerns. 80% of                      digitalization skills, respondents consistently
 respondents believe DSD responsibility is pri-                  claim (degree of agreement between 48% and
 marily with politics and educational organiza-                  62%, Figure 4) that there is no single highest
 tions.                                                          priority for sustainability-related training.
                                                                 Instead, training covering requirements, specifi-

  Figure 4 Hypothesis “This specific Sustainable Development area represents the highest training need”. Degree of
  agreement in % for each individual answer, not additive (source: own representation, 2019).

Journal of Business Chemistry 2020 (1)                      5                              © Journal of Business Chemistry
Wolfram Keller and Nadine Bette

 cations, methods, applications, attitude and               https://bericht.basf.com/2018/de/
 options to act for each area - society, company            serviceseiten/downloads/files/
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 participants request their company to take pri-            2019.
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 in the context of Sustainable Development,                 Quriosity, available at https://www.basf.com/
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 responsibility (20%).                                      innovations/supercomputer.html, accessed at
                                                            18 December 2019.
 5 Conclusions                                                  BAVC (2018): Mithalten durch Mitarbeiter,
                                                            available         at       https://www.chemie-
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 sustainability (78% agreement) will be even                digitalisierung/, accessed at 18 October 2019.
 more instrumental elements of Sustainable                      Binance Academy (2019): Blockchain Advan-
 Development in Germany’s chemical industry                 tages and Disadvantages, available at https://
 than today, as the results from the empirical              www.binance.vision/blockchain/positives-and-
 survey among 60 chemists suggest. 70% agree-               negatives-of-blockchain/, accessed at 18 De-
 ment to the hypothesis “Digitalization is a dri-           cember 2019.
 ver of sustainability” and the in-depth evaluati-              BusinessTech-Company (2019, I): Wie setzt
 on of respondents’ comments reveal key input               der BASF CDO die Digitalisierung um?, Chief-
 for Corporate Digital Sustainable Responsibility.          Digital-Officers.com, available at https://chief-
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 ideas supporting Corporate Digital Sustainable             Digital-Officers.com, available at https://chief-
 Responsibility and counter arguments impe-                 digital-officers.com/de/wie-setzt-der-henkel-
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Journal of Business Chemistry 2020 (1)              9            © Journal of Business Chemistry
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 Appendix

 Table A1: Digitization and Sustainability questionnaire (source: own representation, 2019).

Journal of Business Chemistry 2020 (1)                      10                                 © Journal of Business Chemistry
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