Goal setting crucial for green image – Dow Corning

24 June 2008 16:10  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Chemical companies need to set challenging but achievable goals and communicate their actions in order to improve their environmental image, a senior industry executive said on Tuesday.

“It’s simple to say but more complicated to do,” said Peter Cartwright, executive director of environmental, health and safety (EHS) at Dow Corning on the sidelines of The Green Supply Chain Summit, organised by ClimateChangeCorp.com.

Companies can use sustainability reports and community outreach programmes, for example, to tell people what they are doing to improve their environmental performance, he said.

One of the biggest challenges was understanding how to set aggressive but achievable goals, Cartwright said.

Dow Corning was on track to meet its five-year goal to cut energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% per kilogramme of product by the end of 2009, he said.

The US silicon producer is now discussing its goals for beyond 2009.

Challenges to meeting the 2009 goals included changes in the fuel mix, to coal-fired energy, for example, instead of a greener alternative.

However, the trend was towards an increasing availability of renewable and low carbon energy supplies, he noted.

“We have seen it start in Europe, and there are several bills going through Congress in the US at the moment. Everyone hopes they will be globally standard.”

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By: Anna Jagger
+44 20 8652 3214

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