By Alex Del Priore, SVP Manufacturing Services, Syngene International
World Environment Day is held each year on June 5th, and it’s an important moment to reflect on what contributions we can make in our industry and to other adjacent industries – it’s our collective responsibility to help advance the world towards cleaner and greener technologies.
Yet new technologies are turning around perceptions as we advance. For example, while conventional plastics have come to symbolise environmental harm, advanced polymers, when developed and applied responsibly, can paradoxically be key enablers of sustainability. In clean energy and other high-impact sectors, these materials are helping to reduce waste, enhance efficiency, and accelerate the global shift toward low-carbon solutions. The challenge isn’t polymers themselves; it’s ensuring we engineer the right ones, for the right reasons, and help take incremental steps towards new approaches.
In fact, as the shift towards decarbonisation accelerates, materials science has emerged as a cornerstone of progress. Among the most critical materials in this evolution are specialty polymers, particularly functionalised variants that have been tailored to deliver enhanced performance in demanding environments. These polymers are no longer ‘niche’ innovations—they are fast becoming essential for sustainable growth across industries, particularly in green energy.
One area where this shift is particularly evident is in the role of polymer membranes within clean energy systems – i.e. membranes within clean energy cells.
