K 2025 Preview: Covestro highlights innovation and sustainable solutions
This approach emphasises the compounding impact of advanced polymers combined with Covestro's process expertise and application development capabilities, making materials catalysts for change in sustainable mobility, circular economy, and climate protection.
25 Aug 2025 | By Prabhat Prakash
According to Hardt, of the 20 innovation stories to be showcased at K 2025, three are poised to have an industry-wide impact
At K 2025, Covestro will highlight the 'Material Effect'. This, as Jochen Hardt, vice president of Global Marketing Mobility at Covestro, said, "From a material science context, it means we're shifting from simply supplying raw materials to delivering complete solutions that address complex global challenges."
In a conversation with WhatPackaging? magazine, Hardt said, "Covestro bridges the gap between lab research and industrial applications through a three-dimensional approach: material science innovation, process technology mastery, and application development expertise. Hardt alluded to the SUE 'People Mover' as a prime example, where Covestro collaborates on structural design, production processes, and implementation challenges, going beyond mere polymer supply. Digital tools like Imagio will accelerate this transition by enabling design validation before physical prototyping.
According to Hardt, of the 20 innovation stories to be showcased at K 2025, three are poised to have an industry-wide impact. These are the expanded CQ (Circular Intelligence) portfolio. Hardt said, "This portfolio incorporates at least 25% alternative raw materials, setting new sustainability benchmarks across multiple polymer families." Then there are mono-material concepts. Hardt said, "This is for automotive applications, where these concepts are addressing complex recycling challenges that have historically limited circularity." And finally, Hardst spoke about digital material twins, which, "(when) integrated with a design software like Autodesk, are revolutionising product development, significantly reducing time-to-market and material waste."
Hardt spotlighted Imagio, which is Covestro's digital sampling tool. It enables realistic digital visualisation of product designs, replacing physical samples with digital material twins in early development phases. This commitment to digitalisation accelerates design iterations and minimises the need for physical prototypes, aligning with sustainable development processes.
Roadmap to full circularity
Covestro is committed to achieving full circularity, with ambitious milestones. By 2035, the company aims for climate neutrality in its operations (Scope 1 and 2), and by 2050, full climate neutrality across its entire value chain (Scope 1-3). Challenges include securing a consistent supply of high-quality alternative feedstock, developing economically viable chemical recycling processes at an industrial scale, and addressing complex mixed-material products. These are being tackled through innovation partnerships, strategic investments in recycling infrastructure, and design-for-recycling initiatives with customers.
To achieve this, Covestro is working on several categories of alternative raw materials, like bio-based raw materials. This utilises organic waste like used oils and grease as feedstock, produced according to the ISCC PLUS mass balance method. A significant breakthrough is the development of aniline entirely from biomass.
Also, there are recycled materials: Investing in partnerships for compounding post-consumer recycled polycarbonates and developing innovative chemical recycling processes, notably for mattress foam waste.
This progress has led to the launch of Covestro's CQ (Circular Intelligence) label, under which products contain a minimum of 25% alternative raw materials. Specific labels like 'RE', 'RP', and 'R' further differentiate polycarbonates based on renewable, chemically recycled, or mechanically recycled content. The long-term goal is to achieve 100% use of alternative raw materials in production. The company uses mass balance accounting following ISCC PLUS certification standards to validate recycled or renewable content.
Hardt said, Sustainability is integral, with medical-grade materials incorporating renewable mass-balanced raw materials while maintaining stringent performance characteristics.