Materials create the fabric of our lives

They help us grow, work, play, travel, connect. They give us heat, light and power. They produce the everyday products we rely on. Materials innovation has enabled the technologies that have made it all possible, transforming our lives and livelihoods. But it’s come at a price. Because at the heart of it all, are fossil fuels.
We can fix this, but we need to do things differently.
The more fossil fuels we use, the more carbon we emit, the warmer it’s becoming. Our climate is in crisis. And the clock is ticking.

Behavioural change and planting trees are part of the solution, but we also need to be discovering materials that enable new technologies which don't use petrochemicals or fossil fuels. For the world to reach net zero, we don’t have much time left.
We need to innovate faster and in ways we never thought possible. Like with Covid-19, developing vaccines within a year when the world expected they would take ten. We must create solutions 10x faster than the current rate to meet the global warming targets set out in the Paris Agreement and reach net zero.
Through Clean Future, we aim to replace 100% of the carbon derived from fossil fuels in Home Care formulations with renewable or recycled carbon by 2030.
Paving the way to de-carbonise our plants product formulations, we must diversify the carbon sources we use – such as taking carbon from plants, the atmosphere, marine sources such as algae, and waste materials like plastic.
This pioneering research project will achieve the following six strategic objectives:
1.Achieve net zero ambition through materials innovation
2.Create novel routes to replace petrochemical-derived materials
3.Create the basis of a net-zero innovation ecosystem
4.Grow a long-term sustainable partnership
5.Develop a generation of net-zero innovators
6.Address global, national and local agendas