At its annual meeting on June 6, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) honored four member companies and one external organization with its 2023 Sustainability Leadership Awards, recognizing innovative products, technologies and initiatives that help advance sustainability.
ACC's Sustainability Leadership Awards honor member companies for their achievements and contributions to sustainability in four categories: product safety, innovation and transparency; environmental protection; circularity; and social responsibility and community engagement.
ACC awarded Evonik's RHEANCE One in the Product Safety, Innovation & Transparency category for products, processes or initiatives that promote safe use of chemicals, transparency, informed sustainability decision-making and innovation to reduce risk.
The glycolipid-based platform is produced from biomolecules identical to those found in nature and are mild to the skin. Using an all-natural biotechnical manufacturing process, RHEANCE One allows for sustainable personal care products and is 100% biodegradable and environmentally friendly. It utilizes responsibly sourced raw materials and is produced and verified with a traceable supply chain to the farming level, allowing for an alternative to fossil-driven chemicals.
DuPont's Styrofoam Brand ST-100 extruded polystyrene (XPS) Insulation earned the Environmental Protection category award for products, processes or initiatives that address the environmental impacts of company products or operations.
The insulation is used in building and construction applications, delivering a 94% reduction in embodied carbon across the product life cycle, as verified through a third-party Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study and Environmental Production Declaration (EPD) assessment. The insulation incorporates a range of product properties, such as mechanical strength and moisture and fire resistance, while also minimizing the use of blowing agents to reduce the global warming potential (GWP) impact and manufacturing costs.
SABIC was recognized in the Circularity category for products, processes or initiatives that promote circularity. The company has partnered with Polivouga, a manufacturer of flexible film products, and Nueva Pescanova Group, a leading Spanish food brand, to launch TRUCIRCLE, a new, innovative project resulting in the first frozen food packaging solution using SABIC's certified circular polyethylene from feedstock sourced from ocean-bound plastics (OBP). SABIC's certified circular polyolefins from recovered OBP demonstrates how OBP can be brought back into a circular material stream to be converted into high-quality food packaging.
The Societal Responsibility & Community Engagement category awards initiatives and programs that help build and connect local communities, elevate standards of living, and promote equity, diversity and inclusion. Covestro earned the accolade for its THINC30 social responsibility event platform designed to bring community stakeholders together to help drive the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the local Pittsburgh community. By sharing the UN SDGs with local business, government, academic and nonprofit leaders, Covestro hopes to inspire action that will advance the region's growth and prosperity in a sustainable way.
ACC's "External Collaborator" award recognizes an organization that has collaborated with an ACC member on an initiative that has made significant contributions to drive sustainability and innovation. This went to Dow Chemical and Waste Management, who together launched a collaboration to improve residential recycling for plastic films by allowing consumers in select markets to recycle materials like bread bags, cling wrap and dry-cleaning bags directly in their curbside recycling. The program is expected to help divert more than 120,000 metric tons of plastics film from landfills annually, and by 2025, film recycling through Waste Management is expected to reach 8% of U.S. households.
ACC convened a judging panel made up of external sustainability leaders from academia, nonprofit and media sectors to review and select the award winners. The judging panel chose winning initiatives based on a range of factors, including the level of innovation the initiative demonstrated, the scope and reach of its impacts and the extent to which it addresses priorities outlined in ACC's Sustainability Principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ACC received 48 applications from 23 member companies.
