Progress Report 2024: Pathway 2
#Decarbonisation and Environmental Footprint Minimisation
ADVANCING TOWARDS CARBON NEUTRALITY AND MINIMISING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
1 ADVANCING TOWARDS CARBON NEUTRALITY
VinylPlus started the selection process for a consultant to evaluate the potential and, by 2025, report on projected progress on core carbon reduction to be achieved by 2030.
The same consultant will also support VinylPlus in reporting on renewable energy use and on sustainable feedstock sourcing by 2025. After an in-depth screening of proposals received in 2023, in January 2024 the Environmental Footprint Committee (EFC) selected the consulting firm Carbon Minds to work with.
2 EMBRACING THE SUSTAINABLE USE OF CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES
The Additive Sustainability Footprint® (ASF) is a methodology to proactively assess and promote the sustainable production and use of PVC additives throughout entire product lifecycles, including the roles of additives in the performance of PVC products.
In 2023, meetings were organised with ECHA (in April) and the European Commission (in June) to present and discuss the ASF methodology and the benefits the ASF tool can provide to users, regulators and society.
ADISA AZAPAGIC
ETHOS Research, Chair of VinylPlus Environmental Footprint Committee
Climate change and environmental degradation are significant challenges faced by Europe and the world. The priority of the VinylPlus Environmental Footprint Committee (EFC) is to help the PVC value chain to address these challenges, with a focus on the reduction potential of the carbon and water footprints.
During 2023, the EFC has defined several projects to identify opportunities for reducing the carbon and water footprints through the use of alternative feedstocks and renewable energy sources.
This work will be carried out in collaboration with external consultants, with the findings expected to be available by the end of 2024.
PATRICK MOREL
Sustainability and Public Affairs Senior Manager, Kem One
Kem One, as a member of the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM) since 2022, is fully committed to the sustainable development of PVC. In 2024, Kem One will take part in the new campaign to verify the criteria of the ECVM Charter.
We see compliance with the Charter as a key element in demonstrating to our customers and stakeholders our commitment to continuously improve our impact on human health and the environment.
3 MINIMISING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
All ECVM members are committed to the continuous reduction of their environmental impact in conformity with the requirements of the ECVM Industry Charter for the production of Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) and PVC.
Third-party verification of compliance was carried out in 2022 by the certification body DEKRA GmbH, which confirmed an overall compliance rate of 89% for the plants of six out of the current seven ECVM members.
A new verification round by DEKRA was scheduled to take place at the end of the first quarter of 2024, at six sites of the new ECVM member Kem One and at all sites having shown partial or non-compliance during the first verification round.
A specific task force of the ECVM Production Committee is working on a further revision and update of the ECVM Industry Charter, which is scheduled to be finalised by the end of 2025. VinylPlus decided to select a specialised consultant to support the PVC industry sectoral organisations in setting up appropriate indicators for the reduction of the water footprint in processes and products. The selection process was finalised in early 2024.
The consultancy Carbon Minds was selected for this task. Based on the most up-to-date background data – from Plastics Europe’s eco-profiles programme for ethylene and from Euro Chlor for chlorine – and foreground data from the ECVM members’ plants, an updated eco-profile quantifying the average cradle-to-gate environmental impacts of the production of VCM and PVC by the ECVM members was published in December 2022.
Minor revisions, including updated gate-to-gate water data and correction to the steam cracker model, were published, respectively,
in March and June 2023.
The results of the new eco-profile will be published in Sphera’s Managed LCA Content (previously known as Gabi) database and in the next version of the Ecoinvent database (v3.11).
4 RESPONSIBLE SUPPLIER
CRITERIA AND PROGRAMMES
With the objective of collecting and mapping the certification schemes used by the upstream supply chain, VinylPlus approached Euro Chlor and PetroChemicals Europe in 2022 – the two sector groups of Cefic representing European producers of raw materials for PVC resins.
In April 2023, Euro Chlor presented its sustainability report to the EFC. Information on certification schemes from Petrochemicals Europe is expected to be received in 2024.
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