Globalisation trends in the world economy have led to both a growth an a migration of production and consumption. This brings the environment in which we live and from we profit into focus, and has given rise to the concept of sustainable development. The chemical industry, as a key industry, can assist in realizing this concept by introducing innovative production processes such as process design and material recycle loops. This is covered by the expression "production-integrated environmental protection" (PIEP), sometimes known as "cleaner production" which has the aims of avoiding and reducing residue and using resources carefully. This approach is directly opposed to end-of-pipe environmental protection. The two approaches are compared in this paper. Material productivity is closely linked with PIEP, and can be described by material flow parameters which are given. Finally the results of improvement due to PIEP are presented.