As reported in Technology Review, "Researchers at the University of Duisberg-Essen in Germany have discovered a bacterial enzyme that creates a key raw material for making acrylic glass and acryclic paints. This enzyme could provide a new pathway to producing acrylics without using fossil fuels or generating much toxic waste."
According to the researchers, those new materials could reach the market in about ten years, assuming they find a way to move the microbes essential to the process to work hard and produce sufficient quantities of acrylic glass and paints to make sense for a manufacturer and the marketers who need to tell the world about them.
Evonik, a German chemical manufacturer, bought the rights to develop the academic research into patentable, sellable intellectual property and products. Because it mentioned sustainability, I clicked on the biotechnology copy on the homepage, which took me to the research and development page. Where did sustainability disappear to? Instead, I saw the following statement, which probably was not offered ironically: "Our R&D activities are determined by the needs of the market. Where possible, we take customers’ requirements into account as soon as new products and applications are designed, especially in our Chemicals Business Area."
I remember working for a company that considered customer needs "where possible." I was one of thousands of people getting laid off when the company realized what customers really wanted. Anyway, I did a site search for "sustainability" and found 1,841 results, most of them a few layers removed from the top levels of the company's website.
If you're a career marketer, you might still be around working when Evonik reaches the market with those biologically created, fossil fuel-free acrylic glass and paints. Now would be the best time to get in touch with Evonik and help them bring their environmental marketing to a higher level of visibility. By the time the acrylics products become available, Evonik could be a deservedly familiar household name.
If you're too busy, don't think these developments are interesting, or find hardworking microbes creepy, you can still join our contest. Here's what you do:
1. Think about what Evonik (or a company much like Evonic, if that makes it easier) could and should do to give its environmental marketing more visibility and credibility.
2. Come up with a few strategic, out-of-the-box, even wild ideas and share them here.
I'll send a box of organic chocolates to the three people who make the most interesting suggestions, and will make sure that you and your ideas get exposure in my green marketing group on LinkedIn. I look forward to hearing from you! Share your ideas by commenting here or mail to me at chris@washburncom.com.
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