Emissions

We understand the broad impacts associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollutants, including implications for climate, concerns regarding the impact on public health and threats to ecosystems.

Emission reductions, however, can also signal improving overall operational efficiency at our manufacturing facilities, and we see our focus on emission reductions as a potential competitive advantage. We monitor our process emissions closely and work to minimize our respective impacts in support of maintaining compliance with our regulatory obligations and reducing our global environmental footprint. We also look to partner with our customers and others who share our goal of reducing emissions impacts across the value chain by providing products that can help lower their own emissions and significantly lower the impact of their products throughout the product life cycle.

As such, we made positive progress toward our SO₂ intensity reduction target and maintained our NO_X intensity at more than 50% below 2019 levels. Our efforts continue within our plants to optimize emission reductions while increasing process heat recovery to generate energy without creating any additional emissions associated with the burning of fossil fuels. We are also closely monitoring emerging air pollution regulations to ensure our operations are prepared for future compliance requirements.

We have also worked extensively to identify and implement GHG mitigation measures since we first established a GHG reduction goal in 2009. This past year, we updated our near-term goal to reflect changes in our portfolio and to account for improvements in GHG accounting methods, resulting in a revised goal to reduce GHG emissions intensity 5% below 2022 levels by 2025. Since then, in 2023, we observed a reduction in Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions as well as GHG intensity, achieving progress toward our 2025 goal.  

With support from our Manufacturing Sustainability Team, our plants closely monitor their GHG emissions, and we have seen improvements in site-level GHG intensity driven by operational efficiency gains, yield optimization technology, and capital investments such as a new steam turbine generator, which will reduce Scope 2 emissions at our plant in Mauá, Brazil.

As we continue to advance in our ambition of a lower carbon future, we also investigated and began implementing options for further renewable energy procurement opportunities, and completed the installation of a roof-top solar array project at our Rheinfelden, Germany facility. Our energy recovery investments and partnerships we have made since 2005 have resulted in approximately 464,000 MT of additional avoided GHG emissions in 2023 compared to what was avoided by our energy exports in 2005.