Projects...

PLFs are found in millions of everyday products, from soap to paint, but their production and disposal is currently unsustainable. Every year around 36 million tonnes of these materials are made from fossil sources and go down the drain. PLFs’ environmental challenges will be too large for even the biggest companies to address alone, so finding solutions needs action as an industry-wide endeavour.

TbD teamed up with the RSC to bring together an Industry Taskforce collectively calling for an urgent step change. Along with leaders from Unilever, BASF and Crown Paints, TbD and RSC created a roadmap to sustainable PLFs and codesigned the innovation portfolio needed for this transition. As is the TbD way, this mission-oriented innovation roadmap concentrated on crossing the gap from saying to doing: from sustainability-as-usual into concrete action.

So far, TbD has supported the development of nine bids which totals £80+ million. While we can’t know if this will convert to a fully funded applied research and innovation programme until the funding notices are announced, this project demonstrates industry-wide as well as match-funding commitment, sending a strong signal to government and philanthropy that there is tangible industry demand. This has been acknowledged in discussions with funders of “demand led innovation” and that is the incremental action and impact we strive for.

‍