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Our Commitment
Environmental Stewardship
Renewable Raw Materials
-Green Chemistry
Greener Alternatives for
Customers
Water
Management Programs
Environmental Performance
A Greener Mindset
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Companywide
Environmental Performance
Long-term
Commitment
Hercules’
companywide focus on environmental performance and stewardship has grown
over time. In 1967, we established an Environmental Health Committee to
coordinate the company’s pollution abatement programs, with broad authority
to identify and correct environmental problems at production facilities.
That senior-level committee became, in 1977, the Health, Environment, and
Safety Committee, charged with making sure Hercules’ operations and products
conformed to corporate and regulatory standards. While the names and
structures of these management oversight groups have continued to evolve,
the commitment remains constant.
Today, the Hercules Safety, Health, Environmental and Regulatory Affairs (SHERA)
organization closely monitors the environmental performance of
all facilities worldwide. Within our
processes and our overall manufacturing footprint, we are working to become
more energy efficient, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize water usage
and waste generation, and prevent pollution. All these efforts are
beneficial to the environment and make good business sense.
Responsible Care
 Hercules is a full
participant in the American Chemistry Council's global and voluntary Responsible
Care initiative for improving environmental, health, and safety
performance. We are committed to achieving the goal of “Zero Harm”
at locations worldwide, providing a safe and healthful workplace, driving
continuous improvement in performance, and investing in products and
processes to minimize adverse consequences. The depth and breadth of this
commitment is clear in everything from management decisions to plant
operations, spanning plant design, process safety, product development, and
working safely.
Through Responsible Care,
the nation’s leading chemical companies are going
above and beyond government requirements and openly communicating
their results to the public. Performance statistics for Hercules and other
member companies of the American Chemistry Council are
reported annually and made publicly
available on the Responsible Care section of
www.americanchemistry.com.
Responsible Care is
a global initiative currently practiced in 52
countries. While specific Responsible Care practices may
vary from country to country, depending on local laws and national industry
associations, all share a common commitment to the safe and secure
management of chemical products and processes.
Hercules is implementing a
new management system for Responsible
Care in the U.S., which involves independent third-party verification.
Additionally, it is extending this management system to all global
locations, creating a unified companywide approach to measuring, monitoring,
and improving safety, health, and environmental performance. The
Responsible Care management system provides an integrated, structured
approach to drive results in seven key areas: community awareness and
emergency response; security; distribution; employee health and safety;
pollution prevention; process safety; and product stewardship.
By yearend 2008, we expect
to obtain certification of our
Responsible Care management system at our Wilmington headquarters, with
certifications at an initial grouping of facilities in 2009-2010 and
additional facilities around the world to follow until all are completed.
With this management system in place, we will be able to more fully assess
our total impact on the environment at
all sites. The data will help drive management’s priorities and decisions
about any changes, improvements, and investments.
Responsible Care
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REACh
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Continual
Improvement |
Community Initiatives |
Legacy Sites and Restoration
REACh
Hercules’ planning efforts
are well underway to fulfill the regulatory
requirements under the European Registration, Evaluation and
Authorization of Chemicals (REACh) program, which took effect in June 2007
and will have an impact on all Hercules business units. REACh, intended to
protect human health and the environment, replaces dozens of previous
regulatory acts with a single European system for all chemical substances
that are manufactured in, or imported into, the European Union. Data
submission is required for businesses that want to do business in the EU;
otherwise, as the regulations state, “No data, no
market.”
We fully expect to meet the
December 1, 2008, deadline for preregistration
of all substances, which will complete the first phase of the process. Next
steps will lead to the formation of industry consortia for testing and data
collection on each substance, with registration deadlines varying according
to the volume of the substance used.
Continual Improvement
in Quality, Efficiency, and Environmental Performance
Although the names and
requirements of Hercules’ environmental programs have changed over time, the
commitment to continual improvement remains the same. In the 1990s, Hercules
established a program to reduce air emissions, achieving a
90% decrease in volume, and we continue to make
further reductions wherever possible.
Most of the Hercules
European operations and all the PTV Asia Pacific plants now hold
certificates for ISO 14001, the
environmental management standard. Additionally, Hercules is working toward
Responsible Care
14001 registration at all global locations. This standard
incorporates the requirements of both Responsible Care and ISO 14001.
At individual Hercules
locations, environmental commitment is apparent as shown by these
examples:
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Process innovations are
helping Aqualon reduce energy usage at
its manufacturing sites. A new grinding process implemented for
methylcellulose (MC)
production reduces the amount of energy used by 15% per Kg/MC produced. A new
purification process for hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) decreases electricity
consumption by 10% per ton of HEC produced. A new plant using this process will
come online in 2009.
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Between 2002-2007 Paper
Technologies
sites in the United States have improved the energy efficiency of their
operations by 53% per pound of product
produced, leading to a significant reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions and reduced costs. These results have come
from replacing older, oversized boilers with smaller, more efficient ones,
optimizing some product lines, and improving
maintenance of steam
distribution systems.
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In Brunswick, Georgia,
multimillion-dollar technology investments and system upgrades made
substantial reductions in air emissions
since the early 1990s. Odors were reduced after the installation of two
600,000-gallon enclosed tanks in 1998, at a cost of nearly $2.5 million.
The tanks helped the plant send a more consistent flow of wastewater to city
facilities for treatment, allowing them to operate more efficiently and
allowing the plant to attain more consistent compliance.
Another $4 million was invested in environmental technologies to further
reduce odors.
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Hercules has historically
used alternative fuels, non-hazardous process oils,
and other materials generated onsite that could safely be used for energy
recovery. This practice is visible today at Brunswick, which has become
extremely energy efficient. Its onsite power plant burns sawdust and wood
chips left over from stump processing to supply all of the steam required
by the plant and three-quarters of its electricity requirements.
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At the Parlin, New
Jersey site, Hercules invested $6.5 million
for a new powerhouse, brought online in 2004. The new power plant has reduced total emissions
of nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide gases by more
than 90%.
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The Hercules Research
Center in Wilmington will soon commission a new natural gas powerhouse
to replace a residual oil-fired powerhouse, helping to
dramatically decrease emissions. This
project is part of an initiative to revitalize the Research Center and
reduce its footprint. Eventually all
structures along the Red Clay Creek flood zone will be demolished and
removed. Additionally, the Research
Center plans to switch to a public water supply and abandon groundwater
extraction wells for both process and drinking water. As obsolete
structures are demolished and the land returned to a green state,
surface water runoff will be dramatically decreased.
 New
natural gas powerhouse at Hercules Research Center will dramatically
decrease emissions
Responsible Care
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REACh
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Continual
Improvement |
Community Initiatives |
Legacy Sites and Restoration
Community Initiatives
 Franklin,
Virginia employees take part in Blackwater Nottoway Riverkeeper Program
Hercules has a history of
supporting the communities in which its people live and work. These
examples are typical of the ways in which
this support is visible:
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Employees at the
Franklin, Virginia plant have been working with the Blackwater Nottoway
Riverkeeper Program (BNRP) to improve environmental awareness about this
historic watershed. For the past several years, they have participated in
the annual “Clean Rivers Day,” removing trash and
debris from the rivers. The plant also works jointly with BNRP
during emergency situations to minimize environmental impacts to the
Nottoway River and gain input on environmental issues.
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The plant in Kimcheon,
Korea, plays an active role in the local Safety, Health, and Environment
Committee, helping to educate community
elementary school children about the environment and cleaning
up rubbish along the river.
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The city of Brunswick,
Georgia officially recognized the Brunswick plant for its
“excellent
performance in Industrial Pretreatment with zero permit
exceedance” during fiscal 2006-2007. Further, the Brunswick plant is a
charter member of the “Keep the Golden Isles Beautiful” project, a
quarterly clean-up effort that has been in existence for
14 years.
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The Hopewell, Virginia
plant has hosted hazardous materials (haz-mat) response
training exercises for the
Mid-Atlantic region. In the early 1990s, the Hopewell plant established a wildlife habitat that has
been recognized nationally.
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Most U.S. plants routinely
conduct training exercises and drills with community-based organizations
such as the local fire departments and other emergency response
agencies.
 Institute
of Occupational Safety and Health "Working Safely" Workshop, UK
Visit our
Community Involvement site for
more information on numerous ways in which our employees are volunteering in
their communities.
Legacy Sites Restoration
Even as Hercules looks
ahead to continuing improvement and innovation, we recognize our
obligation to the past. Where sites were
impacted by operations in the company’s nearly 100-year history, we remain committed to cleaning
them up, working in concert with the appropriate authorities.
The EPA established its
Brownfields Program in 1995 to return
sites that may contain “the presence or potential presence of a hazardous
substance, pollutant, or contaminant” to productive use. While Hercules
doesn’t develop brownfield sites directly, it works to remediate and prepare
former manufacturing sites so they can find new uses.
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The Parlin, New Jersey
site is in the process of evaluating alternatives for a brownfield
redevelopment project on approximately
400 surplus acres adjacent to the Aqualon plant there. The plant will
continue normal business operations manufacturing Natrosol.
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The former Burlington,
New Jersey plant is now being redeveloped
for use as a warehousing operation, returning this former industrial site
to productive use.
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A Hercules landfill remediated
by the company in
Brunswick, Georgia passed its second Five Year Review by the
EPA in June 2006, with post-monitoring results indicating a
successful and effective remediation
of the Superfund site. An automobile dealership adjoining the property is
now using the site, which has been paved so that the business can store
its cars there.
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Investments continue to
be made at the former Kenvil, New Jersey, site, preparing for its return to
productive use once remediation is
complete.
Responsible Care
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REACh
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Continual
Improvement |
Community Initiatives |
Legacy Sites and Restoration
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