Assessing Sustainable Circular Chemical Economy

Insights from the CTC SEEM Focus Day

CTC’s Focus Day brought together researchers, industry representatives, and policy experts to examine how sustainability and circularity are currently measured across the chemical science and where today’s assessment methods (LCA, TEA, SSbD, and emerging global frameworks) fall short. The day combined a keynote, three thematic sessions, and a cross-sector panel, with a recurring theme: metrics are proliferating, but data availability, standardisation, and practical usability remain the binding constraints on real-world adoption.

The program covered a wide range of topics focused on rethinking the chemical value chain, including systems thinking, circularity, sustainable process development and manufacturing, data availability and gaps, metrics for assessing sustainability, and the role of guidance and regulatory frameworks. Discussions also highlighted the persistent gap between scientific progress and its translation into measurable, real-world sustainability impact.

The full summary provides a detailed overview of the discussions, examples, methodological challenges, and emerging solutions presented throughout the Focus Day. It also captures the diverse perspectives from research, industry, and policy on how sustainability assessment can better support the transformation towards a circular chemical economy, including:

Keynote Address: The Role of Metrics in Sustainable Chemistry Transition
Session 1: Methods and Frameworks for Sustainable Chemistry Assessment
Session 2: Insights from Industry
Session 3: The Messy Middle – Complexity, Uncertainty, and Data Gaps

Download Key Insights: CTC Focus Day 2026: Advances in Assessing Sustainable Circular Chemical Economy (PDF)

Key Takeaways

No single metric or framework currently captures sustainable chemistry comprehensively. The UN Global Framework on Chemicals is the most complete effort to date, but remains non-binding and complex.
Data availability and quality are the most consistently cited bottleneck across every session.
Trade-offs between metrics (e.g. CO₂ vs. dust emissions, cost vs. circularity) require systems-level thinking rather than single-indicator optimization.
Renewable carbon and CCU-derived methanol are emerging as a credible platform for decoupling the chemical industry from fossil feedstocks, though full transformation carries a significant price tag.
Using AI and machine learning is a prominent step in the future of automated LCA assessment, though the energy cost associated with it should be considered very early on.
Industry and research broadly agree that iterative, screening-first approaches are more workable today than pursuing perfect, fully quantified assessments from the outset.

Interested in learning more?

The SEEM Focus Day is part of CTC’s thematic area Societal, Environmental, and Economic Metrics (SEEM), which develops approaches for assessing sustainability and circularity in the chemical sciences.