Nouryon issues its Sustainability Report 2020

Nouryon is pleased to share its second annual Sustainability Report, summarising the company’s global sustainability activities, performance and results from 2020.
Key highlights include:

Sustainability further integrated into the company’s strategy and values: Nouryon’s new company strategy and values further integrated sustainability and complemented its existing company purpose, ‘Your partner in essential chemistry for a sustainable future.’

Framework aligned with UN goals: Based on its first materiality assessment, Nouryon introduced a new Sustainability framework called ‘Nouryon’s Commitment to a Sustainable Future’, which is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and supports the objectives of the UN’s Paris Agreement on climate change.

Top-quartile people safety performance: Nouryon’s recordable injury rates reached a record low in 2020 and the company achieved a 50% reduction in Process Safety Events.

Introduced greenhouse gas mitigation strategy: The company launched global targets to reduce absolute carbon emissions by 25% and increase its share of low carbon energy to 60% by 2025.

Meeting growing customer needs: Nouryon achieved an EcoVadis Silver rating, placing it in the top 10% of the chemical industry and in an excellent position to meet the growing expectations of its customers. Simultaneously, Nouryon used EcoVadis to assess the sustainability of 34% of its suppliers.

Driving sustainable innovation: 33% of Nouryon’s 2020 revenue came from Eco-Premium Solutions, while 21% came from the sale of those solutions with a direct customer benefit. Last year, Nouryon launched multiple new sustainable products, including: anti-viral paint coatings, biobased products that replace synthetic polymers, products that reduce air emissions, bio-degradable crop protection ingredients, and products for cool roof coatings that save energy by reducing the need for air conditioning.

Committed to managing risk: Throughout 2020, 100% of assigned employees completed compliance trainings. Nouryon conducted a comprehensive Enterprise Risk Management process throughout the year and 77% of Nouryon’s sites have certified environmental management systems (ISO-14001).

With the publication of its Sustainability Report 2020, Nouryon reports for the first time to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) framework, and thereby also affirms its commitment to annual, transparent ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) reporting.

"In our first two years as a company, we are pleased with the accelerated progress we are making in contributing to a sustainable future,” said Charlie Shaver, Chairman and CEO of Nouryon. "We are most proud of partnering even more with our customers to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions. Our Eco-Premium Solutions deliver a significant sustainability benefit to our customers over the most mainstream market alternative. This is where we think Nouryon can make the most difference to the end-markets that we serve, while driving our continued growth. We are also proud of the tangible and ambitious commitments we have made, including to reduce our carbon emissions by 25% between 2020 and 2025,” he said.

"Today, global effort to mitigate climate change and support a more sustainable and inclusive future is more crucial than ever,” said Vivi Hollertt, Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer of Nouryon. "With our ‘Commitment to a Sustainable Future framework’, we are committed to Improve our safety performance and environmental footprint, to Grow our sustainable solutions and to continue to Engage with our people, communities and society at large.”

Committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals with our sustainable solutions
Nouryon’s solutions are essential to products in key end-markets, namely personal care, cleaning goods, paints and coatings, agriculture and food, pharmaceuticals and building products. For example, they help plants grow by providing nutrients to safely increase agricultural productivity and yields using fewer resources; they contribute to the controlled release of active ingredients in pills, insulin production, and iron fortification in staple foods; they are used in the manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels; and they help infrastructure last longer and use less energy.

Each of these solutions also contributes to important, urgent global developments reflected in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, issues such as ending hunger (SDG 2), ensuring healthy lives (SDG 3), promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth (SDG 8), building resilient infrastructure (SDG 9), contributing to circular production (SDG 12) and taking urgent action to combat climate change (SDG 13).

Nouryon’s digital Sustainability Report 2020 is accompanied by an ESG data sheet. Detailed information about the company’s current policies and performance can be found in the dedicated Sustainability section of the company’s website.