MOSCOW (MRC) -- The winners of Chemical Week’s inaugural Sustainability Awards, a virtual event that honors the chemical industry’s best sustainability efforts, have just been announced. The judging panel - comprising 13 judges with a variety of experience from companies across the chemical industry value chain, including Chemical Week editors, and IHS Markit experts - selected the winners from 75 submissions by nearly 40 companies, reported Chemweek.
“As the industry faces critical times, supplying products fighting Covid-19 - from advanced materials to healthcare ingredients, Chemical Week’s team thought it imperative to recognize the important work companies are doing building towards a more sustainable future,” said Lyn Tattum, IHS Markit vice president and publisher of Chemical Week. “Each category received compelling applications, with the Best Sustainable Product category generating particular interest.”
“Going through the entries, judges came across exceptional examples of how companies are incorporating sustainability into operations, product development, and strategic planning, underscoring the importance of the topic for the industry’s future,” she said.
Braskem SA, Dow Europe GmbH, and Royal DSM are the winners in the three categories at the Sustainability Awards 2020:
- Best Sustainable Product - recognizing sustainable products that have the most meaningful impact on environmental or sustainability performance;
Winner: Dow Europe GmbH for its RENUVA Mattress Recycling Program, which seeks to reduce waste by giving polyurethane (PU) foam from end-of-life mattresses a new life and enabling a circular economy for polyurethanes.
- Best Sustainable Initiative - for chemical makers publishing a sustainability or ESG report, recognizing the overall quality of sustainability-related metrics, overall impact of sustainability and environmental factors, social and governance metrics, transparency, and disclosure.
Winner: Braskem for its biobased sugarcane polymer production, which captures carbon dioxide (CO2) and contributes to reducing CO2 emissions. Braskem is the largest producer of biopolymers worldwide.
- Best Sustainable Program – recognizing sustainability initiatives that have the most meaningful impact on sustainability or ESG performance
Winner: Royal DSM for weaving sustainability and circularity into its corporate DNA via its product portfolio and corporate strategy. DSM Resins & Functional Materials (DSM R&FM) has replaced ‘Chemicals of Concern’ in its production while developing new sustainable technologies such as water-based, powder-, plant-based, and UV technologies. DSM R&FM also divested its solvent business to underline its commitment.
The Sustainability Awards 2020 forms part of Chemical Week’s Chemical Industry Financial Outlook & Sustainability Forum, an online event looking at the financial, operating, and strategic challenges the industry will face in the year ahead, focusing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.
As MRC reported previously, Brazilian petrochemical producer Braskem's 450,000 mt/year PP plant in LaPorte, Texas, along the Houston Ship Channel completed its initial commercial production, as per the company's statement as of Sept. 10. "The launch of commercial production at our new world-class PP production line in La Porte clearly affirms Braskem's position as the North American polypropylene market leader," Braskem America CEO Mark Nikolich said in a statement. With a USD750 million investment, the new PP plant's construction started in October 2017 and was completed in June, 2020.
We remind that production at Braskem's new PP plant in the US was at 36,000 tonnes in October, close to the monthly production capacity of the plant of around 38,000 tonnes.
Braskem operates five other US PP plants in Texas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with a cumulative capacity of 1.57 million mt/year that the company acquired. The new plant in La Porte, Texas, is Braskem America's first PP new build.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
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