Case Study

Venturing into uncharted territories, a forward-thinking start-up envisioned a compostable, biodegradable plastic with vast potential in the packaging industry. However, realizing true sustainability required an innovative, non-fossil route to its production. This case study details the pragmatic steps my team and I undertook to chart a viable path toward a sustainable consumer plastic.

The Situation
An emerging start-up had engineered a compostable, biodegradable plastic to respond to increasing customer demand for sustainable products. Yet, the quest for genuine sustainability mandated a departure from fossil-based production methods. The mission was to identify novel renewable sources for the plastic’s basic building blocks in order to create a circular approach to the plastic lifecycle.

The Approach
Collaboratively, my team and I worked to methodically discover sustainable approaches.

Our comprehensive investigation laid the groundwork for informed choices, with:

• Meticulous feasibility studies analyzing available options
• Systemic evaluation and benchmarking of various technologies, intellectual properties, and commercial offerings
• Modeling of investment cost scenarios
• Development of economic models for differing scales of production
• Comparative cost and economic analyses were undertaken across distinct regions
• Sourcing strategies for critical components and raw materials

The Output
Based on our comprehensive analysis, we unveiled a pragmatic roadmap detailing how the plastic could be made from renewable sources. This roadmap included a thorough business case, accompanied by NPV (Net Present Value) calculations tailored for three distinct regions.

Equipped with a clear trajectory, the start-up was empowered to make judicious investment decisions. This allowed the start-up to progress confidently, refining their vision and nurturing alliances with key target accounts.