Sustainability makes business sense for hose, belt industry

Cuyahaga Falls, Ohio — There is a point where ideas become practice — second nature. And when that happens, companies are positioned for growth and profitability.

Chris Bradlee, market segment manager for hose and belts at BASF, believes that ideas, growth and profitability are primed for acceleration when sustainability becomes the focus.

He isn't alone.

"I see suppliers, I see manufacturers—I see everyone dedicating time and resources to this [sustainability] effort," Bradlee said. "This is something, I think, this industry is taking seriously and it is taking steps to go this way."

One of the biggest concerns around sustainability — both in terms of products and business operations — are the costs associated with it. Sometimes, Bradlee said, those costs may be prohibitive. But, often, when you consider the lifecycle of the products and the overall benefits of the transition to sustainable practices, the costs are mitigated in the long run.

Bradlee emphasized that the industry overall has proven itself to be committed to the foundational practices of sustainability: reducing carbon footprints, saving fossil resources, and finding end-of-life solutions.

"The role of the circular economy will grow as we increase sustainability in our business decisions as good environmental stewards and add value to our products," Bradlee said. "One of the things we need to do better as an industry is to talk about the business case for sustainability."

BASF is doing its part to help spur those conversations, playing a role in the circularity of rubber and plastics industry products by creating more sustainable, reusable and bio-based options at the start of the supply chain.

"The linear economy basically says, you use it once and you throw it away," Bradlee said. "The recycling economy says you have a certain number of reuses, but ultimately: landfill. But the circular economy is the goal. It says we are here to regenerate and reuse materials and there is a real business case for this in several different ways.

Chemical recycling can be especially effective, Bradlee noted, when used in conjunction with other sustainability efforts such as bio-based materials and mechanical recycling.

"This is what the circular economy is about," he said. "How can chemical recycling, mechanical recycling and renewables keep these polymers, keep these monomers in this loop-de-loop [of sustainability] and prevent it from going to a landfill?"

What is most exciting about sustainability, Bradlee said, is that you don't have to achieve your biggest goals immediately. Sustainability, he contended, is a step-by-step process that involves finding ways to incorporate recycled or renewable materials into your end product.

Moving forward to sustainability is the most important thing. That means moving forward in a way that makes the most sense for your business, your products and your customers.

"You don't have to go from zero to 100," Bradlee said. "You can do down this process — this journey — of starting to incorporate both renewable and recyclable materials and grow that as the business case allows. There are certain reasons why these things work or don't work, and we all understand that. Really, you have to make a business case for sustainability like you do any other aspect of your business."

Making sense of what works for business also means taking into account the full picture of global health. Renewable resources are critical to reducing carbon footprints and breaking a reliance on fossil fuels.

But industries have a responsibility to make the best use of resources. And as renewable materials become more and more critical to the everyday operations of business and manufacturing, the availability and balanced use of renewables also must be considered.

"You have to look at the big picture," Bradlee said. "If you are talking about using corn, what does that mean for competition of feed for animals and food. That is another thing you have to look at it. That is something we take into consideration when we look at renewables."

The one thing that Bradlee did caution against was talking yourself out of the potential to integrate sustainable practices into your everyday business operations and products.

Especially when cost analysis becomes a factor, it's easy to look at the added costs of sustainable materials or the short-term uptick in investments as a hurdle that shouldn't be cleared. But it's that mindset, he said, that holds the industry and its companiesback.

"You know what the biggest challenge is? Getting out of the mindset that it always had to be more expensive," Bradlee said. "That is a simple trap that will keep you from finding success. Don't go into it."