Sustainability Targets

Our commitment to a sustainable future

As the transition to a net zero carbon economy accelerates, we continue to challenge ourselves to reduce impacts, mitigate risks, and harness growth opportunities related to climate change. 

Targets and milestones

Our goal is to continuously improve our performance, with the ambition to mitigating climate change, reach zero injuries, waste, and harm focusing  people safety, process safety and product safety. 

We have set targets for 2030: a 40% reduction in absolute GHG emissions (Scopes 1 and 2), a 10% decrease in total waste intensity, and a 10% decrease in freshwater consumption intensity, all versus a 2019 base year. We aspire to become a net-zero organization by 2050.

Our sustainable solutions align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and are well-positioned to meet the demand and opportunities created by several societal trends.

Eco-efficiency tracking in place at 100% of manufacturing sites.

 56% of our total electricity is now being derived from renewable and low carbon sources

19% reduction in total absolute Scopes 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 2019 and 2024

23% of organic raw materials are from renewable sources

GHG emissions reduction targets Waste and Freshwater

Our Carbon Business Strategy and Roadmap to Reduce GHG emissions

Our Carbon Business Strategy has a long-term horizon and aims to reduce GHG emissions while growing the Company. It is guided by the following strategic pillars:

  1. Carbon Operational Excellence in own operations
  2. Energy Transition to Renewable Energy
  3. Innovation
  4. Value Chain Collaboration focusing indirect GHG emission

Results
We achieved a 19% reduction in total absolute Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions between 2019 and 2024. A notable contributor was our shift towards electricity from renewable sources up from 42% in the previous year to 48% of our total electricity consumption (compared to 36% in 2019), and up from 32% from the previous year to 35% of total energy, including steam, coming from renewable sources (compared to 30% in 2019).

25 locations at our 60 manufacturing sites are being sourced with 100% renewable and/or low carbon electricity

Our pathway to meet our 2030 GHG targets

In line with much of 2024 progress, the key driver is transitioning to renewable electricity, investing in long-term PPAs, and other renewable energy programs to lower our Scope 2 emissions, including energy attribute certificates. Additionally, we continue exploring capital-efficient projects to decrease Scope 1 emissions at our sites, including equipment upgrades or replacements and design enhancements such as pre-heating, pressure, and temperature optimizations, and using lower carbon fuel in steam boilers.

We calculate our GHG inventory (Scopes 1 and 2) and other energy and environmental metrics on a quarterly basis. This allows us to track our progress against our targets.

We have also developed dashboards with GHG and eco-efficiency data, enabling each of our global sites to monitor their performance using a site-at-a-glance tool. Additionally, we have developed internal reports and guidance procedures that outline our calculation methodology to ensure consistency from year-to-year.

We are currently analyzing indirect GHG emissions from activities across our value chains.

Estimated Scope 3 emissions account for 80% of Nouryon’s total emissions, with purchased goods and services comprising the largest category of the cradle-to-gate approach. 

A Scope 3 analysis inherently involves certain assumptions, and methodologies and tool usage will evolve over time. We will continue refining our Scope 3 calculations based on available data and use the results to guide the journey towards reducing our GHG emissions across our value chain.

Achievements includes:

  • evaluating potential lower-carbon raw materials with suppliers
  • lowering customer GHG emission with our sustainable solutions
  • developing its product carbon footprint (PCF) and life cycle assessment (LCA) capabilities

As we continue to develop new and innovative products using more sustainable raw materials, we will further explore how these initiatives can contribute to improvements in our Scope 3 carbon footprint. 

Learn more in our Sustainability report

As part of our Carbon Business Strategy, we are looking to collaborate with our suppliers as we tackle the challenge of climate change together. As we pursue opportunities to develop additional low carbon and sustainable solutions, we are requesting from suppliers lifecycle assessment (LCA) data.

In addition, across all scopes we are:

Our plan to achieve our waste and freshwater targets

  1. Water: Our manufacturing sites initiate measures to improve water management by reducing water use or using alternative water sources.

  2. Waste: We remain committed to achieving our 2030 total waste intensity target. Approximately 50% of our sites successfully reduced their waste intensity by finding alternative uses for waste streams and effectively converting waste into by-products.

Learn more

Nine locations in Brazil are now using 100% electricity from renewable sources

This achievement supports the company’s sustainability agenda, ‘Commitment to a Sustainable Future’:

Download infograph

Our plans align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals:

Polymer recycling and modification: Rebuilding the Properties of Recycled Polyolefins

Innovative recycling technologies could transform plastic waste into high-quality materials, enabling endless product cycles

Polymer recycling

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Enjoy our Sustainability Report 2024

We invite you to read more about all of the progress we are making in this report. And, as in previous years, we transparently report relevant data, including a clear overview of our annual sustainability data reporting.

Thank you for your interest in our contribution to a sustainable future and do not miss our Sustainability Report online report experience. 
 

Download

 

You can also download our Sustainability Fact sheet

Sustainability Report 2024 with partnership logos

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