The DSM Engineering Materials team in Silicon Valley, California, has the privilege of working with some of the world’s most influential and innovative brands every day. To these global leaders, staying on the cutting edge of science and sustainability is not an afterthought. In fact, they view it as a business imperative for all stakeholders, including key suppliers such as DSM. 

We’ve identified a few consistent best practices of these leading brands that set their business and suppliers of choice apart:

In today’s complex business environment, having a purposeful and customer-centric mission is the key to building a sustainable value proposition. 

Google’s mission statement—“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”—is a good example. Their focus on the customer and global megatrends has propelled their ascent to become one of the world’s most admired brands. 

DSM’s new “Purpose Led, Performance Driven” corporate strategy seeks to apply a similar simplicity as we aim to apply our scientific expertise to overcome global sustainability challenges.  When we take on challenges ranging from engineering halogen-free thermoplastics to eliminating plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean, our purpose to create brighter lives through bright science guides our actions. 

Leaders like Apple ask a lot from themselves and their suppliers. When they launched their Supplier Clean Energy Program, they asked their suppliers to commit to using 100% renewable energy for their Apple business by 2020. 

Earlier this year, DSM accepted the challenge, and today we are one of a select handful of suppliers that will help Apple reach its ambitious goal of using four gigawatts of clean energy in its supply chain by 2020. 

With an average of 4,400 exhibitors trying to impress a global audience of more than 180,000 attendees, you can get a sense of the creativity and massive scale of consumer electronics industry innovation if you’ve ever walked the show floor during the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. 

Many of these innovations wouldn’t be possible without plastics, and we’ve used this inspiration to continue developing the next generation of material solutions. For example, our Arnitel Eco thermoplastic copolyester (TPC) and EcoPaXX nylon/polyamide (PA410) are built with bio-sourced monomers (e.g., castor beans, canola oil). 

As a result, they deliver superior performance while using up to 70% renewable resources. EcoPaXX is one of the world’s first 100% carbon neutral polymers. With natural resources more constrained, this kind of circular thinking will be essential for the electronics industry in the future. 

Inspired by the example of our customers in Silicon Valley, DSM scientists are working every day to develop solutions to improve the nutrition, health and sustainable living around the world. To stay up to date on the latest innovations from DSM Engineering Materials, I encourage you to click here to subscribe to our monthly newsletter.