Sustainability at Nynas: A lifetime perspective

It was a beautiful September morning when Jenny-Ann Östlund once again found herself walking through the doors of Nynas’s sprawling complex just south of Stockholm on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

Eighteen months had passed since she last strode through the corridors of the company she first joined in 2012.

“Nynas has a special spirit,” says Östlund.

“I feel like I can make a difference here.” 

Her departure from Nynas came at the tail end of perhaps the most challenging period in the company’s history. Caught in the crosshairs of a political dispute between the US and Venezuela, Nynas was forced to restructure. 

The episode hurt business and put what one executive described as “intolerable pressure” on employees. 

“Things had been really challenging for a long time,” she recalls.

“Work wasn’t as fun, and I felt like I’d lost touch with the market.” 

 The quest for better bitumen 

A chemical engineer by training, Östlund did her PhD in surface chemistry with a focus on the properties of asphaltenes and has spent her career in research, product development, and technical assistance. Her focus at Nynas has always been on improving the performance and quality of bitumen. 

“Our goal is and always has been to produce the best quality bitumen so that roads last for as long as possible,” she explains.

Longer-lasting roads mean lower maintenance costs and a reduced need for replacement. Over time, this translates into a lower total cost of ownership, fewer raw materials, and ultimately - a lower climate impact.

Östlund points to Nynas’s work in developing polymer-modified bitumen (PMB) using biogenic carbon derived from sustainable sources as a recent example of the company’s ongoing effort to make the asphalt industry as sustainable as possible. 

As manager of the Nynas Bitumen Technology department at the time, she was tasked with ensuring the new material met rigorous performance standards.  

Using PMB with biogenic carbon results in the same higher performance and durability benefits as traditional PMB, but without the added carbon intensity.

“We’re now able to achieve long-term sustainability gains and performance benefits without any up-front rise in the CO2 footprint,” she explains.

The promise of biogenic carbon

Interest in biogenic carbon has grown along with increasing demands from customers for asphalt with a lower carbon footprint.  

But rather than using the limited biogenic carbon supply to simply lower the carbon intensity of standard bitumen, Nynas believes it makes more sense to use the innovation in PMB to achieve performance gains without increasing carbon intensity.

“It’s important to think long-term and consider the lifetime impact of the decisions we make today,” Östlund explains. 

“Boosting asphalt performance and longevity without generating a higher carbon footprint will provide greater climate benefits over the lifetime of roads we build today.”

Of course, the environmental advocate still dreams of a world where bitumen had no carbon footprint, but the chemist in her understands that’s not feasible.

“We want the best and safest products for building our roads and bitumen is still the best material you can find,” she explains. 

“There’s no other technical solution available today that’s proven and safe to use in the volumes we need.”

Furthermore, Nynas’s bitumen is 100 percent reusable when used in road applications. Old asphalt can be removed, remixed, and reapplied. In contrast, up to 95 percent of what traditional oil companies produce gets burned as liquid fuel, generating additional carbon emissions.

A more sustainable asphalt industry 

Nynas’s deep-rooted commitment to sustainability was one of the primary reasons Östlund returned.  

“Nynas did a lot long before I joined the company, inspired by the Brundtland Report,” she recalls, referencing a 1987 report published by a UN commission chaired by former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. 

“We were working with sustainability long before it was a hot topic, and that report really laid the foundation for the work we still do today.”

She also found herself yearning for the “spirit of cooperation and dedication” at Nynas, and a culture where everyone is ready to help each other to make things happen.  

“The spirit here at Nynas is very special,” she says. 

It’s that spirit, she believes, that helped the company through its most difficult period. And it’s also part of what has kept Nynas ahead of the curve when it comes to developing innovative solutions to help make the asphalt industry more sustainable. 

It’s also why Östlund, who was also active in Swedish environmental group Fältbiologerna, believes working at Nynas aligns will with her own life-long commitment to ensuring a healthy planet.

“Sometimes the best way to make change is from the inside. And at Nynas, I feel like I can make a difference,” she says.