Sarah Eckersley
Sarah Eckersley is the global director of R&D and TS&D for
Coating Materials, Monomers & Plastics Additives. Sarah is
responsible for the development and delivery of innovations
aligned to business strategy. She collaborates with marketing
and commercial organizations to identify high-value initiatives
for growth and profitability. Sarah is passionate about
developing technology that is relevant to the marketplace. This
means relentless external focus on customers and seamless
collaboration with the other functions, most especially marketing.
Sarah also held positions within Dow as the global R&D director for Pharma & Food Solutions and global R&D director for Performance Packaging in Performance Plastics. Sarah received her B.A.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ottawa in 1986 and Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Waterloo in 1992.
SUSTAINABILITY in COATINGS: by accident or by design?
The coatings industry has a proud history of developing technologies that eliminated materials of concern, reduced environmental impact, and improved human health outcomes. In hindsight, it is easy to attribute those positive benefits to intentional responses to sustainability drivers.
Upon reflection, however, it is more likely that those sustainability benefits were advantageous unintended consequences of efforts driven by overall performance or cost improvements. In recent years the societal shift towards more sustainable solutions has intensified, but rarely at the expense of performance or cost. Today, we sit at a crossroads. Intentional sustainability is driving dynamic changes in many industries across diverse applications. Our coatings industry
challenge going forward is to adapt to a world where sustainability increasingly comes first.