The chemical industry is taking a variety of initiatives to enhance their operation within planetary boundaries. The Responsible Care® initiative and the Safe and Sustainable-by-Design concept aim to address these environmental targets from the design phase. Additional legislation like the European Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH), and the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) also drive the chemical sector to continuously improve on areas such as environmental pollution. Focusing on the environmental footprint by reducing emissions and addressing biodiversity contributes to achieving SDG 6 ‘Clean water and sanitation’, SDG 14 ‘Life below water’, and SDG 15 ‘Life on land’.
Contribution to the EU Green Deal
The EU Green Deal priorities include reducing air, water, and soil pollution; and ensuring the sustainability of our blue economy and fisheries sectors. The chemical industry supports these goals by minimising its environmental impact. This involves reducing emissions, managing waste responsibly, and developing chemicals and materials that support sustainable agriculture and habitat conservation. The industry is also committed to achieving zero pollution by improving air and water quality and reducing chemical usage.
Best Available Techniques
Use Best Available Techniques to minimise emissions to water and air and to retrofit chemical plants. The chemical industry invests continuously in the improvement of their production processes. Best available techniques are implemented to optimise production and to minimise emissions to the environment.
Emission of air pollutants
Since 2007, the chemical industry has significantly reduced acidifying emissions into the air, with ammonia, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur oxide emissions declining by 58%, 54%, and 79%, respectively. The implementation of measures to reduce these emissions was further triggered by Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions, adopted by Member States in January 2013.
Acidifying emissions to air
Methane & NMVOC emissions to air
The chemical sector has achieved a 62% reduction in non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) since 2007 through various measures like process optimization and enhanced emissions control during storage and transport. Additionally, a declining trend in methane emissions has been observed since 2013.
Emission of water pollutants
The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) decreased significantly until 2012, but increased slightly again until 2019. Revisions of the Common Wastewater BREF were done in 2003 and 2016 to which companies had to comply with by 2007 and 2020.
Total organic carbon carbon to water
Total nitrogen and total phosphorus emissions to water
Total nitrogen and phosphorus emissions have continued to decline. In 2021, the chemical industry emitted 9.7 kilotons of nitrogen and 0.4 kilotons of phosphorus.
Process safety
Maximise process safety: avoiding accidental release of chemicals. The chemical industry strives to maximise its process safety to avoid the accidental release of chemicals to the environment. Accidental release might impact human health as well as environmental status but can also create unsafe working conditions. Therefore, reporting on process safety is a mandatory metric within the Responsible Care Leadership Group. A clear definition of process safety events which have to be reported is worked out, but differ from the accidental pollution releases reported in the E-PRTR database of the EEA which are used here.
Accidental pollutant releases
The number of accidental pollutant releases to water and air decreased with around 50% over the period 2007-2019. However, the number of accidental pollutant releases is still between 600 and 1000 for both water and air. The accidental pollutant releases to land did not show a decreasing trend, but the number was always under 10, except for 2007, 2008 and 2018.
Accidental pollutant releases to air, water, and soil
Sustainable supply chain management
Sustainability reports and assessments of the industry’s supply chain can be used during procurement, in the selection of new or the reevaluation of current suppliers supporting the due diligence of the chemical companies. The chemical industry has voluntary tools – Safety & Quality Assessment for Sustainability (SQAS) and Together for Sustainability (TfS)– to assess the HSE and sustainability performance of its suppliers which can be used in the selection process of these suppliers.
Suppliers in the chemical sector audited for sustainability performance
Valid SQAS and TfS assessments per year for suppliers of the European chemical industry
The number of suppliers’ sites in the chemical supply chain with valid SQAS assessments or TfS audits is on the rise. This indicates a growing opportunity for chemical companies to incorporate sustainability criteria into their procurement processes.
