On 14 September 2017, some 30 innovators, entrepreneurs and experts from around the world participated in the workshop “Advancing Entrepreneurship and Start-up Initiatives for Sustainable Chemistry: Learning from Case Studies”. The workshop was organized by UN Environment and the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Center (ISC3), hosted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the German Chemical Society, the Freie Universität Berlin and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). Additional financial support was provided by the Government of Germany. The workshop took place in Berlin, Germany, back to back with other events taking place on 12-13 September 2017 in the context of the 150th Anniversary of the German Chemical Society, including an ‘Innovation Marathon’. The overall aim of the workshop was to advance at the international level in scaling up innovation for sustainable chemistry and to identify opportunities for action in this area.