Envision Racing recently launched its Race Against Climate Change Advisory Board – a collective of experts from across science, technology, academia, and industry, brought together to accelerate the transition to a net-zero future. The board was created to unite leading voices from different sectors who are already pushing boundaries within their own fields and who, together, can help shape meaningful, cross-industry action on climate.

One of those voices is Ton de Weijer, Innovation leader at Teijin Ltd. based in the Netherlands. With over 25 years of experience bridging science, innovation, and business, Ton has held senior roles in R&D and corporate strategy across Europe and Japan. His expertise spans chemistry, artificial intelligence, sustainable materials, and circular economy solutions. Today, he leads the development of new technologies that accelerate the energy transition and enable circular business models.

In this interview, Ton shares his career journey, the sustainability challenges he’s tackling at Teijin, and why collaboration through the Advisory Board is so crucial.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

I originally studied chemistry, but I always wanted to connect science with real-world business applications. While finishing my master’s, I pushed to gain industrial experience and joined AkzoNobel. That balance between academic research and business really inspired me, so when I went on to do a PhD, I structured it 50/50 between the university and industry. My research focused on artificial intelligence and data analysis in the chemical industry – in hindsight, a very relevant area to explore.

My career has followed a slightly unconventional path, but always driven by curiosity and innovation. I’ve worked across R&D, product development, mergers and acquisitions, and business development. I also spent more than 7 years in Japan, where I had the opportunity to lead a corporate R&D group – an incredible learning experience in cross-cultural management.

Most recently, I returned to the Netherlands to establish a new innovation hub for Teijin at Brightlands Chemelot Campus, a unique innovative ecosystem in the world of circular chemistry, sustainable materials and biomedical application. The Teijin Innovation Center is focused on developing products and services that contribute to environmental solutions and renewable energy. I’m always motivated by asking: where can I learn more, and how can I do something different that has real impact?

What are some of the most pressing sustainability challenges you’re working on at Teijin?

We’re focused on two main pillars. The first is renewable energy conversion. If we want to accelerate the energy transition, we need better materials for wind turbines, transportation systems and storage of Hydrogen, fuel cells, electrolysers and batteries. Efficiency is the biggest challenge today – high costs and investment needs mean we must improve the performance of these enablers. At Teijin, we’re developing advanced membranes and composites that sit at the heart of these systems and can dramatically improve efficiency.

The second is the circular economy. There is a demand and a clear need to accelerate the shift from a linear to a circular model, which changes everything – business processes, customer relationships, supply chains etc.

For a company like Teijin, this is a major transformation. One example is carbon composites: they are strong and inert, which is great for performance, but extremely difficult to recycle. Our aim is to design molecules that retain composite performance but can also be easily broken down or repurposed.

We’ve already developed resins that can be decomposed and recycled, and we’re starting to explore proof-of-concept applications. The idea is to begin with parts of a car that are less critical for safety or structure, and expand from there. It’s early stages, but the progress is exciting.

Why is the Envision Racing Advisory Board important in driving the climate agenda forward?

Like racing, innovation depends on speed, knowing what truly works and be decisive. What motivates me is listening to the other board members. We all come from different backgrounds, but share a common mission. That creates anchor points for collaboration, and that’s where the real value comes in.

Often you leave a conference or event feeling inspired, but then daily reality takes over. The Advisory Board helps sustain that momentum. I think there’s even more potential to build connections between members, to explore collaborations between meetings, and to use our networks to extend the impact.

Personally, I’ve had fascinating discussions with members about the role of AI – which is where my own career started – and how it connects to industries like fashion and textiles. Given Teijin’s expertise in materials and textiles, that’s a very close connection. Similarly, in the circular economy space, I see huge potential for cross-industry learning.

In short, the Advisory Board isn’t just about talking – it’s about creating the conditions for practical, cross-sector action. And that’s what excites me most.

Earlier this year, Envision Racing launched its Race Against Climate Change Advisory Board with one clear aim: unite pioneering minds from across industries to accelerate impactful climate action. Among them is a scientist whose career path took him from the depths of space to the urgent realities of our planet’s changing climate.

In this interview, we meet Professor Ed Hawkins, Climate Scientist at the University of Reading. We’ve worked with Ed for several years, proudly featuring his now-iconic Climate Stripes on our cars and in our garage. For Ed, the stripes are more than just an image – they’re a powerful visual reminder of the reality of climate change and its consequences, already being felt across the globe.

From astrophysics to climate change

Ed began his academic life studying the cosmos, completing a PhD in astrophysics. But as his career progressed, he felt drawn to work that felt more relevant to people’s daily lives.

“I went sideways into climate topics because they seemed more pressing,” he explains. “It was a different time – climate denial was getting stronger, and many of us felt compelled to stick our heads above the parapet.”

Now, with over 20 years in the field, Ed brings both deep expertise and the perspective of someone who entered climate science with fresh eyes. His work is driven by the conviction that science must be communicated clearly, directly, and accessibly – not just to academics, but to the public, policymakers, and communities.

The power of the Climate Stripes

First created in 2018, Ed’s Climate Stripes have become one of the most recognisable symbols in climate communication. Depicting global temperature changes year by year, they have been projected onto landmarks, worn by rock bands, and even presented to the Pope.

“The stripes do such a good job of showing what we’ve already done to our planet,” Ed says. “They help make climate change feel like something happening now, not in some distant future.”

The data behind the image tells a sobering story – one that is already being felt in extreme weather events, from record-breaking heatwaves to increasingly intense rainfall. “We’re already living with the consequences,” he warns.

Turning questions into research

Much of Ed’s work begins with conversations. Interviews and public discussions often leave him wishing he could answer questions with greater clarity, or express certainty in ways that are both scientifically robust and widely understandable.

Sometimes, those conversations inspired research projects – for example, analysing how a particular flood or heatwave compares to similar events a century ago. “We can ask: if we had the same weather patterns 100 years ago, how different would the impacts be? It’s a valuable way of framing the discussion, and it’s all backed by solid science.”

Shifting the narrative on misinformation

A decade ago, climate misinformation was a dominant force in public discourse. In recent years, climate science is much more widely accepted – but we’re at risk of going backwards.

“Ten to fifteen years ago, sceptics and deniers were getting a lot of airtime,” Ed recalls. “That’s dropped off in recent years, and there’s now broader acceptance in major media that we don’t have to give equal weight to unfounded claims.”

But he cautions that political headwinds can still threaten climate progress. In the UK, for example, recent anti–net zero rhetoric marks a step backwards. “It hasn’t been like this for a decade,” Ed says, “and it will make this work even more important.”

Going to greater depths

Ed’s latest research continues to build on the stripes concept, expanding from global averages to regional and even city-specific versions. But his focus is not just on surface temperatures – he’s exploring changes deep in the ocean and high in the atmosphere.

“We can see strong warming trends in the oceans since the 1960s – this is why sea levels are rising, coral reefs are bleaching, and marine species are shifting. Higher in the atmosphere, the lower layers are warming, but the upper layers are cooling. That cooling is a fingerprint of our greenhouse gas emissions, predicted decades ago and now observed by satellites. It’s exactly what the science told us would happen – hot air is being trapped under the stratosphere.”

Collaboration across industries

For Ed, joining our Advisory Board is an opportunity to exchange ideas with leaders in fields far beyond academia.

“It’s fascinating to hear the perspectives of organisations in different industries – and to understand the struggles they face in solving these problems. You can do so much internally, but often you don’t have control over everything in your supply chain or operations.”

Beyond net zero

Ed is clear-eyed about the challenges ahead. “It’s looking increasingly likely that we’ll overshoot global targets – we’ll go over 1.5°C without a doubt. Once we do, the question becomes: can we reverse it? Can we go beyond stabilising and actually bring temperatures back down?”

That’s where net negative comes in – removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit. “We can’t decarbonise completely. For instance, if we want to feed the world, agriculture will always have some unavoidable emissions. So we need to reduce as much as possible, and then ‘mop up’ the rest through carbon removal and storage.”

The technologies to do this exist in theory, but scaling them is the challenge.

“It’s early days, and some ideas are a bit crazy, but nothing has been demonstrated at the scale we need yet. The companies that invest now will be ahead of the game – just like with renewables. The more we invest, the more ideas will emerge.”

At Envision Racing, insights like Ed’s are exactly why we brought together our Race Against Climate Change Advisory Board. His scientific expertise, ability to communicate complex ideas simply, and willingness to tackle the big, uncomfortable questions help guide our own sustainability journey – both on and off the track.

By connecting leaders from science, industry, and sport, we can share knowledge, spark innovation, and push faster towards a net zero – and eventually net negative – future.

Envision Racing recently officially launched its Race Against Climate Change Advisory Board – a collective of experts from across science, technology, academia, and industry, brought together to accelerate the transition to a net-zero future. The board was created to unite leading voices from different sectors who are already pushing boundaries within their own fields and who, together, can help shape meaningful, cross-industry action on climate.

One of those voices is Dr Axel Leuchter who is leading on sustainability for Teijin in Europe. With a background in chemistry and a career dedicated to quality management and environmental impact, Axel brings a deeply technical and pragmatic perspective to the board, particularly around the challenges and opportunities of circularity in manufacturing and complex industries like chemicals.

In this interview, Axel shares his insights on the future of circular systems in the chemical industry, how Teijin is addressing sustainability at a global scale, and why collaboration across sectors and supply chains – like the one fostered by the Advisory Board – is essential for lasting climate impact.

Firstly, please introduce yourself and give us an overview of your background.

I’m Dr Axel Leuchter, based in Germany, and I manage Teijin’s sustainability strategy in Europe. Together with other passionate people, I cover everything that has to do with the circular economy of our business and reporting on our sustainability initiatives.

My team and I also advise the Teijin Centre of Excellence for Circular Economy at Brightlands Chemelot Campus in the Netherlands. Recently, Envision Racing hosted a very inspiring ‘Race Against Climate Change’ event at the campus, where Ton de Weijer and Smitha Sundaram of the Teijin team were able to present and discuss our ideas.

Before this role, I worked in the carbon fibre branch of Teijin, which works in aerospace and automotive industries, looking at how we can best tackle issues around the quality, environment and safety of our operations.

The environment and sustainability have been central themes throughout my career; I studied chemistry and environmental studies and have worked in quality management for over 15 years.

To me, sustainability is the most important topic of the present and the future – so I’m proud and passionate to work for a company that is focused on pioneering sustainable solutions in a complex and carbon-intensive industry and that has the long-term vision to be a company that supports the society of the future.

What are some of the most pressing issues in sustainability you’re working on at Teijin?

We’re a chemical company so we’ve worked with fossil sources for decades. Because of that fact, we have historically worked in a very linear way and it has been hard to break that pattern of thinking. But now, circularity is a huge focus for the entire company globally.

The reality is that if you want to maintain your position in the industry, you have to close the loop and think about your products in a circular way. That is really difficult in the chemicals industry, it’s a very complex process, but it is essential if you’re to survive in a net zero economy.

There are two big challenges we face: first is considering the sources needed for producing your chemicals – are they bio-based materials or recycled and is there enough of that material available – and the second is recyclability of the product with the end consumer.

In between these two challenges is usually a lengthy, complex supply chain with multiple moving parts and various stakeholders. So not only do you have to think from cradle to grave (and back again), but you have to do this through engaging partners, getting fully transparency and traceability and communicating and cooperating with the full supply chain.

You mention collaboration. Why is the Envision Racing Advisory Board important in driving the climate agenda forward?

Envision Racing is so unique in its advocacy for sustainability and circularity. The team is trying to be net zero and reduce its own emissions as much as possible, but there’s limits to this as a small team.

I think through creating an Advisory Board, hosting events at race locations across the world, bringing together corporations and governments while using the platform of Formula E to be as loud as possible on climate-related issues, the team is making an impact far beyond its limitations.

The Advisory Board combined people from science, education, manufacturing, AI and fashion – arguably, the industries and the institutions that are going to make the biggest impact in the race against climate change – to learn from one another and to discuss a way forward.

It is, of course, important for companies to focus on becoming net zero and introduce circularity within their supply chains, but Envision Racing is in a unique position where it can connect people, connect with local projects in race locations and enable large entities to make a significant shift. That’s really important and an important role of the Advisory Board.