HOUSTON — December 1, 2020 — Orion Engineered Carbons S.A., a worldwide supplier of specialty and high-performance carbon black, today announced that it published its annual sustainability report, highlighting the company’s results against its targets and the core elements of its strategy to drive sustainability across the full spectrum of the carbon black value chain.
“As a responsible member of the global community, we embrace sustainability as an integral part of our long-term strategy,” said Corning Painter, Orion’s CEO. “We have started to create a sustainability culture across our entire value chain and we will focus on improving our business practices each year in order to be a positive force in driving long-term change. This includes the most widely-recognized corporate sustainability measures, as well as exploring alternative, green feedstocks, searching for low CO2 emitting carbon black production technologies, and developing sustainable products that deliver long-term benefits to all stakeholders.”
This year’s report highlights the company’s accomplishments since 2019 in several key areas, including the following:
Governance: The company increased the independence and enhanced the diversity of its Board of Directors. The Nominating, Sustainability and Governance Committee of the Board established its oversight role of the company’s sustainability directives.
Emissions reduction: Orion has defined clear emissions reduction targets for greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matters and its overall energy recovery rate. The company also commissioned enhanced air emission controls at several facilities.
Collaboration to develop sustainable product portfolios: Orion recently became part of the EU-funded BlackCycle Project aimed at testing the viability of using recovered oil in the production of carbon black for tires.
Employees and culture: Orion conducted its first employee engagement study and invested in significantly enhanced employee training programs.
Communities: Orion participated in community support programs throughout its worldwide footprint, including donating much-needed equipment and supplies to support the fight against the global pandemic.
Assessment: Orion’s efforts to improve its sustainability performance resulted in receiving gold medal status in 2019 from EcoVadis, an independent assessment organization providing evidence-based sustainability assessments for companies across 21 indicators and four themes: environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.
The company’s report is available at https://orioncarbons.com/sustainability
Posted December 3, 2020
Source: Orion Engineered Carbons S.A.
