Clariant is a focused, sustainable and innovative speciality chemical company based in Muttenz, near Basel, Switzerland. On December 31, 2020, the company employed a total workforce of 13,235. In 2020, Clariant recorded sales of CHF 3.860 billion for its continuing businesses. The company reports in three business areas: Care Chemicals, Catalysis and Natural Resources. Clariant’s corporate strategy is led by the overarching purpose of ‘Greater chemistry – between people and planet’ and reflects the importance of connecting customer focus, innovation, sustainability, and people.
Nicola Lelli was appointed Head of Strategic Marketing for BU Additives at Clariant in November 2018. In this role, he focuses on strategy development, execution, and sustainability. He has held various commercial leadership positions within businesses operating in the industrial and life sciences sectors, both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C), and serving various downstream industries such as Retail, Agriculture, Packaging, and Consumer Goods.
With this background, Nicola has an expert perspective on the REVOLUTION project. Do you want to know more about his opinion?
Hello, Nicola. Thank you so much for your time. Nice to talk with you. Our first question is: In your opinion, how is REVOLUTION enriching your professional career?
“Hello, Andrea. It is nice to answer your questions. From my perspective, REVOLUTION fits very well with my present focus on sustainability and innovation. Moreover, bringing cross-industry and value chain collaboration to life and combining valuable capabilities and assets to achieve a common goal is a key enrichment. Finally, the project’s ambitious objectives to support a faster and more sustainable development of e-vehicles is also a clear fit both with my personal goals and Clariant’s purpose.”
What was the central aspect of the project that encouraged you to participate in?
“The REVOLUTION project is a great opportunity to further develop relevant industry solutions in the very fast growing e-segment of the automotive sector and to make a meaningful contribution to sustainability and the EU climate neutrality agenda. Clariant can and will contribute by validating fit-for-purpose additive solutions and by developing new solutions that can help push new materials beyond current boundaries so as to enable both light-weighting and the use of more recycled material content.”
In your opinion, what degree of acceptance could REVOLUTION achieve in the policy framework?
“Very high. Extending the range for e-vehicles, saving energy, and improving the circular footprint of the automotive industry are core to important ongoing policy developments. This goes hand-in-hand with improvements in battery efficiency to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and cut CO2 emissions.”
