According to Jerry MacCleary, chairman and CEO of Covestro, the company takes its social responsibility very seriously. Its vision, he said, “is to make the world a brighter place.”
“By brighter, we mean by making more intelligent use of our materials that are lighter, perform better and have a smaller carbon footprint,” MacCleary said.
MacCleary explained sustainability informs everything Covestro does, “from our research, to what our scientists are doing in the laboratory, to the daily operations of our facilities and to the social purpose our employees are engaging in throughout the community.”
Essential to the success of this mission, MacCleary said, is a “triple bottom line” — people, planet and prosperity — better known throughout the company as “the three P’s.”
The three P’s require Covestro’s workforce to simultaneously develop prices and processes that help improve people’s lives, preserve the planet and move the company’s business forward.
“When we launched Covestro in 2015, we articulated our focus on sustainability as a new innovation driver. That’s the ‘prosperity P,’” MacCleary said, addressing delegates at the Gulf Coast Industry Forum held recently in Pasadena, Texas.
Addressing the “planet P,” Covestro demonstrated its commitment to environmental health by signing onto the United Nations’ (UN’s) 17 Sustainable Development Goals, also in 2015.
According to UN.org, the “Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. The goals interconnect, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve each goal and target by 2030.”
Admitting that “we have a lot of work to do,” MacCleary referred to the UN’s 17 goals as “the platform that most of the companies in our industry are using as a foundation that moves sustainability forward.”
The “people P,” MacCleary said, aims to jumpstart the curiosity of its people to envision what could be and then help create it. Accordingly, Covestro has established a company- wide social responsibility program called “i3”: ignite, imagine and innovate.
“To us, all three P’s are of equal importance. It’s a constant balancing act,” MacCleary said. “We won’t make improvements in one P at the detriment of another.”
This balancing act also means that, for Covestro, innovation and sustainability “go hand-in-hand,” MacCleary clarified. “You can’t do one without the other.”
MacCleary proudly noted Covestro has performed well in that balancing act. “For years,” he said, “our products have been used by the construction, automotive and design industries to make their own products lighter, more energy efficient and sustainable.”
Five keys to growth
As Covestro was helping other industries meet their sustainability targets, it was also building on its own. That growth continues today, MacCleary said, with focus on five specific target areas.
The first goal relates to research and development (R&D).
“As I mentioned, Covestro has already signed on to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These goals speak to many of the same social and environmental issues our headquarters expect us to address — things like mitigating climate change, reducing social inequities, improving education and reducing risk from products.”
By the year 2025, MacCleary said, 80 percent of Covestro’s R&D projects will target areas that contribute to achieving those UN goals.
“What that means is we’re working on finding sustainable solutions to the greatest challenges of our times: resource depletion, population growth and changes in mobility needs.”
Covestro’s second long-term goal relates to procurement. The company requires all suppliers in its value chain to be evaluated by Ecovadis, the same international rating agency that measures Covestro’s sustainability performance.
“We owe ourselves the same high standards that we expect from all of our suppliers,” MacCleary said.
Goal No. 3 relates to production, with Covestro ambitiously aiming to reduce specific greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by the year 2025.
“Now, here we really make good progress,” MacCleary said. “Originally we had a target to reduce by 40 percent by the year 2020, but we already hit that target four years ahead of schedule, so we set an even more ambitious target of 50 percent.”
MacCleary said he expects that goal to eventually go even higher.
The fourth of these long-term goals refers to Covestro’s product line.
“We want to use [products] to improve the lives of people in underserved markets,” MacCleary said. “For instance, we recently computed materials to give farmers in Indonesia an affordable way to store and preserve food so they can get the most from their harvests.”
Covestro’s fifth long-term goal focuses on the use of carbon. MacCleary described it as “truly innovation at its best.”
“Several years ago, our scientists successfully developed a plastics manufacturing process that allows us to replace crude oil, the raw material that creates carbon dioxide (CO2), with CO2 itself,” he said.
The new process harnesses waste CO2, integrates it back into production, and transforms it into polyurethane foam for mattresses and furniture.
“With this resource, we’re squeezing every ounce of productivity out of its lifecycle, especially its after-use,” MacCleary said. “In doing so, we’re also increasing the productivity of car batteries and showing how they’re an asset that can drive growth and innovation.”
The benefits are clear and two-fold, MacCleary said, as they positively impact both the environment and business.
“We’re creating value for us and for our customers by essentially taking a free raw material that’s plentiful — waste CO2 — and using it as a building block for foam,” he said.
Preparing future workforce
Noting the surge the petrochemical industry is experiencing in the Gulf Coast region and beyond, MacCleary, who also serves as executive committee chair of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), observed that this unprecedented growth, combined with the retirement of baby boomers, points to an urgent reality facing the industry’s workforce.
“This region is a place for jobs, and we need people to fill them,” he said. “The caveat is we need people who are equipped with the scientific and technical skills to do the jobs that we offer, and that’s not always the easiest thing.”
Workforce development initiatives have become a major part of the Baytown area’s social innovation.
“We learned long ago that if we want a STEM-literate workforce that’s diverse and inclusive, we need to invest in one,” MacCleary said. “Sustainability in our industry definitely depends on it. So, we do invest.”
The goal, MacCleary said, is to bring underrepresented groups into the STEM workforce pipeline as early as possible.
“To do that, we take a cradle-to-career approach with our local i3 STEM program, with a strong focus on women and underrepresented minorities,” he said.
Covestro’s i3 STEM program provides innovative, experiential solutions beginning in elementary school at the Goose Creek Independent School District, where its employees volunteer in the classroom.
“Then it progresses into junior and high school, with our support at Goose Creek STEM Academy, career counseling and science fair judging. It gives students an opportunity to attend special STEM programs like IFly,” MacCleary said.
Covestro has also established a new manufacturing lab at Stewart Career Tech High School, where students may gain valuable hands-on learning opportunities on commercial- grade lab equipment, using instrumentation for quality construction careers as well as petrochemical industry-specialized crafts. “It gives students a firsthand look at career opportunities in manufacturing fields that are based in Baytown,” MacCleary said.
At the higher educational level, Covestro also supports female and underrepresented minority students with two- and four-year scholarships and internships, and participates in the National Association of Manufacturers’ STEP Ahead initiative.
“It’s all about developing women in manufacturing jobs and preparing them for leadership roles,” MacCleary said.
Covestro has also joined another UN environmental initiative called Young Champions of the Earth, a global competition that aims to identify, support and celebrate outstanding individuals aged 18-30 who have big ideas to protect or restore the environment.
“What I have been describing is our commitment to quality education, inclusion and economic opportunity,” MacCleary said, revisiting the “people” part of Covestro’s “three P’s” endeavor.
“We’re looking for people both inside and outside of our company to power our sustainability work,” he said.
MacCleary emphasized that collaboration throughout industrial, social and governmental bodies is critical.
“It underpins all of the work we do,” he concluded. “Change is moving fast. We want to be at the table and be part of the solution and be leaders. That’s what we and other industry leaders in this region must do if we want to sustain our business.”
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