Celanese Corp., Dallas, recently announced its five-year Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) sustainability goals for the areas of occupational safety performance, energy intensity, greenhouse gases (GHGs) and waste management for the year 2015.
The company's 2015 EHS sustainability goals, measured from a 2010 baseline, include: a 20% decrease in both energy usage and GHG emissions; a 25% cut in waste and air emissions; and a 70% reduction of its OSHA incident rate (from 0.22 to 0.07). The company is also aiming for a zero lost-time incident rate.
"Celanese has remained on-course to meet or exceed our aggressive 2010 sustainability goals," says Dave Weidman, chairman and CEO. "Building on that foundation, we are setting new, equally aggressive targets for 2015. We are expanding our strategic internal programs to reduce energy, GHGs and waste intensity while maintaining our strong economic position. We believe this demonstrates that significant environmental improvements are both achievable and compatible with the corporation's growth and financial performance."
Celanese's achievements have not gone unnoticed. On May 5, 2010, the American Chemistry Council awarded the company its 2010 Responsible Care Initiative of the Year Award based on the company's continuous progress in safety and environmental sustainability.
Celanese also is focusing on growth opportunities. According to CEO Weidman, "We are confident in our ability to deliver at least $250 million in incremental operating EBITDA in 2010, and given modest economic growth and the current trajectory of our earnings growth programs, we expect to deliver approximately $150 million of additional earnings improvement in 2011."
The company expects to achieve its previously announced objective to increase earnings to between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion of operating EBITDA by 2013. It highlighted key strategic areas of growth:
[sidebar id="1"]Geography: Celanese continues to accelerate growth in emerging markets, including the Asia region. The company has an integrated chemical complex in Nanjing, China.
Innovation: New product and application development efforts are expected to enhance revenue growth, particularly in the company's Advanced Engineered Materials and Industrial Specialties businesses. In fact, the Advanced Engineered Materials business recently completed a transaction to acquire two product lines, Zenite liquid crystal polymer (LCP) and Thermx polycyclohexylene-dimethylene terephthalate (PCT), from DuPont Performance Polymers.
"This acquisition will continue to build upon Celanese's position as a global supplier of high performance materials and technology-driven applications as we continue to expand our innovative offerings in growth-oriented segments to support our customers," says Weidman. "These two products broaden the company's Ticona Engineering Polymers offerings, enabling Celanese to respond to a globalizing customer base, especially in the high growth electrical and electronics application segments."
