The chief executive officer of Scotbar Proprietary Limited (Scotbar) in Queensland, Australia, decided to develop a process to convert sandstone to sand, a technique that large multinational mining companies failed to perfect. The stakes could not have been higher, with global environmental disaster looming and the world quickly depleting its reserves of construction sand, severely affecting coastal communities and destroying marine ecosystems in the process. After spending years and millions of dollars on research, Scotbar appeared to have developed a process to produce construction sand, although more expensive than natural sand. Scotbar decided not to patent its process in hopes that more companies would adopt it and thereby reduce the harmful impact of mining on the environment. Was Scotbar's approach to sustainability through innovation an effective response to the environmental legacy of more traditional mining processes? Was the company's approach to intellectual property appropriate in this context?

The chief executive officer of Scotbar Proprietary Limited (Scotbar) in Queensland, Australia, decided to develop a process to convert sandstone to sand, a technique that large multinational mining companies failed to perfect. The stakes could not have been higher, with global environmental disaster looming and the world quickly depleting its reserves of construction sand, severely affecting coastal communities and destroying marine ecosystems in the process. After spending years and millions of dollars on research, Scotbar appeared to have developed a process to produce construction sand, although more expensive than natural sand. Scotbar decided not to patent its process in hopes that more companies would adopt it and thereby reduce the harmful impact of mining on the environment. Was Scotbar’s approach to sustainability through innovation an effective response to the environmental legacy of more traditional mining processes? Was the company’s approach to intellectual property appropriate in this context?