GoingToMeet

A number of major environmental problems and societal concerns are related to the chemical industrial sector. As the demands of society increase in their quest for safer, better and more convenient products, the chemical industry is faced on the one hand with the possible depletion of natural resources and on the other with a large share of responsibility for the damage that may be caused to the environment and the population.

The EU is the largest producer of chemical products, well ahead of the USA or Japan, and within the EU the chemical industry is one of the largest sectors of manufacturing. Hence it seems appropriate for the first conference in this series to be held in Europe.

The main area of chemical activity consists of the conversion of various base metals into substances and materials with new chemical and physical properties. A substantial amount of research is being carried out regarding this conversion process. It is now necessary to incorporate in this process the requests of sustainability (joining People, Planet, and Profit) to ensure the long term prospects of the industry. This applies not only to the conversion process itself but to a series of associated activities, such as the chemical supply chain, performance measurements and different types of management tasks.