Integrating green chemistry and sustainability into a specialty chemical company

Most companies have embraced the American Chemistry Council (ACC) Responsible Care(R) program, including Product Stewardship, and are integrating ISO 14001 and other environmental management systems. The Rohm and Haas Company uses environmental improvement objectives that not only focus on compliance with existing regulations and industry trends, but for developing business unit-driven objectives to reduce our environmental footprints for processes and systems. To attain the next level of strategic environmental management, integration of sustainable concepts and activities into a general management framework, new product development and corporate decision-making processes must occur. Businesses need to internalize that operating sustainably creates long-term value, achieves a greater competitive edge, and is not solely a short-term cost-reduction activity. They must recognize and foster implementation of technological advances in green chemistry, life-cycle analysis, risk assessment, and engineering consistent with specific business goals. Development of sustainability improvement objectives for each business unit assists in meeting our global sustainability goals. The process, measures and metrics, challenges, and results for integrating sustainability into the culture at Rohm and Haas will be described during this presentation.