Where Ingeo Comes From
At NatureWorks, we use our best technologies to turn greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, into performance materials. The sustainability of how we convert these greenhouse gases into Ingeo and Vercet products matters, and we take a hard look at this in everything we do.
Currently, the first step in transforming greenhouse gases into our products involves using agricultural crops to sequester carbon, "fixing" it as simple plant sugars through the process of photosynthesis. This rightfully brings up questions around feedstock sourcing and sustainable growing practices. UN Construct for Sustainable Agriculture.
While we view carbon as a problem, nature views it as a resource and an essential building block.
Performance materials made by transforming the right, abundant, local resources
We’re committed to feedstock diversification–to using the most abundant, locally available, and sustainable source of biobased carbon, wherever we produce. Equally, we’re committed to critically assessing and assuring the sustainability of each and every feedstock we use.
TODAY
Dextrose and sucrose from cassava, corn starch, sugar cane, or beets.
Industry Developing
Lignocellulosics: Sugars from bagasse, wood chips, switch grass or straw.
Now Assessing
CO2 to lactic acid technology
CH4 to lactic acid technology
We are cautious about automatically viewing each next generation of feedstock as inherently more sustainable than the previous one. Whether it's the first generation "bridging feedstock" we use today, industrially sourced corn, or whether it's cutting-edge concepts for turning CO2 or CH4 directly into green building blocks – bypassing the agricultural step altogether, at NatureWorks, we believe it's vital to assure the integrity of the sustainability of every feedstock we use.
All feedstocks will have advantages and disadvantages, so the focus should be on committing to the continuous improvement of the best available feedstock option for that technology and sourcing region.