Value of sustainability: perspectives of a chemical manufacturing site

The chemical, polymer and petrochemical process industries, which play a vital role in manufacturing and distributing various products for the global marketplace, have experienced significant economic and regulatory pressures in recent years. The cost of raw materials has steadily increased while selling prices and profit margins have eroded due to increased global competition. This has resulted in a need to implement new cost reduction measures such as decreased energy usage. At the same time, the chemical industry is working to minimize environmental discharges and manufacture ‘green’ products via ‘sustainable’ industrial processes. Sustainability is a critical issue for the chemical industry. Solutia and other chemical companies have been attempting to enhance the short and long term sustainability of their operations. This chapter presents an account of sustainability related activities at Solutia’s (and Monsanto prior to 1997) Indian Orchard (IO), MA, site. The Monsanto pledge is described along with examples of the impacts on IO’s operations, employees and community. Descriptions of Solutia’s metrics for environmental (i.e., eco-efficiency) and quality (i.e., asset effectiveness management) performance are presented. Two examples from actual operations at the IO site are provided together with some thoughts on their value and applicability towards enhancing sustainability. While the first example focuses on recovering and recycling raw materials (thus lowering the demand for fresh resources), the second example focuses on the benefits of adopting a “global” perspective to solving process challenges. Finally, current efforts at the site (including a plant wide energy utility assessment and thermodynamic footprint analysis) and some gaps in current sustainability practice are briefly described.