Sustainable Development as a guiding principle has become a societal, regulatory and market trend. The environmental and social attributes of materials and products are increasingly affecting design and purchasing decisions in key sectors such as building and construction and automotive manufacturing. There is a market shift toward high performance and environmentally responsible products.

In order to ensure market access and acceptance by decision-makers, and to develop innovative applications and grow markets, material suppliers need to adopt a systems approach: this means understanding the performance attributes of their materials and products throughout entire product chains; from the raw material to the use of the finished product and further to the end-of-life management.

Zinc in sustainable building and construction is an example. Sustainable Development implies a careful balance of social, economic, and environmental aspects as well as between present and future needs.

Courtesy Industrieverband Feuerverzinken, Germany