Integrating green chemistry and sustainability into a specialty
chemical company*
Kevin H. Reinert
Rohm and Haas Company, Spring House, PA, USA
Abstract: Most companies have embraced the American Chemistry
Council (ACC) Responsible Care" 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.
*Lecture presented at the IUPAC CHEMRAWN
XIV Conference on Green Chemistry:Toward Environmentally Benign Processes
and Products, Boulder,Colorado, USA, 9-13 June 2001. Other presentations
are published in this issue, pp.1229 1330.