Manufacturers typically evaluate seven critical areas when it comes to operational decision making: transportation and energy costs; market demand for their products; rising labor costs in China and other developing nations; access to talent, tax and regulatory policies; availability of capital; and currency trends.

Fundamental shifts in supply-chain management have significantly altered the planning paradigm. JP Swanson, global supply chain analyst with Dow AgroSciences, talks about how his company has adapted to the change, and improved planning across multiple levels of its supply network.

Toyota has rocked the auto industry by announcing that it is opening to the public 5,680 of its patents related to fuel cell technology for royalty-free use.

President Barack Obama's administration will spend 2015 taking on energy controversies from fracking to smog, from interstate air pollution to coal-burning power plants - and in December, his negotiators will head to Paris to try to reach a global agreement on climate change. In between all that, he just might make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Cost remains the top driver of sustainability management initiatives, followed by regulations and investor/stakeholder pressure, according to Ecova's second annual survey, 2015 Energy and Sustainability Predictions: Findings from Leading Professionals.

Europe's chemical producers will have to fight hard for growth in 2015 in an uncertain global economic environment.

Despite facing global headwinds, American chemistry expanded at a healthy 2.0 percent growth rate in 2014, and is expected to reach a 3.7 percent gain in output in 2015, before hitting 3.9 percent in 2016, according to the Year End 2014 Chemical Industry Situation and Outlook, published by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). The report's consensus is that U.S. chemical output will continue to expand well into the second half of the decade, exceeding that of the overall U.S. economy.