Sustainable development goals

Our business model and Horizon 2020 strategy are focused on making a difference in the world's most pressing issues. 

Umicore is working to meet the growing demand for clean mobility and clean air. We are a leading producer of catalysts and catalytic filters used in emission abatement systems for light and heavyduty vehicles, on-road and off-road. Our catalysts and particulate filters convert pollutant emissions into harmless gases and trap the particulate matter, enabling our customers to meet present and future environmental standards. Our products have prevented hundreds of million tonnes of harmful pollutants from being emitted into the air.

We strive to deliver environmentally friendly technologies that ensure resource efficiency and sustainability in industry’s supply chain.

Umicore is working to deliver energy efficiency technologies, optimize resource use and reduce pollution. We are a leading producer of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries, which are key in determining the power and energy density of rechargeable batteries, to maximize driving distance of electrified vehicles. Our nickel-manganesecobalt (NMC) cathode materials are a reference in the industry. To meet growing market demand, we announced significant investments from 2017 to 2019 to further increase our production of NMC cathode materials.

We provide solutions for a cleaner and more resilient future.

Umicore fosters sustainable growth and champions its circular business model. Our Hoboken facility is the world’s largest and most complex precious metals recycling operation, processing over 200 types of raw material – from mining and industrial residues to “End-of-life” materials, such as electronic scrap and spent rechargeable batteries – and recovering over 20 different metals. As part of our closed-loop business model, most of our business units recycle industrial residues from customers. Umicore is growing its capacity to cater to rising demand.

We deliver environmental and ethical sourcing benefits, and increased resource security.

Umicore is determined to be a preferred employer wherever we operate and are committed to empowering women for leadership. We are a growing business with presence in markets around the world and have won Top Employer status for our sites in Europe and Asia. We think this is because we strive to create a collaborative environment, ensuring meaningful work and career-long learning and development opportunities. This means our employees have an average length of service of 10 years, and that group-wide we have over 92.8% retention rate.

We all share the same values, we all respect one another and we are all working towards making materials for a better life.