How PPG Enables Sustainability-Driven Innovation Through Corporate Entrepreneurship

In 2023, PPG, a global leader in coatings and specialty products, launched its Enterprise Growth Strategy, which included a vision to be the first-choice partner to meet customers’ evolving needs for innovative paints, coatings, and surface solutions. Technology leadership has always been a key enabler for the company. After reviewing fourteen of PPG’s most commercially impactful coatings innovations from the past five decades, we found that many addressed challenges related to customer sustainability, in addition to productivity and/or product performance. To gain a better understanding of PPG’s historical key enablers of sustainability-driven innovation and their application at the project level, we conducted a detailed analysis of three of these innovations. This study revealed the critical role technical teams played in the success of the projects, along with three common themes. We also identified commonalities when comparing the insights from these projects to best practices in executing transformational and noncore innovations. As many companies are now establishing sustainability goals in response to customer demand, these insights should help project-level practitioners achieve success.