Sustainable Products and Technologies.

Johnson Matthey is a leader in sustainable products and technologies. Not only are we committed to operating our manufacturing processes in the most responsible and efficient way, we are also focused on providing products and technologies that deliver sustainability benefits to our customers and to society.

Many of our products and technologies have a beneficial impact on the environment, on resource efficiency and on human health and wellbeing, or offer end use consumers the opportunity to purchase products that enhance their lifestyle.

We are leaders in products and technologies that benefit the environment. Our emission control catalysts are fitted to about a third of all cars produced around the world. Since their introduction in 1974, these products have had a major impact on air quality across the globe, preventing over 4 billion tonnes of pollutants from reaching the atmosphere. We also supply nitrous oxide (N2O) destruction systems which are used in nitric acid manufacturing plants to abate emissions of N2O, a highly potent greenhouse gas. To date, reductions equivalent to over 27 million tonnes of CO2 have been achieved from projects utilising these systems.

Our products and technologies also help our customers to make the most efficient use of resources. The recycling of precious metals is a core competence of Johnson Matthey and we offer a range of recycling and refining services to our customers around the world. We also manufacture catalysts, all of which allow industrial processes to convert raw materials to desired products more efficiently and to operate using less energy.

Johnson Matthey’s products and technologies also make a major contribution to improving human health and enhancing quality of life. We manufacture opiate based active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), such as morphine and codeine, to relieve pain, platinum based anticancer compounds for chemotherapy treatments, other controlled substance APIs and a range of fine chemicals used by pharmaceutical companies in drug preparations. We also manufacture parts for medical devices, such as stents, used in life saving surgery for maintaining cardiovascular health.

Case study.
Financial. Medical Products
that Enhance
Quality of Life

In addition, we manufacture a range of products that offer end use consumers the opportunity to purchase items that enhance their lifestyle. These include precious metal products used to produce fine jewellery, many products (alongside emission control catalysts) which are found all over our cars, and decorative colours that are used to adorn our glassware and ceramics.

Breakdown of External Sales Excluding Precious Metals 2010/11 by Area of Beneficial Impact

The breakdown of Johnson Matthey’s external sales excluding precious metals according to their area of beneficial impact is presented in the figure to the right.

As illustrated in the figure, some 86% of Johnson Matthey’s sales represent products and services which provide sustainability benefits through their positive impact on the environment, resource efficiency or our health.

Latest Developments

One of the two key drivers of our Sustainability 2017 Vision concerns the development of improved, more efficient products for our customers. As a technology company we invest heavily in research and development (R&D) and many of our R&D programmes are focused on bringing new sustainable products and technologies to the market place. Below are three examples of products and technologies that have been recently launched or that are close to commercialisation.

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