Chemistry for a Changing World

[00:00:02] Keith Zakheim:

Welcome to the Age of Adoption podcast. I am your host, Keith Zakheim. Today, as we do with every podcast, we're going to ask our guest one question and one question only. What is your Age of Climate adoption story?

A little bit about the Age of Adoption: We live in an era where enterprises of every shape and size, regardless of industry, must rapidly transform to become more sustainable and climate sensitive. My day job is CEO of the marketing public relations firm Antenna Group. Our agency works exclusively with conscious brands.

What is a conscious brand? It is a brand that is conscious of its responsibility to be on the right side of history. Like most businesses, our clients are experiencing a transition from an age of innovation, an era in which technologists, entrepreneurs and investors focused on innovating climate and sustainable solutions, to this age of adoption which characterizes the world today.

So, if you accept the Age of Adoption hypothesis, then there's really only one salient question to be asked: What is your Age of Adoption story?

My guest on today's episode of the Age of Adoption podcast, brought to you by Antenna Group, is Vivi Hollertt. Vivi leads a global sustainability agenda for Nouryon, a specialty chemicals maker operating in an industry that is referred to as the mother of all industries because 96% of everything around us, from EVs to pharmaceuticals to paint, has been driven and touched by chemistry.  

Today on the Age of Adoption podcast, Vivi shares her fascinating career journey. Spoiler alert: She went from running comms to running sustainability. And she explains why sustainability at Nouryon isn't ideology, but a genuine growth lever tied to top line revenue and cost savings. Back with Vivi in a bit.  

Vivi, welcome to the Age of Adoption podcast.

[00:02:05] Vivi Hollertt

Thank you. It's great to be here.

[00:02:07] Keith Zakheim  

Vivi, where are you joining us from today? Because I know it's not in the mainland United States, so that's exciting for us.

[00:02:13] Vivi Hollertt

No, I'm joining you from Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

[00:02:17] Keith Zakheim  

Fantastic. I think you might be the first guest we've ever had from the Netherlands. We have had many guests from Europe and Asia and all around the world. So this is great. And there's so many exciting things happening in the Netherlands. I know that when it comes to climate and sustainability, it's actually somewhat of a bellwether for Europe at this point, so maybe we'll get into some of that. But Vivi, you lead Nouryon’s global sustainability agenda and you chair the company's global sustainability network, setting strategy across climate, circularity, safety, social performance. And Nouryon is a specialty chemicals maker and I'm really excited to dig into that because of the impact of specialty chemicals economy wide and people aren't always aware of that. But I think your position certainly has a rare purview of how purpose, brand, sustainability, strategy intersect at this industrial company. And industrial company has been reinventing itself for a number of years. So I just said a lot but I want to give you the opportunity to take us through your career journey, one that has you today an incredibly prominent position at a world, at a global company that really is pushing the frontiers of climate sustainability transformation.

[00:03:34] Vivi Hollertt  

So Keith, it started at the end of my studies. I wrote my thesis on corporate social responsibility and I love the topic and I actually never thought that it would turn into becoming my career. But after working at Heineken and at the communications agency FleishmanHillard, I joined AkzoNobel, which was a global paints, coatings and specialty chemicals company. And then in 2018 the specialty chemicals division was spun off. It was sold to the Carlyle Group. It's a large US private equity firm and I had the great opportunity to lead the carve out communications but also the launch of the new company. So think of the process of a new name, the brand, the identity, company values, the company purpose. And at the same time I was building and shaping the new communication function and at that time I had no functional leadership experience yet. So this was truly one of the most exciting periods of my career. And it then only got better because shortly after we became a standalone company, our chairman and CEO, who's called Charlie Shaver, he asked me to lead sustainability for the company next to my communications function. And honestly, I will always be grateful for Charlie to give me this opportunity because as you said, I have a comms background. I did not have that sustainability experience. So I don't think many people saw me as a very logical person to take on that role, but he did. This was during COVID and I needed to study sustainability, so I signed up for an eight-week Cambridge course. I worked day and night, I needed to manage the kids at home, daycare was closed and I literally just grabbed every report and document that I could see and tried to read as much as possible to build up that knowledge as good as I could. And then a couple of years down the road I now have transitioned from leading communications and sustainability to only focusing on sustainability, which again gives a bit more energy and focus to this field where I think there are so many opportunities. And still I'm learning and growing and developing every day. Because, you know, there's, there's so much to learn and it keeps on evolving. So I've never had a moment that I'm bored because there's always more things that I can learn and do and improve on.

[00:06:18] Keith Zakheim  

Yeah, that, that's incredible. Especially being able to, I guess, teach yourself in eight weeks the foundations of, the business of sustainability. And clearly, just based on the 2025 sustainability report, there's a lot of incredible things going on at Nouryon. So you deserve a lot of credit for being a quick study and being able to do all those things. And the other thing that I find interesting about your background, you know, communications and sustainability. One of the things that we've noticed at Antenna, because again, this is our day to day, is working on the communications and storytelling sustainability, is that in Europe you find there's a position that's sustainability, communications. It's a role that you find in a lot of larger enterprises, which up until a couple years ago, you didn't find in the US you're starting to find that a little more in the U.S. but because sustainability, ultimately there is such a huge role for storytelling. And so again, I wanted to point that out, that your background is something that I think or your former position is something that you see a lot more in Europe than you do in the US. Vivi, before we get to the question of the day, a question that I'm going to ask in English, I can't ask in Dutch, unfortunately, but I know you're well prepared for. But before we get there, I am going to ask you just to talk a little bit about specialty chemicals generally, because it's something that we've never explored on this podcast. It's something that I think people, even people who are sophisticated in this industry don't think a lot about. But its impact is so broad and profound across manifold industries and across the entire global economy. So can you just define a little bit or elaborate what specialty chemicals are? And of course that's going to tell the story a little bit about what Nouryon does. And then I'll ask you the Age of Adoption question.

[00:08:09] Vivi Hollertt

Yeah, no, absolutely. And thanks, because I acknowledge what you said. And the truth is also, I never would have thought that I would end up working so long in the chemicals industry. I do not have a chemicals background at all. But the person who hired me, who was the CEO of the chemicals division back then, he said to me, it's good that you are not a chemist because you need to help us explain specialty chemicals to people who are not chemists, because it's really technical and it's complex. But the beauty about chemistry is that, I mean, 96% of everything that you see around you has been touched by chemistry. So if you're listening to this podcast, it's the device that you are listening on has been touched by chemistry. It's your computer, but it's the car or the EV that you use to drive to your work today, your personal care products that you use. But it's also, you know, we're in pharmaceuticals that help cure diseases. We are in paint, we are in building materials. So it is extremely broad. And that's also what I find so interesting about the role. And also our company, they call the chemicals industry the mother of all industries. Right? So we feed into all these other end markets, all these other industries, and if you look at it from a sustainability perspective, all the improvements that we make trickle through the entire value chain. So the impact that we make within the chemicals industry has a huge impact throughout that entire value chain. So that's what makes it all so very meaningful.

[00:09:50] Keith Zakheim  

Yeah. When I think of chemistry, of course, I think of 10th grade, my first chemistry course. The teacher was Boyd Kenvin, and he wore a bolo tie. And I think I still feel the trauma of 10th grade chemistry. Although if I knew that 96% of my life was about chemistry, I probably should have paid closer attention. But that's the beauty, I think, of communications, of public relations. You learned a lot as you, you know, 51 years old, still learning all the time. So, yeah, anyway, boy, Kevin, I don't know if he's still alive, but God bless. And now we're going to get to the question of the day. Vivi, what is your Age of Adoption story?

[00:10:33] Vivi Hollertt

So, Keith, for me, sustainability, it's truly foundational for growth. And that's how we see sustainability at Nouryon. We see it as a growth lever. So it starts with customer value. So we need to answer the growing needs from our customers. And as I just explained, which are very diverse, but these customers are asking for safer products, more natural products or biodegradable or durable products. And by Answering to that, it has business value. Right. So this can actually drive top line growth. But at the same time, we need to think about how we manufacture them and through operational efficiency, we can improve our safety and environmental performance. So by using less energy, water resources, we can lower costs. So this goes back to the bottom line, but also very important. It helps protect our license to operate, which has a, a chemicals manufacturer, you can imagine, is also extremely important. And then another element, and definitely also from a communications perspective is people. Right. So we need to make sure that we invest in our people, that we are a remarkably good employer. But people want to work for companies that do it right. And to do it right is actually one of our company values. We believe in it a lot, but we also hear this a lot in our recruitment processes. People see this as important and not only in Europe. This, this goes across continents. So for me, truly sustainability, it's not an ideological. It's not an ideology, but it's truly foundational to growth and how we need to run our company.

[00:12:17] Keith Zakheim  

Vivi, can you reflect on the economics of it a little bit? Because as storytellers right now when it comes to these types of technologies, what we've noticed is we're able to tell the story now not just from a virtue or you're saying ideological perspective, but we can actually tell it. There's a business case to be made for it. Can you reflect a little bit on that, please?

[00:12:39] Vivi Hollertt

Yeah. Very simply, as I explained it just now, customers ask for certain products. If we sell more of those sustainable products, we grow our volumes, we grow our revenue. Right. So that's top line. But also if we don't provide those products and our competitors do they move to our competitors? And I think especially as we start approaching 2030, customers are increasingly asking for low carbon products or they want to see how we are going to transition to a lower carbon product for them. If we cannot live up to that need of our customer and they go to another competitor, we, we lose our profits, we lose the revenues there. So it's about growing those revenues, but it's definitely also about protecting them and staying very close to them.

[00:13:28] Keith Zakheim  

Yeah, I guess also what I was referring to is like when we look at so low carbon, low carbon products. So I know when you look on, when I did research on Nouryon and the industry, so there's two things that kept popping up. One is bio-based chemicals and the other is circular chemistry. Right. And on the bio-based side, I know that one of the challenges is getting to scale so the price point becomes affordable. It seems like what you're telling me is there's so much demand from customers that that's happening on its own. Because as is more, as customers demand more, then that adds volume, which is scale, which then brings down price point. But if you want to, if you can reflect a little bit on that kind of the bio-based chemicals piece. And also when people talk about circular chemistry, what they mean by that and how that aligns with the business model at Nouryon.

[00:14:19] Vivi Hollertt  

Yeah. So what makes this answer a bit complex is that again, we have a very broad range of customers. Right? So customers have different needs. If you look at the home and personal care products, they indeed want more natural products. Right. The things you put on your skin, the laundry detergents, you want that to be more natural, bio based, but definitely also biodegradable. Everything you flush through, you want that to be biodegradable. We also have customers who actually value the opposite of biodegradability, which is durability. So paint, for example, you want that to stay as long as you can on the wall. Or we also sell organic peroxides, which are used in the manufacturing of wind turbines or insulation for high voltage cables. You do not want a biodegradable wind turbine. Right. So these customers have different needs there. Now sometimes the real challenge is that if you look at these low carbon products, they can come at a premium. And it is really our task, not only for Nouryon, but definitely for the industry, to see if we can find innovative ways to not have those product come at a premium. And the reason why there can be a premium is switching to alternative feedstock is not as simple as it seems. There need to be available feeds at scale. Right. Which is not always the case. So if you have that niche, those feedstocks can come at a premium. And that is what I believe that the industry needs to face and needs to really improve. But the reality is also that the products that our customers buy from us, that goes back all the way down to the consumer. And we cannot always rely on the consumers to buy the more sustainable choice that comes at a higher price. Right. I like to use the example of buying a cucumber. When you do your groceries, if you have your ecological cucumber and it's twice as expensive as another one, what does the main consumer buy? They deal with inflation, they deal with high energy costs. So it's very important that we try to deliver products at high performance, high sustainable profile, at the right cost, which we do in many cases. But the reality is certainly there that for some of these products which have a lower carbon footprint, they can come at a premium. And that is something that we as an industry across the value chain, because that's a partnership with your customers and your suppliers, we need to work to improve on.

[00:17:05] Keith Zakheim  

Yeah, thank you, Vivi. And clearly Nouryon is doing its best to be a leader in all of that. And if I can recap, what I'm hearing is lots of progress has been made, there's lots of innovation, but there's still challenges of scale and price point. And that's something that ultimately we will get to, but there's still progress to be made. So thank you so much, Vivi, for joining us on the Age of Adoption Podcast and look forward to our paths connecting and crossing in the near future.

[00:17:32] Vivi Hollertt

Thank you, Keith.

[00:17:34] Keith Zakheim

The Age of Adoption podcast features CEOs, investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers sharing their climate and sustainability business transformation stories. Episodes can be found on your favorite podcast apps including iTunes and Spotify. The Age of Adoption podcast is brought to you by Antenna Group. Antenna is the home of conscious brands.

We partner with companies that don't wait for change to happen. These brands shape the future, are awake and already moving. Unsure if you are a conscious brand or even if you are one, whether you are positioned as one, please visit our website at www.antennagroup.com and take the Conscious Compass Assessment, a groundbreaking tool that enables enterprises to assess their brand against the eight traits of brand consciousness.

At Antenna, we partner with companies big and small, from growth stage to Fortune 100, to tell their climate and sustainability stories. So once again, if you're interested in joining the conscious brand movement and learning more about Antenna Group, please check out our website at www.antennagroup.com, ping us on LinkedIn and make sure to visit the Conscious Compas

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