Green Options

Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution by Mary Fraser, BASF, American Chemistry Council - Plastics Division Automotive Team

Despite all of the challenges facing the automotive industry today, this is a time of great innovation.

Electric vehicles are just months away from entering the U.S. market and evolving engine technology is consistently improving fuel efficiency. Auto manufacturers are taking big steps to reduce emissions and hybrid cars are becoming mainstream. While powertrain technology has significantly improved fuel efficiency in recent history, the materials used in production of automobiles are increasingly playing a key role in making vehicles more sustainable.  One group of materials, in particular, that is opening new doors to auto design and fuel economy is plastics.

Grameen and its managing director (Nobel Peace Prize-winner) Muhammad Yunus, known for the Grameen Bank, recently launched a new partnership with German conglomerate BASF to create a joint social business venture called BASF Grameen Ltd., to be based in Bangladesh. BASF Grameen Ltd. is being modeled as a “social business”, whose purpose will be to improve the health and provide related business opportunities for poor members of Bangladeshi society (reminiscent of the base of the pyramid framework) through the distribution of dietary supplement sachets and impregnated mosquito nets.