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- Herausgeber: Wiley-VCH
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Approaching sustainability from the perspectives of engineering and multiple scientific disciplines, this book incorporates the concepts of intergenerational equity and ecological capabilities, while promoting scientific rigor for the analysis of sustainability and the use of appropriate metrics to determine the comparative merits of alternatives.
The chapters are organized around the key non-technological themes of sustainable industrial chemistry and provide an overview of the managerial principles to enhance sustainability in the chemicals sector. The book strives to provide an intellectual forum and stimulus for defining the roles chemical engineers can play in achieving sustainable development.
Suitable for industry and graduate education, this is the one-stop guide to greener, cleaner, economically viable and more efficient chemical industries.
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Seitenzahl: 466
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Table of Contents
Related Titles
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
List of Contributors
Part I: Introductory Section
1: Editorial Introduction
1.1 From Industrial to Sustainable Chemistry, a Policy Perspective
1.2 Managing Intraorganizational Sustainability
1.3 Managing Horizontal Interorganizational Sustainability
1.4 Managing Vertical Interorganizational Sustainability
1.5 Sustainable Chemistry in a Societal Context
2: History and Drivers of Sustainability in the Chemical Industry
2.1 The Rise of Public Pressure
2.2 Industry Responded
2.3 An Evolving Framework
2.4 Conclusions: the Sustainability Drivers
References
3: From Industrial to Sustainable Chemistry, a Policy Perspective
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
3.3 From IED to Voluntary Systems
3.4 Sustainability Challenges for Industry
3.5 Conclusion
References
4: Sustainable Industrial Chemistry from a Nontechnological Viewpoint
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Intraorganizational Management for Enhancing Sustainability
4.3 Horizontal Interorganizational Management for Enhancing Sustainability
4.4 Vertical Interorganizational Management for Enhancing Sustainability
4.5 Sustainable Chemistry in a Societal Context
4.6 Conclusions
References
Part II: Managing Intra-Organizational Sustainability
5: Building Corporate Social Responsibility – Developing a Sustainability Management System Framework
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Development of a CSR Management System Framework
5.3 Conclusions
References
6: Sustainability Assessment Methods and Tools
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Sustainability Assessment Framework
6.3 Impact Indicators and Assessment Methodologies
6.4 Conclusions
References
7: Integrated Business and SHESE Management Systems
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Requirements for Integrating Management Systems
7.3 Integrating Management Systems: Obstacles and Advantages
7.4 Integrated Risk Management Models
7.5 Characteristics and Added Value of an Integrated Model; Integrated Management in Practice
7.6 Conclusions
References
8: Supporting Process Design by a Sustainability KPIs Methodology
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Quantitative Assessment of Sustainability KPIs in Process Design Activities
8.3 Identification of Relevant KPIs: the “Tree of Impacts”
8.4 Criteria for Normalization and Aggregation of the KPIs
8.5 Customization and Sensitivity Analysis in Early KPI Assessment
References
Part III: Managing Horizontal Interorganizational Sustainability
9: Industrial Symbiosis and the Chemical Industry: between Exploration and Exploitation
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Understanding Industrial Symbiosis
9.3 Resourcefulness
9.4 Putting Resourcefulness to the Test
9.5 Conclusions
References
10: Cluster Management for Improving Safety and Security in Chemical Industrial Areas
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Cluster Management
10.3 Cross-Organizational Learning on Safety and Security
10.4 Discussion
10.5 Conclusions
References
Part IV: Managing Vertical Inter-Organizational Sustainability
11: Sustainable Chemical Logistics
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Sustainability of Logistics and Transportation
11.3 Improving Sustainability of Logistics in the Chemical Sector
11.4 Conclusions
References
12: Implementing Service-Based Chemical Supply Relationship – Chemical Leasing® – Potential in EU
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Basic Principles of Chemical Leasing (ChL)
12.3 Differences between Chemical Leasing and Other Alternative Business Models for Chemicals
12.4 Practical Implications of Chemical Leasing
12.5 Economic, Technical, and Juridical Aspects of Chemical Leasing
12.6 Conclusions and Recommendations
References
13: Sustainable Chemical Warehousing
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Risk Management in the Chemical Warehouse
13.3 Conclusions
References
Part V: Sustainable Chemistry in a Societal Context
14:A Transition Perspective on Sustainable Chemistry: the Need for Smart Governance?
14.1 Introduction
14.2 A Transitions Perspective on Chemical Industry
14.3 A Tale of Two Pathways
14.4 Critical Issues in the Transition Management to Sustainable Chemistry
14.5 Governance Strategies for a Transition to a Sustainable Chemistry
14.6 Conclusions and Reflections
References
15: The Flemish Chemical Industry Transition toward Sustainability: the “FISCH” Experience
14.1 Introduction
14.5 Transition of the Chemical Industry in Flanders: the “FISCH” Initiative
15.3 Concluding Remarks and Lessons Learned
Acknowledgments
References
16: The Transition to a Bio-Based Chemical Industry: Transition Management from a Geographical Point of View
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Composition of the Chemical Clusters in Antwerp, Ghent, Rotterdam, and Terneuzen
16.3 Regional Innovation Projects to Strengthen the Transition to a Bio-Based Chemical Industry
16.4 Conclusions
16.A Appendix
References
Part VI: Conclusions and Recommendations
17:Conclusions and Recommendations
Index
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The Editors
Prof. Genserik L.L. Reniers
Universiteit Antwerpen
City Campus, Office B-434
Prinsstraat 13
2000 Antwerpen
Belgien
Prof. Kenneth Sörensen
University of Antwerp
Operation Res. Group ANT/OR
Prinsstraat 13
2000 Antwerpen
Belgien
Prof. Karl Vrancken
University of Antwerp
Dept. Bio-Engineering
Boeretang 200
2400 Mol
Belgien
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Preface
Chemical products make an irreplaceable contribution in every aspect of our modern day lives. Chemical processes and products play an essential role in industrial sectors as diverse as agriculture, automotive, clothing, communication, construction, food, health, leisure, mobility, plastics, space, transport, and so on. We can easily observe that our advanced society depends on the wealth-creating aspects of industrial chemistry.
Nonetheless, societal expectations and the depletion of natural resources are pushing toward chemical processes becoming cleaner, more efficient, less consuming, safer, and more secured. The ecological footprint of chemical products needs to be decreased.
Sustainable chemistry being concerned with the development of sustainable chemical products and processes and thereby integrating economic, environmental, and social performance, can provide an answer to these major challenges.
To achieve sustainable industrial chemical processes and products, companies, research centers, and academia tend to focus mainly on technological solutions such as cleantech, green technology, process intensification, new catalysts, new membranes, ecofining, and so on. However, nontechnological approaches are essential as well to succeed in adequate sustainable chemistry. Integrated management systems, cluster management, business models, measuring criteria and methods, sustainable supply chain management, chemical leasing, transition management, societal expectations, and so on are all important nontechnological aspects of sustainable chemistry. To date, most of the know-how and expertise on nontechnological issues is developed on individual company or academia basis and in a fragmented way. An overview of management principles, theories, concepts, and so on from a nontechnological holistic (People, Planet, and Profit) perspective has, to the best of the Editors' knowledge, not yet been discussed in one book volume.
The objective of writing a book from a managerial viewpoint consists in leveraging the search for truly sustainable chemical products and processes, and to disseminate the available knowledge to captains of industry and to leaders of the public sector, as well as to company management (within all organizational levels and from all different departments, and disciplines). It is crucial for the vision of sustainable chemistry to be realized that not only novel technology is conceptualized and developed but also that innovative management models, intraorganization models, and interorganization models are elaborated, promoted, and implemented within the chemicals using industries.
We are convinced that a clear interdisciplinary approach within technological areas, supported by cross-cutting managerial actions, is required for truly successful tackling of these new chemistry challenges and paradigms.
Antwerp
Genserik L.L. Reniers, Kenneth Sörensen, and Karl Vrancken
May 10, 2012
List of Contributors
Part I
Introductory Section
1
Editorial Introduction
Genserik L.L. Reniers, Kenneth Sörensen, and Karl Vrancken
There has been an ever-growing worldwide interest in sustainability in all industrial sectors since the Rio declaration two decades ago (UN, 1992). Especially in industries using chemicals, topics related to sustainability are gaining importance by the year. Sustainability should be seen as an ideal. It is an objective of perfection that will never be completely achieved. It is a target of continuous improvement. It should be a business imperative. The interconnectedness of organizational actions and decisions should have an impact on the social, ecological, and economic sustainability of the community in which it operates. To achieve this ideal, and all its accompanying aims, technological as well as a nontechnological innovations and operations should be strived for and implemented. This book specifically deals with the nontechnological path that should be taken within the chemical industry to achieve sustainability in business needs.
However, these are rather vague concepts. All this wisdom about sustainability, the awareness, and information, does not suggest concrete actions and tactics needed to change an organization for the better. This book describes how to significantly enhance the sustainability of chemical plants from the management's perspective.
By taking into consideration the needs for nontechnological advancements toward sustainability, the present book, whose structure is illustrated in Figure 1.1, aims at covering all aspects and all principles leading to truly sustainable industrial chemistry from a managerial perspective. The first introductory section provides a description of the history and importance of sustainability in the chemical industry and of the evolution in managerial themes and models leading to a steady transition toward sustainability. The second section discusses the management system requirements and the needs to build corporate social responsibility within one plant, and provides tools and methods to measure sustainability within a chemical company or a part thereof. The third section investigates the managerial needs to improve cross-plant management and collaboration at the same level of the supply chain, for moving toward ever more sustainable chemical products and processes. The fourth section provides insights into some innovative managerial approaches with respect to collaboration and cooperation between organizations not situated on the same level of the supply chain, leading toward so-called vertical interorganizational sustainability. The fifth section presents and elaborates on the societal context of sustainable chemistry.
Figure 1.1 Structure of the book.
The following paragraphs offer an outlook of the 13 contributions that constitute the various sections of the book. In order to provide an introduction to the various chapters, a description of the main themes that are dealt with in each one is given.
1.1 From Industrial to Sustainable Chemistry, a Policy Perspective
This first, introductory, section contains three contributions. The first one, History and Drivers of Sustainability in the Chemical Industry, provides a brief description of the chemical industry's path toward sustainability. The incentives and drivers for a step-by-step advancement, from the Responsible Care® program to the various corporate sustainability initiatives, are listed out and expounded.
The second contribution of this section, From Industrial to Sustainable Chemistry, a Policy Perspective, clarifies the policy developments that could be observed over the past decades in relation to chemistry on an industrial scale. The contribution clearly demonstrates that there has been a shift in focus over the last two decades from strict rule-driven regulations and authorities toward performance-based and stakeholder-based governance. This shift has initiated and empowered a shift of industry – such as the chemical industry – toward new managerial and governance approaches.
The third contribution of this introductory section, Sustainable Industrial Chemistry from a Nontechnological Viewpoint, briefly discusses what is understood in this book by “sustainable chemistry” and what constitutes a “nontechnological viewpoint.” The foundations are laid for the further chapters by elaborating on the different managerial topics for achieving sustainable chemistry in a simple, nontechnological manner.
1.2 Managing Intraorganizational Sustainability
The second section of the book is composed of four chapters. The first one, Building Corporate Social Responsibility – Developing a Sustainability Management System Framework, deals with the creation of a conceptual sustainability management system, mainly on the basis of the umbrella guideline ISO 26000. The proposed coherent and systematic framework contains five inherent and consecutive features of sustainability. The current overload of standards makes organizations uncertain how to translate the idea of sustainability optimally into a management system, and this section provides an answer to this organizational need.
The second chapter of this section, Sustainability Assessment Methods and Tools, discusses a sustainability assessment framework and impact indicators and assessment approaches from both a uni- and a multidimensional perspectives. The chapter argues that harmonization and standardization of knowledge in three dimensions (environment, economic, and social) should be pursued for the chemical industry.
The third contribution of this section, Integrated Business- and SHESE Management Systems, takes a closer look at the added value of integrated management systems and the required steps to successfully implement an integrated management system approach. The chapter provides arguments for treating sustainability as a holistic, organization-wide objective, to be achieved by an integrative generic framework that leaves space for specificities wherever and whenever needed.
The last contribution is concerned with the identification of relevant impact categories and suitable KPIs for sustainability performance. How the KPIs should be interpreted and aggregated is explained, amongst others. The method elaborated in this contribution helps decision makers in the design for sustainability within chemical process plants.
1.3 Managing Horizontal Interorganizational Sustainability
The third section of the book is contains two chapters. The first chapter, Industrial Symbiosis and the Chemical Industry: between Exploration and Exploitation, explains industrial symbiosis and compares different chemical clusters from the Netherlands in this regard. The advantages and hurdles of realizing cross-plant collaboration initiatives to advance environmental symbiotic linkages are discussed.
The second contribution in this section, Cluster Management for Improving Safety and Security in Chemical Industrial Areas, proposes a framework and an approach for chemical plants situated within the same chemical cluster, to transfer knowledge, know-how, and best practices, and a more intensive collaboration on safety and security topics.
1.4 Managing Vertical Interorganizational Sustainability
The fourth part of this book has three contributions. The first contribution, Sustainable Chemical Logistics, investigates the status of sustainability in chemical logistics, and argues that organizational aspects have an important role to play in this area. Furthermore, different ways to improve sustainability of chemical logistics are discussed: optimization in logistics, coordinated supply chain management, horizontal collaboration, and intermodal transportation.
The second contribution, Implementing Service-Based Chemical Supply Relationship – Chemical leasing® – Potential in EU?, explains “chemical leasing” as a new business model that aligns economic incentives in the chemical supplier–user relationship toward reduced material use on the one hand and waste prevention on the other. The contribution clarifies this novel business concept and shows its innovative nature and possible role in “servicizing” the chemical supply chain. Furthermore, the synergy that exists between chemical leasing and several relevant legal frameworks, such as REACH, is addressed.
The third contribution deals with the needs as regards sustainable warehousing. It is evident that adequate risk management policies and -procedures and risk treatment strategies need to be in place in warehouses. The different factors important in this regard, are given and clarified. The chapter further discusses sustainable inventory management and vendor management inventory, and their importance.
1.5 Sustainable Chemistry in a Societal Context
The fifth section of the book is based on three contributions. The first one, A Transition Perspective on Sustainable Chemistry: the Need for Smart Governance, offers an exploratory transition perspective on challenges and changes going hand in hand with sustainable chemistry. The author argues and explains that a transition toward sustainable industrial chemistry is not so much a technological challenge as it is an institutional, economic, and political challenge.
The second chapter, The Flemish Chemical Industry Transition toward Sustainability: the “FISCH” Experience, discusses the peculiarities and the obstacles and hurdles of developing an initiative in the Flanders' region in Belgium, to advance the chemicals-using industries toward becoming a sustainability-driven and an innovation-driven industrial sector. Factors to be taken into account when developing a similar initiative are given.
The third contribution, The Transition to a Bio-based Chemical Industry: Transition Management from a Geographical Point of View, analyzes the regional characteristics and their influence on bio-based innovation. The chapter discusses the hard and soft influential factors in this regard, and four cases are examined: the port regions of Antwerp, Ghent, Rotterdam, and Terneuzen.
2
History and Drivers of Sustainability in the Chemical Industry
Dicksen Tanzil and Darlene Schuster
This section provides a historical look on the emergence of sustainability issues and awareness in the chemical industry and how the industry has responded to them, especially over the last 50 years. It describes industry's initial reactive response to the rising public and regulatory pressures, and how this has morphed into the more proactive stance taken by leaders in the chemical industry today in managing environmental, social, and economic issues. The history also illustrates how addressing sustainability issues helps business to better manage risks and capture opportunities for new markets and innovations.
2.1 The Rise of Public Pressure
At the birth of the modern chemical industry some 200 years ago with the beginning of mass production of chemicals such as acids and bleaching powder, what we now consider as “sustainability issues” were hardly on anyone's mind. Natural resources were thought to be plentiful, the environment was for industries to exploit, and workers' and community safety was little more than an afterthought. This mind-set had stayed for most of those 200 years. While one can point to measures taken by some early chemical manufacturers that benefited the environment or safety, such as reducing products released to rivers or in the workplace, those examples are few and far between.
Through its history, the chemical industry has certainly made important contributions to society. Fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals increase crop production, synthetic polymers make various new industrial products possible, and mass production of medicines saves lives – just to name a few. Nevertheless, the advancement of the chemical industry was accompanied with growing environmental concerns. Early examples include documented cases of water pollution from chemical plants in the early twentieth century, which led to the 1935 listing of the chemical industry as among the most polluting industries in the United States by the country's National Resources Committee (Geiser, 2005). Yet, the state and federal governments in the United States remained slow in enacting environmental or public health policies in spite of the growing concerns.
2.1.1 The Environmental Movement
Many would point to the 1960s as the turnaround, with the chemical industry becoming a primary target of a growing environmental movement (Hoffman, 1999). Many attributed the rise of the public pressure on the chemical industry to the publication of the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962) and the controversy that followed (e.g., Gottlieb, 1993). Silent Spring meticulously presented the adverse environmental effects from the indiscriminate use of the chemical pesticide DDT and became an immediate best seller in the United States. Beyond questioning the safety of synthetic pesticides, the book brought up concerns on the widespread use of synthetic chemicals without fully understanding their potential impacts to the environment and human health. The discovery of 5 million dead fish in the lower Mississippi River later that year, which was attributed to the insecticide endrin, further exacerbated the public concern. Pesticide manufacturers and others in the chemical industry reacted strongly and negatively to the book and the public concern (Natural Resources Defense Council, 1997). The reaction, however, appeared to have largely backfired and further elevated the issues to a high-profile national discourse on the potential environmental and public safety impacts of synthetic chemicals.
The rising public pressure associated with the environmental movement of the 1960s resulted in the many new environmental bills brought to the floor of the US Congress. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was passed by the US Congress in 1969, and signed by President Nixon on 1 January, 1970. The United States Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) was formed shortly after. It was followed by the proliferation of environmental regulations passed by the US Congress. The Clean Air Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Consumer Product Safety Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act were all passed between 1970 and 1976, often with strong bipartisan support in the US Congress.
Many European countries and Japan enacted similar regulations during the same period (Desai, 2002). These regulations affected the chemical industry as well as many other industries. Among these regulations, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the similar 1979 Sixth Amendment to the Dangerous Substances Directive of the European Community were particularly directed to the chemical industry. These regulations address the intrinsic hazards of chemical products and provide government agencies with the authority to demand health and safety data on chemical products and restrict the use of chemical substances so as to reduce “unreasonable risks” to the public and the environment (Geiser, 2005).
2.1.2 A Problem of Public Trust
A series of industrial incidents and controversies in the late 1970s and early 1980s further elevated the public awareness on the environmental and public safety risks posed by industries in general. These include the Amoco Cadiz oil spill off the coast of Brittany, France, in 1978 and the Three Mile Island nuclear incident in Pennsylvania, United States, in 1979. Three incidents and controversies involving chemical products and processes particularly stood out in their impact on the public perception of the chemical industry: a train derailment in Canada, the Bhopal chemical disaster in India, and the Love Canal controversy in the United States.
The train derailment incident occurred in December 1979 in Mississauga, a major business and residential suburb of Toronto, Canada. While the chemical industry was not directly responsible, the transportation incident drew additional public attention on the environmental and societal impacts of chemical products and the industry that makes them. The train derailment resulted in the rupture of several tankers carrying chlorine, propane, styrene, toluene, and caustic soda and a fireball explosion that rose to a height of 1500 m visible 100 km away (City of Mississauga, undated). Because of concern of a possible spread of toxic chlorine gas cloud, 218 000 residents were evacuated, making it the largest peacetime evacuation in North America at the time.
The Union Carbide incident in Bhopal, India, ignited even greater global public controversy due to its massive impact. Just after midnight on 3 December, 1984, water contamination of a tank of methyl isocyanate (MIC) in Bhopal, India, initiated a series of events that led to a catastrophic toxic release, killing more than 3000 residents and injuring over 100 000. According to Indian Government estimates, the incident resulted in an immediate death toll of over 2500 people. More recent government estimates puts the long-term mortality at of 14 400 people and permanent disabilities to about 50 000 people due to exposure to the MIC toxic cloud (Lapierre and Moro, 2001). Other independent estimates put the figures higher. However, for sure, the Bhopal disaster constituted one of the worst industrial disasters of all time.
Along with these high-profile incidents, other controversies related to chronic chemical exposure also posed problems to the chemical industry. Most infamous among these is the Love Canal controversy toward the end of the 1970s. Residents of the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, were found to have unusually high rates of miscarriages and birth defects as well as toxin content in breast milk, which were attributable to the long-term exposure to hazardous chemicals released from a nearby decades-old chemical waste dump. The Love Canal controversy led to the passage of the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, or the “Superfund” Act) in the United States. Among others, the “Superfund” Act assigns liability for the release of hazardous chemicals from a waste site and provides a trust fund for the cleanup of contaminated areas when no responsible party can be identified.
This series of incidents and controversies resulted in the lack of public trust in the chemical industry especially in the United States and other developed economies. Lingering in the public mind were questions about the safety of chemical products and operations, and more importantly, on whether the chemical industry is providing the public with an accurate and complete picture on the risks associated with its products and operations. These concerns on transparency have stayed (SustainAbility, 2004) and are associated with the declining public opinion on the chemical industry in the United States and Europe from 1970 to the 1990s (Boswell, 2001; Milmo, 2001).
2.2 Industry Responded
As environmental regulatory framework developed in the 1970s, the chemical industry in the United States and in most other developed economies began to institute internal processes to assure compliance with the new environmental laws and regulations. In fact, a survey of chemical industry literature of that period indicated a high degree of confidence in the industry that all the regulatory requirements could be met through technological innovation (Hoffman, 1999).
However, following the chemical incidents of the late 1970s and early 1980s, many leaders in the industry realized that regulatory compliance and technology were not sufficient to address the increasing public pressure. Additional voluntary programs were necessary to re-earn public trust and protect the industry's societal license to operate. These include industry-wide and corporate efforts engaged by members of the industry and their partners, as described below.
2.2.1 The Responsible Care Program
Following the Mississauga train derailment incident, the chemical industry in Canada faced tremendous increase in public and regulatory pressure that threatened the survival of the industry. In the words of Jean Bélanger, president of the Canadian Chemical Producers' Association (CCPA), by the early 1980s the chemical industry “risked losing its public license to produce in Canada.” Bélanger and other chemical industry leaders in CCPA intuitively understood that the issue was that of credibility and public trust. This was later confirmed by a series of polls that showed the prevailing public perception that the chemical industry knew about the risks associated with its products, but did not care to share the information with the public (Bélanger, 2005).
By 1985, a simple one-page “Statement of Policy on Responsible Care” that was originally prepared by CCPA in 1979 had evolved into a full-fledged Responsible Care® program. The program was intended to gain the trust of the public in communities near chemical plants and throughout Canada. It was developed on three fundamental principles that were deemed necessary to earn the public trust (Bélanger, 2005):
Doing the right thing
– to do what is right and ethical even when it is not required by the regulations, including accurately presenting the risks of the industry's products and operations;
Caring about the products from cradle to grave
– recognizing that the industry's responsibilities do not stop at the plant gate, but extend to the products' use and disposal, including working with supply chain partners and consumers on the proper handling, use, and disposal of the products;
Being open and responsive to public concerns
– being transparent and accountable not only to the public but also among industry peers, as a problem with one member company or operation could damage the credibility of the chemical industry as a whole.
The Responsible Care program includes a set of codes, verification processes, visible performance measurement, and advisory panels. The community advisory panels (CAPs) were probably the most revolutionary element of the program at the time. The CAPs establish a dialogue channel between chemical companies and the communities surrounding their operations, and enable community members to express their concerns and work with the chemical companies to maximize the benefits to both the chemical companies and the communities (Hook, 1996).
Following the Bhopal incident of 1984, the value of the Responsible Care program became clear also to US chemical manufacturers. In 1988, the Chemical Manufacturers Association in the United States (now the American Chemistry Council) formally adopted the Responsible Care program and principles.
Today, the Responsible Care program and principles have been adopted and implemented in 60 countries and regions throughout the world. Not all chemical companies are part of these national/regional chemical trade groups that have adopted Responsible Care. Most small chemical producers and a few large ones are notably absent from this commitment. However, in terms of production volume, the companies committed to Responsible Care represent about 90% of global chemical production.
In 2003, the global chemical industry acting through the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) undertook a strategic reexamination of the Responsible Care program, which resulted in the new Responsible Care Global Charter document (ICCA, International Council of Chemical Associations, 2004). The Responsible Care Global Charter further extended the scope of the program to focus on new challenges to the chemical industry, including the growing public dialogue over sustainable development; public health issues related to the use of chemical products; and the need for greater industry transparency (Yosie, 2005).
The Responsible Care program provides an industry-wide platform for managing environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) issues that are implemented by individual chemical companies. However, many chemical companies have also applied additional processes internally to respond to various sustainability issues, including technology development and strategic processes discussed below.
2.2.2 Technology Development
As mentioned earlier, during the proliferation of environmental regulations in the 1970s, chemical companies had emphasized technological solutions to EH&S issues. At the time, the emphasis was undoubtedly on “end-of-pipe” solutions, that is, control technologies to treat waste and pollutants after they are generated in order to comply with the regulatory requirements. However, even in these early years, some in the chemical industry had started to think beyond end-of-pipe control technologies to pollution prevention.
Pollution prevention is a technological approach focused on preventing pollution at the source (as opposed to end of pipe), by modifying the design of the product or processes. A pioneer in this area is 3M Corporation, which launched an aptly named “Pollution Prevention Pays” (or 3P) program in 1975. The program aims to remove pollutants at the source through product reformulation, process modification, equipment redesign, and recycling and reuse of waste materials. In addition, as the program's name implies, pollution prevention certainly pays. By 2010, the program has saved the company more than US$1.2 billion, while only accounting for savings in the first year of each pollution prevention measure; that is, the actual savings through time from the reductions in raw material requirements, energy consumption, and pollution control expenses are likely much higher.
These early pollution prevention efforts led to the industry's long-term focus on eco-efficiency, that is, generation of more economic value while reducing natural resource consumption and environmental impacts. Until the early 2000s, efforts to develop sustainability metrics in the chemical industry remained focused on defining measures of eco-efficiency (Schwarz et al., 2002; Institution of Chemical Engineers, IChemE, 2002; Saling et al., 2002; Tanzil and Beloff, 2006). In general, these metrics measure environmental burden (e.g., energy use in primary fuel equivalents, global warming potential, and toxicity potential) associated with each unit produced or economic value generated by a chemical operation. The goal was to reduce these metrics through the adoption of eco-efficient technologies or through better housekeeping (e.g., preventing leaks). These and similar eco-efficiency metrics have been widely used both in technology development and for corporate management.
In the mean time, various other sustainable design and technological development concepts have also emerged. They include, most notably,
life-cycle assessment (
LCA
) and life-cycle design, which extend the eco-efficiency concept beyond the gates of the chemical plant to incorporate impacts from other stages of the product or material life cycle, including resource extraction, transportation, product use, and disposal (Keoleian and Menerey, 1993; Saling
et al
., 2002);
green chemistry, which focuses on the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances as well as other environmental impacts and hazards (Anastas and Warner, 1998);
green engineering, which focuses on the design of chemical processes that maximize economic objective while minimizing pollution and risk to human health and the environment (Allen and Shonnard, 2002; Nguyen and Abraham, 2003);
industrial ecology, which seeks to optimize use of material and energy resources by studying the interactions between industrial entities, for example, identifying waste streams that can be used as raw material or energy source by other industrial plants (Graedel and Allenby, 2003); and
inherently safer chemical processes, which seek to reduce or eliminate process hazards through material substitution, alternative reaction routes, and process intensification and simplification (Hendershot, 2004).
These design and technology development concepts have been adopted by the chemical industry to various extents. The “Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry” (Table 2.1) is arguably the most recognized set of principles. The USEPA's Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards evaluate new chemical products and processes on criteria based on these principles. For example, Dow Chemical Company and BASF were among the recipients of the Awards in 2010 for their joint development and commercialization of a new environmentally friendly synthetic pathway for the production of propylene oxide, a high-volume building-block chemical. The advantages of this technology compared to other synthetic pathways were demonstrated using BASF's life-cycle-based eco-efficiency analysis tool. Other recent award recipients include Procter and Gamble (P&G) and Cook Composites and Polymer Company in 2010 for a new high-performance low-volatile organic compound (VOC) paint; and the insecticide producer Clarke in 2011 for the development and commercialization of an environmentally safe larvicide that is produced through a solventless process. As we recall the controversies involving chemical products and operations in the 1960s through the 1980s discussed earlier, the chemical industry today has come a long way with these innovations.
Table 2.1 Twelve principles of green chemistry.
1
Prevent waste
2
Maximize the integration of all process materials into the finished product
3
Use and generate substances with little or no toxicity
4
Design chemical products with less toxicity while preserving the desired functions
5
Minimize auxiliary substances (e.g., solvents, separation agents)
6
Minimize energy inputs
7
Prefer renewable feedstock over nonrenewable ones
8
Avoid unnecessary derivations and minimize synthesis steps
9
Prefer selective catalytic reagents over stoichiometric reagents
10
Design products for post-use decomposition and no persistence in the environment
11
Use in-process monitoring and control to prevent formation of hazardous substances
12
Use inherently safer chemistry that minimizes the potential for accidents
Source: Anastas and Warner (1998).
2.2.3 Corporate Sustainability Strategies
Unlike in many other industries, the management of sustainability issues in the chemical industry was typically never relegated to one corner of a company's EH&S office. With the high-profile public pressure, many of the sustainability issues have long been front and center to the senior management and executives of chemical companies. This is true especially for larger, research-driven chemical companies, where technology development is an important piece of the sustainability puzzle.
Large US chemical manufacturers were among the first in formulating public corporate-level response to sustainability. In 1989, DuPont announced its first sustainability goals. This came after the company was faced with tremendous public pressure in the 1970s as the world's largest producer of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the compound blamed for the destruction of the earth's protective ozone layer. DuPont decided to lead the industry's turnaround in phasing out CFCs and developing alternatives, which earned DuPont the position to work on the issue with different stakeholder groups (Tanzil et al., 2005). By 1989, following the Bhopal incident, Edgar Woolard, DuPont CEO at the time, decided that the company had to align itself to where society wants it to be. He began a series of public conversations on “corporate environmentalism” and publicly committed the company to a number of sustainability goals – including 90% reduction in the emissions of air carcinogens and 70% reduction in air toxins. A target for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction was added in 1993. These were among the first public environmental improvement targets in industries and helped earn DuPont the reputation as a pioneer in sustainability. In 1997, Chad Holliday, the new CEO, further revolutionized the company with its “sustainable growth” program – redirecting the company's growth strategy to high-value, high-technology areas that involve less waste and emissions. Integration of sustainability into the business also became a key focus, with sustainability measures integrated into the company decision processes and individual performance assessment metrics.
In 1992, Dow Chemical Company, which is the largest chemical manufacturer in the United States, established a Sustainability External Advisory Council (SEAC). The SEAC involves representatives from NGOs, academia, businesses, and government to advise the company's leadership on EH&S, and other sustainability issues. At the time of its formation, the SEAC was considered the first of its kind in industry and provided a stakeholder engagement venue at the executive level, complementary to the CAPs at the grass-root operational level. The SEAC advised Dow in the development of its 2005 EH&S Goals, which were announced in 1996 and contain a set of aggressive and specific public goals to improve the company's EH&S management and performance. These aggressive public goals led to a company-wide effort to achieve them. Dow regularly updated the public on its progress on the 2005 EH&S Goals through its annual EH&S report and other communication channels. In the end, in 2005, Dow came close to meeting its aggressive targets in most areas, fell quite short in some (mainly in supply chain safety), and performed better than targets in some others (mainly in reducing emissions). Nevertheless, Dow was able to establish a reputation as a sustainability leader through its transparency and continual public update on its effort to meet its aggressive targets.
These are examples from two large US chemical manufacturers. These two companies have since established new sets of public goals, which are discussed below. Most large chemical companies around the world today have also established public sustainability goals. These public goals force transparency and a coordinated effort from the whole company to meet them.
2.3 An Evolving Framework
The chemical industry's response to sustainability changes with the evolving global framework on sustainability. Much of these changes were driven by the evolution in the range of sustainability issues and the risks and opportunities associated with them, as well as by the level of public and corporate awareness on these issues.
2.3.1 New Issues and Regulations
While the public pressure of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s were much more focused on pollution and the safety of chemical operations, the range of sustainability issues today are a lot broader. They encompass workplace and social issues as well as other environmental issues. Foremost among these is the issue of climate change. Despite the recent legislative problems with climate change regulations in the United States and other countries, the issue is receiving increasing public attention. There is a rising public demand for corporate response to the issue of climate change from the chemical industry as well as from other industries, which are often customers of the chemical industry. The high and volatile costs of energy also make energy and GHG an increasingly important issue to the chemical industry.
Changes in regulations also contribute to the evolving sustainability framework. Recent environmental directives from the European Union forced more life-cycle thinking and greater transparency from the industry. These include
the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (
RoHS
) Directive, which restricts the use of lead and other hazardous materials in electronic equipment;
the Water Framework Directive, which aims at improving the aquatic environment, including a requirement for the cessation or phasing out of discharges, emissions, and losses of a set of high-priority chemicals within 20 years;
the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (
REACH
) Directive, which places greater responsibility on the industry to protect the health and safety of the public, including the requirement to provide information on the risk and safety of chemical products.
These European directives, especially REACH, has far-reaching impacts in the industry as they affect not only European companies but also other chemical companies that market their products in Europe.
2.3.2 Sustainability as an Opportunity
Furthermore, global sustainability issues also provide new market opportunities to the chemical industry. For example, the new sustainability goals of both DuPont and Dow no longer focused only on reducing impacts, but also on increasing societal benefits from their business. DuPont's 2015 Sustainability Goals, announced in 2006, include not only targets for continual reduction of the company's environmental footprint, but also a new set of market-facing goals, including goals to double revenue from products that improves energy efficiency, reduce GHG emissions, or protect safety for its customers, as well as increasing revenue from products made from nondepletable resources.
Similarly, Dow 2015 Sustainability Goals, also announced in 2006, include goals to enhance the benefits of its products. It includes the goal to increase the percentage of products that exhibit the advantages of sustainable chemistry, as well as “actively working toward, and committed to achieving, at least three breakthroughs by 2015 that will significantly help solve world challenges,” such as energy and climate, access to clean water in the developing world, food, housing, and health.
European chemical manufacturers are also increasingly taking more of a product life-cycle perspective, including enhancing the sustainability benefits of their products. In 2008, BASF published a corporate carbon footprint that included emissions from their operations as well as from other life-cycle stages, including resource extraction, customer use, and disposal. It has a sustainability management goal of “create business opportunities, and minimize risk,” recognizing the opportunities to develop products that support energy efficiency, renewable energy development, and other sustainability goals, as well as internal efforts and external services to reduce environmental and social risks to itself and its customers.
2.3.3 Recent Industry Trends
Along with the increase in public awareness on sustainability issues, the breadth of the industry's response to sustainability has also increased both in range of issues being managed and the number of companies proactively managing them.
An annual benchmarking study by the Institute for Sustainability at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) illustrates some of the recent changes in the industry. Since 2007, the Institute for Sustainability has produced an annual AIChE Sustainability Index™, which assesses the sustainability of the chemical industry along seven factors: strategic commitment, environmental performance, safety performance, product stewardship, social responsibility, innovation, and value chain management (Cobb et al., 2007, 2009). Currently, the AIChE Sustainability Index™ assessment is focused on 10 large multinational chemical companies operating in the United States. Recent analysis of the last few years of data revealed the following trends:
An increasing number of companies are publishing sustainability reports. Although not all of the large chemical companies have public sustainability goals, they all have formal internal programs to manage sustainability issues.
Notable performance improvements were observed among the 10 large chemical companies in energy efficiency and process safety. These may reflect the increasing role of energy cost as a driver for sustainability and the Responsible Care's new process safety program requirements.
Almost all of the 10 large chemical companies have implemented comprehensive product stewardship and risk communication programs in recent years. These can be attributed to the implementation of the Responsible Care product stewardship requirements as well as the implementation of REACH reporting system in the companies.
An increasing number of companies have implemented environmental and social criteria for their suppliers, as well as audit programs, as part of their supplier management programs.
Not all chemical companies have developed mature and comprehensive sustainability programs. Larger companies tend to lead, perhaps because they have greater internal resources and because they are more exposed to reputational risks due to their sizes. Nevertheless, a survey of chemical industry executives by Accenture (2010), as well as various other recent surveys, shows an increasing strategic emphasis on the management of sustainability issues in the chemical and other industries. The Accenture survey also revealed the increasing role of customer demand for sustainability in influencing the chemical companies' sustainability programs. The public pressure on the chemical industry appears to have somewhat morphed into greater collaboration, as the chemical industry is increasingly involved in partnerships with NGOs, academia, governments, and supply chain partners.
The public reputation of the chemical industry, too, appears to have improved. The declining public favorability ratings for the chemical industry in both the United States and Europe have bottomed out in the 1990s (Boswell, 2001; Milmo, 2001). More importantly, those studies indicate that the industry's favorability ratings are significantly higher among communities near chemical plants and among people who are more familiar with the chemical industry. In 2004, for the first time, the favorability rating for the chemical industry in Europe exceeds its unfavorability rating. Since then, the chemical industry's favorability rating in Europe has stayed just below 50% CEFIC (The European Chemical Industry Council) (2011). To be sure, the chemical industry still has many challenges to overcome. However, in terms of how the industry is viewed by the public, the industry today is a far cry from where it was a few decades ago.
2.4 Conclusions: the Sustainability Drivers
Protecting the chemical industry's reputation and social license to operate has been the initial force driving the industry's environmental and sustainability efforts. From the Responsible Care program to the various corporate sustainability initiatives, the industry's initial responses were largely shaped by high-profile incidents and controversies involving chemical products and processes, and the resulting negative public opinion.
Throughout the large few decades, however, the chemical industry's response has been increasingly proactive and wide ranging, reflecting the increasing awareness, and evolution of sustainability issues among the general public. Protecting reputation and social license to operate certainly remains a key driver for sustainability in the industry. It requires careful consideration and management of process safety as well as the safety, environmental, and social impacts of chemical products and processes throughout the cradle-to-grave life cycle. As history taught us, the recent gains in the industry's reputation and public goodwill can still evaporate with one or two high-profile incidents or controversies.
Aside from the management of reputational risks, other drivers for sustainability in the chemical industry have also emerged. They include
cost reduction, starting from the early pollution prevention efforts to today's increased emphasis on resource efficiency due to the high cost and price volatility of energy, raw material, and water resources;
innovation, which is increasingly driven by the customers' demand for safe, low-emission, and resource-efficient products;
new markets in products that address societal concern on climate change, clean water availability, and other sustainability issues;
partnership opportunities with communities, NGOs, governments, and the supply chain.
While the reputational risks affect larger entities more than the smaller companies, the cost reduction, innovation, new market, and, to some extent, partnership drivers present opportunities to all entities in the chemical industry and its supply chain. Thus, as sustainability evolves from a risk issue to an issue involving both risks and opportunities, one can expect that the industry's response to sustainability will continue to increase in both depth and breadth.
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3
From Industrial to Sustainable Chemistry, a Policy Perspective
Karl Vrancken and Frank Nevens
3.1 Introduction
With the surge of environmental awareness, industries (including chemistry) have been facing an increasing amount of environmental legislation. The development of this legislation has been following scientific insights and public concerns. New developments have been based on scientific analysis and modeling, as well as on public awareness campaigns (Popp, Hafner, and Johnstone, 2011). Science has been shown to play a pivotal role in assessing environmental risks and problems and in proposing relevant and effective solutions for them (Sundqvist, Letell, and Lidskog, 2002). The interactions among scientists, nongovernmental organizations (representing the citizens), industry, and policy makers have been a solid basis for developing environmental legislation. Furthermore the progressive development of environmental policy has been guided by, but has also guided in itself, the development of new technological solutions. This is exemplified by the Sevilla Process on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC), which also had a strong influence on the chemical industry. With the shifting focus from pollution control to integrated prevention and resource efficiency, a strong role remains to be played by all stakeholders involved. The policy approach also proves to be shifting from “government” to “governance,” which is characterized by an increasing involvement of the private sector and civil society in environmental policy making (Cocklin, 2009). The widening of environmental problems – from local water quality to global climate change, from local soil pollution to worldwide resource efficiency – calls for a more systemic, inter- and transdisciplinary approach. A framework for such an approach is provided by “transition management” (Rotmans et al., 2000; Loorbach, 2007).
