Sustainability

We know that the sustainable development journey requires a long-term commitment to learning and a targeted approach to operational evolution.

Lucite International is, and always has been committed to building a sustainable business for the long-term and we have been routinely addressing the challenge of improving our social, environmental and economic impact for many years. On a continuing basis, this takes the form of constant attention to reducing the quantity, value and impact of what we consume in order to create solutions for customers.

The emphasis is now changing to highlight the search for more fundamental solutions to longer-term, challenging goals. For example, in respect of carbon emissions, energy consumption and the need for completely different sources of renewable and carbon neutral raw materials. All of these represent opportunities to significantly improve our overall sustainability and we are actively working in a number of areas to achieve our goal of becoming the world’s lowest environmental impact producer of MMA.

Environment: Our initial objectives are to:

• Reduce energy and water consumption by 20%
• Reduce our CO2 emissions by 20%
• Reduce waste through wider and more efficient re-usage and recycling.

Economic: The changes we are making will deliver bottom line value as well as having the wider benefits that sustainable developments deliver. Examples of where these will come from are;

• Reducing our reliance on costly fossil fuels and other increasingly scare resources
• Increasing our re-usage and recycling capabilities
• Partnering with others to achieve progress across our sustainability agenda.

Social: We will continue to be a good neighbour and focus on the positive impact we can make to our local communities and for future generations by:

• Being a strong local employer that embraces diversity and offers opportunities to people at all stages of their career – school leavers to experienced people
• Continuing to foster close relations with local people where communications are frequent, open and transparent
• Addressing concerns from our external stakeholders in a swift, open, honest and professional manner
• Continuing with our charitable works that benefit those in need
• Working with our supply chain to define collaboration opportunities where we can make a bigger difference together.

Cultural: As an international business we have a long and rich heritage of working across all geographic and cultural boundaries. As part of our sustainability agenda, we will maintain focus on the cultural impacts of our business by:

• Continuing to learn about, and be sensitive to current affairs that might impact our relations with customers and suppliers wherever they are based
• Continuing to embrace learning and promote best practices that arise from working across boundaries
• Looking at way in which we can continue to evolve our own corporate culture so that we are equipped to address the challenges of our time and in the future.

Lucite International has a long heritage of supplying high quality, acrylic-based products that are used in a wide variety of domestic and industrial applications. As the markets for these applications grow and new ones emerge, we will both respond to demand and lead with new, sustainable, solutions-based ideas. Our network of global manufacturing sites means that we are well placed to meet these demands locally using efficient transportation methods that have the lowest possible environmental impact.

Looking forward, the provision of sustainable solutions will play a bigger part of meeting the needs and aspirations of customers and we will work with customers and our industry partners to achieve responsible growth.

We know that one of the keys to achieving a sustainable business is our ability to build and then harness the potential of having great relationships with all of our stakeholders. This means listening hard, leading the debate and collaborating selectively so that we grow in a sustainable way together.

Applying life cycle thinking means that we are working with suppliers and customers to understand and define improvements that can reduce environmental impacts through all stages of the cycle. And each organisation has a part to play. Our current focus is to:

• Work with customers to define and identify improvements in overall product life cycles and consider end of product life strategies
• Define optimum transportation strategies with logistics providers to minimise Green House Gas impacts
• Work with industry partners to provide accurate product information
• Work with governments and regulators to provide timely information and support the development of effective legislation.

Our 2020 environmental objectives are to:

• Minimise our reliance on fossil fuels for energy and raw materials
• Minimise our use of water by 20%
• Re-use, recycle and achieve zero waste to landfill
• Reduce our environmental emissions by 20%.

Today Lucite International either meets or exceeds current environmental requirements at all of its operating sites. We will continue to develop our capabilities to minimise our environmental impact by taking a life cycle view of what can be achieved at every stage. Fossil fuels provide both raw materials and energy to our manufacturing operations. We will continually aim to maximise our material conversion efficiencies and reduce energy use, which, in turn, will reduce the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted by our production facilities. Our operations generate only low levels of solid waste, most of which is packaging materials and we are on track to meet our objective of having zero landfill waste by 2020.