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Bayer MaterialScience's Sustainability Program is based around the key areas of innovation, product stewardship, excellence in corporate management, social responsibility and responsibility for the environment. These areas are intertwined. Because of that, our commitment to sustainability has a constant impact on the products we produce and the markets we serve. Bayer's motto – Science for a Better Life – perfectly captures how sustainability is central to our business.

Sustainability is especially important to Bayer MaterialScience – and you – because the products we make touch so many people's lives in so many ways. We maintain a sustainable business through innovation: We are constantly developing materials that are more eco-friendly, and applying these materials in such markets as building and construction, transportation and alternative energy – to name just a few. Simply put, at Bayer MaterialScience, we know that the best way to achieve maximum sustainability is by design.

That's where you come in.

Designers and engineers are uniquely positioned to join us in furthering sustainability by design. Your capabilities coupled with Bayer's materials point to a future where sustainability is integral to the items we use at work and play each and every day, without sacrificing aesthetics, durability, longevity, or the all-important "cool" factor.

Sustainability Without Sacrifice

Here's a list of things you will need to give up in order to achieve your vision in an eco-friendly way:

1. Nothing

Looking for versatility? Advanced performance? Eco-friendly materials? Bayer MaterialScience offers all of the above – and more – with its family of polycarbonate and polycarbonate blend resins. You can make your product green – or lemon twist or strawberry fields or spring sky – by using one of Bayer MaterialScience's Fantasia® color and special effect technologies www.bayerfantasia.com) that are more eco-friendly than paint. These technologies, which offer a wide array of color choices and custom coloring, can be utilized before or after the molding process, depending on what you're looking to achieve.

LEDA® Compounded Color Technology

We add molded-in color into the pellets before the molding processes – you can ask for color, sparkle, shimmer and glow-in-the-dark effects to match whatever color you desire, producing tight color tolerances and eliminating plastic waste.

AURA® Infusion Technology

We offer endless possibilities to color products with virtually any custom color after molding. Plus, you have the added advantage of being able to color, re-color and reuse plastic parts, while this technology reuses the liquid medium so it doesn't enter the waste stream, minimizing the impact on the environment.

Don't Believe Us? It's Already Happening! Check This Out:

Call it what you want – a "miracle of Makrolon® polycarbonate resin," an ultra-cool snowboard, a sustainable design … the Makboard™ is all that … and more.

It's a sleek and seamless soft-fl ex snowboard made entirely of Makrolon polycarbonate resin. It's clear as ice – unless you choose to use one of Bayer MaterialScience's eco-friendly color technologies to achieve the hue of your choice.

Makrolon polycarbonate is a designer's dream, making it possible to achieve radical styling not feasible with other materials. The Makboard has "Flow-Thru Technology" on the bottom that channels snow through slots in its tail, making for enhanced stability, effortless turns and the highest performance available on the slopes.

But the Makboard's most impressive statistic (drum roll please …) is that it's 100% recyclable – unlike its fiberglass or wood cousins that end up in landfills.

Reuse and Renew

For more than a decade Bayer has offered products that contain post-industrial used plastics materials that could not be otherwise used for a variety of reasons, including the inability to meet application requirements, being off-spec or being used in manufacturing but not in the final component. Bayer processes these materials into products that meet a target specification range near to our standard products.

Recently Bayer has taken another step and introduced products that contain post-consumer grade material – Bayer resins that have reached the end of their useful life in their first application – recycled into a near virgin resin for their next application. And Bayer already has two such products available – one containing 10% post-consumer recycled content (plus 30% post-industrial recycled content yielding a total recycled content of at least 40%) and another containing 30% post-consumer recycled content (plus 30% post-industrial recycled content yielding a total recycled content of at least 60%), available in natural color, or a limited color selection.

Bayer is even venturing into the realm of polycarbonate blends containing a bio-based plastic. These blends, containing up to 40% bio-based polylactide (PLA), can make any product more sustainable. With such innovative products, who knows what other ideas may crop up?

You want durability and extended product life … but can a material that is eco-friendly also last a long time?

Think about this: the fact that a product lasts longer makes it inherently sustainable. The less something needs to be replaced, the less waste it creates. We know you get it. At Bayer, we do too. For example:

• Bayer's LEDA compounded color technology helps make products look better longer. Unlike painted parts, colorants are present throughout a part, and scratches won't expose a differently colored interior.
• Makrolon roofing – like the one used on the Calatrava stadium for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, or on the Shenyang stadium at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing to let the light in while keeping the elements out – has an enormous life span. Tests show that even 20 years after installation, Makrolon sheets show hardly any wear and tear. Now that's sustainable.

Energize Efficiently

Zero Energy Buildings – How?

Green buildings aren't a thing of the future. With Bayer MaterialScience polycarbonate resins, they are feasible right now. Makrolon is an energyefficient alternative to glass, and polycarbonate formed into multi-wall sheets offers better insulation. It also is stronger and lighter than glass, and, of course, 100% recyclable.

While lightweight, Makrolon polycarbonate is also strong, protecting buildings from hail, snow, wind and vandalism. Lighter and stronger – it is the perfect alternative material that architects, engineers and contractors choose for ultimate long-term performance and investment return.

Solar Energy – The Bright Side of Sustainability

By 2010, the demand for solar energy is expected to triple from what it was in 2005. Innovative concepts from Bayer MaterialScience make solar energy less costly, easier to install and more versatile for designers. Using Makrolon polycarbonate, solar modules can be made to look more like part of a building than an add-on, opening up endless possibilities for design.

And, the new designs can actually improve sustainability, maximizing solar exposure and increasing efficiency.

Just another way that sustainability enhances design … and design enhances sustainability.

Changing the Picture with Polycarbonate

When you buy a new TV, do you ever think about how the whole television was assembled? Traditional fl at-screen TVs have more than 60 metal fasteners in addition to the numerous components that form the frame and housing. More parts mean more waste and more weight and assembly energy. Bayer's prototype SNAP FIT TV uses five pieces that snap together. Saving material saves weight and energy needed for assembly, energy needed for transport, and waste that ends up in landfills. And the SNAP FIT TV model is easier to service – so it may last longer. And we know that longer product life means less replacing … and that leads to a decrease in waste.

By eliminating hardware, consolidating resins and designing for ease of separation and recycling, the SNAP FIT TV model exemplifies sustainable design. See for yourself:

• It's recyclable, and requires less energy to make.
• It's light, so it requires less packaging and energy to transport.
• It's easier to access for service, so it may last longer and create less waste.
• It's also easy to upgrade, which can delay replacement – customers can just upgrade or modify their existing model.
• It's sustainable. And it's cool.

Get the picture?

Lighten Up!

LEDs Take the Lead

LED lighting is all the rage. Because LEDs consume only a fraction of the electricity of an incandescent light and have a 50,000+ hour lifecycle that dramatically lowers maintenance, it's easy to see why. More and more, LEDs are helping conserve energy in residential, commercial and industrial applications. Bayer's materials can be used in high light throughput LED optics and housings that resist the effects of weathering, including use in LED-based automotive headlamps. Strong Makrolon polycarbonate and Apec® high-heat polycarbonate protect the optics from hazards along the road, including stones, hail and falling branches, helping to light the way safely home.

Watching Your Weight

In terms of styling, safety and performance, the vehicles of today have made tremendous strides from their predecessors of even a few years ago. And Bayer MaterialScience is taking them even further.

Polycarbonates are smart, tough aesthetic substitutes for metal and glass parts in cars. They're lighter – reducing weight and subsequently, CO2 emissions and fuel consumption – and we know that increased miles per gallon is a key selling point for today's cost- and eco-conscious consumers.

Bayer MaterialScience is a leader in automotive glazing. In fact, we've developed a tailor-made grade of Makrolon polycarbonate just for this application – Makrolon AG2677.

When it comes to automotive glazing, you might even say Bayer MaterialScience is visionary.

So much so, that we've created BayVision™ –under which you'll find our complete portfolio of automotive glazing offerings that translate into transcendent vehicle applications tailored to the needs of each individual customer.

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