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Killer Quote: “There is an inherent circularity that exists within the chemical industry. If you just look at your business and your processes, you'll find that there's a lot of circularity because of efficiency, because we want to save money and save costs, and then save the environment." - Victoria Meyer, Host of The Chemical Show
Welcome to The Chemical Show™, where chemicals mean business. If you're looking for insights from business leaders of mid-market to Fortune 50, this is the place to be.
Featuring interviews with industry executives, you’ll hear about the key trends impacting chemicals and plastics today: growth, sustainability, innovation, business transformation, digitalization, supply chain, talent, strategic marketing, customer experience and much more.
Episodes are published every Tuesday.
Host Victoria Meyer gained her industry experience at leading companies, including Shell, LyondellBasell and Clariant. Before taking those insights to the broader industry. Victoria brings a informed and engaging perspective, making this podcast not just about the chemical business, but about people, leadership, business challenges and opportunities, and so much more.
The Chemical Show brings you the latest insights into trillion-dollar chemical industry. You will hear from leading industry executives as they discuss their companies, business, markets, and leadership. You’ll learn how chemical, specialty chemical, petrochemical, material science and plastics companies are making an impact, responding to the changing business environment, and discussing best practices and approaches you can apply in your business.
This podcast is a must-listen for executives and business leader everywhere, leading B2B process businesses and industries, driving strategy, harnessing customers and suppliers, and driving business innovation.
A key component of the modern
world economy, the chemical
industry delivers products and
innovations to enhance everyday life.
It is also an industry in transformation
where chemical executives and
workers are delivering growth and
industry changing advancements while
responding to pressures from investors,
regulators, and public opinion.
Discover how leading companies
are approaching these challenges
here on the chemical show.
Join Victoria Meyer, president
of Progressio Global and
host of the chemical show.
As she speaks with executives across the
industry and learns how they are leading
their companies to grow, transform, and
push industry boundaries on all frontiers.
Here's your host, Victoria Meyer.
Victoria: Hi, this is Victoria Meyer.
Welcome back to The Chemical Show,
where Chemicals Means Business.
This is the second in a two part
series highlighting the Sustainability
Leadership Award winners recognized
by American Chemistry Council in 2024.
Last week in an episode entitled
Driving innovation in Recycling, I
spoke with Matt Adams from EFC Gases
and Robert Dishman from Cyclyx.
If you haven't listened yet, check it out.
Those award winners, although servicing
different customers and different
markets and offering very different
solutions had a commonality around
recycling and recycling that improves
value, opportunity, and supply chain.
This week, I speak to three different
award winners that have a common theme of
collaboration, customers, and community.
These leaders include Kevin Norfleet
from Celanese, which won the
Circularity Award, Garry Grant from
PPG, which won the Climate Award,
and Mary Reinthal from DuPont,
which won the Social Responsibility
and Community Engagement Award.
Great stories from each
one of these leaders.
Now, before we get onto the rest of it,
if you are new to The Chemical Show or
already a loyal follower, thank you.
And make sure you're following, make
sure you're following us on your favorite
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Never any spam, only great news.
Now I'm moving on to today's episode
where I'm talking to the three leaders
about their sustainability projects
and the awards that they've received.
First up.
Here's Kevin Norfleet from Celanese.
I'm speaking with Kevin Norfleet, who
is the Global Sustainability Director
at Celanese, where he leads global
sustainability efforts on behalf
of the Acetyl business and focuses
on driving sustainable products
and solutions to their customers.
As part of this, Kevin recently
led the launch of their Carbon
Capture and Utilization Project,
which was implemented in Texas, and
one of the biggest CO2 emissions
reductions projects that we've seen.
For that project, Celanese has
received the Circularity Award from ACC.
Kevin, let's talk about that and
welcome back to The Chemical Show.
Kevin Norfleet: Thank you.
Great.
Great to be here and appreciate
the opportunity to chat
more about our CCU project.
It's been a really exciting project.
I know we had a previous conversation,
maybe a few months ago, but, yeah,
very excited about what that, that
carbon capture and utilization
project has meant for our business.
And we're very excited and delighted to
receive the ACC's award for circularity.
That was a great honor that
we're very appreciative of.
Victoria: Yeah, absolutely, and I
was actually on the judging panel
for one of the awards, a different
award, and it's really impressive.
The wide variety of, projects
and programs and initiatives that
are going on across the industry,
to focus in on sustainability
and in your case, circularity.
so kudos to you guys for
receiving this award.
and I'm sure when you started this,
it wasn't really to win an award.
That was not your objective.
So what's really the why
behind your CCU project?
Kevin Norfleet: really, this came from
looking across our business, our products
and what are the ways where we can do
something to make an impact in a way
that also makes sense for our business.
And I think that ultimately, this
CCU project was a great example
that, we do this project with.
Our joint venture partner, Mitsui and
Company, and they were also a great,
very supportive partner to this process.
But, we really were able to look
at this as something that, it was a
very impactful project that we were
able to put together a case that
made sense, has a lot of potential.
Benefits to our organization because we
use methanol and, this project is about
making methanol from CO2 emissions.
We use methanol to make an
incredible array of end products.
And so for us, really, the why is about
being able to drive this option and
this opportunity into a whole bunch
of different products and markets and
market segments that we support that
we're really able to offer what we
think is a very attractive, sustainable
product offering for our customers.
Victoria: Yeah, that's great.
And, I guess, how has the customer
and the market response been when
you think about bringing these
CCU backed products to market?
Kevin Norfleet: Yeah, I think
it's, there's been a lot of
interest, a lot of enthusiasm.
I've had, many, discussions with
an incredible array of customers.
and so I think, it's definitely something
that customers appreciate, being able
to bring forward options and being
able to bring forward solutions that,
help reduce the carbon footprint of
their products, as well as offering
potentially a nice story to go with it.
that said, one of the challenges
that we see with, CCU is that
it doesn't fit cleanly into.
Some of the categories that
people commonly think about when
they think about sustainability.
a lot of people talk about recycling or
they talk about bio based feedstocks.
And what we see is that CCU
can, is a little bit of a third
choice that doesn't really fit
perfectly into those categories.
And so it does take a little
bit more effort to get people to
understand, what does this mean?
How do I think about this?
How do I use this?
But I think as we, go through the data
and we go through the information we
have about what this means for those
products and what this means for.
those products carbon footprint.
there tends to be a lot of interest
and enthusiasm for, the option.
Victoria: that's great.
And in fact, that, it's a great
lead into my next question.
You received the Circularity Award
from the ACC and In current dialogue,
most of what we think about in
terms of circularity has been in
the context of plastic circularity.
in this case, I guess we're
talking about CO2 circularity.
Can you just talk about that?
How do you fit into this circular space?
Kevin Norfleet: Yeah, absolutely.
to your point, you're right.
For plastics, recycling, there's
a lot of great opportunities,
but frankly, when you, there's a
whole bunch of other materials and
chemistries and products that doesn't
necessarily really work as simply for.
And we definitely see this
as a great opportunity for
a lot of those other areas.
that maybe don't have, the ability
to have, a straightforward kind of
recycling story, but to be able to
bring an option instead, ultimately
what we see is the opportunity for,
from CCU is being able to create a
market in demand for CO2 emissions.
And, hopefully if we're successful
at continuing to develop CCU as
a market, we can put ourselves in
position to be able to continue to use.
More and more CO2 emissions.
And I think that's, a really
interesting circularity story.
we definitely want, and think that,
companies should continue to try to do
what they can to reduce their emissions,
but to the extent that some level of CO2
emissions will probably always be present.
We think CCU is a great ability to
be able to create a circularity story
and get another loop out of that CO2
before it goes to the atmosphere.
Victoria: Yeah, that's right.
And certainly, a big part of what we're
trying to do across the industry when
we think about sustainability goals is
reduce, CO2 emissions, greenhouse gas.
So being able to contain them
and turn them into something.
functional and useful is really critical.
When you think about environmental
footprint, which is, I think, a measure
that many companies are taking, how
do you think about environmental
footprint when, it comes to CCU?
Yeah.
Kevin Norfleet: we really have it,
Focused in terms of how we think
about it at a, product level.
And again, the idea of our,
the CCU project is really being
able to drive, reduce footprint
products for our customers.
One of the interesting things about
this project is most of the CO2 greater
than 80 percent of the CO2 we are using
actually comes from third party sources.
And so what that means is this isn't
really a clean, reducing our own scope
one emission because so much of that CO2
is actually coming over our fence line.
So really what it ends up being, Is really
more of a tool to help our customers
reduce their scope three emissions, what
that actually looks like can look very
different depending on the products.
We have some products that are
made entirely from methanol.
Those can have a very big impact of,
this technology and this product in
terms of what that means for the product
carbon footprint of products like that.
And then we have some products where
maybe it's a smaller percentage, but
at the end of the day, anything where
we use this CCU methanol, it's going
to provide a benefit to the product
carbon footprint in those products.
Victoria: Yeah.
And obviously then ultimately to the
consumer, cause as you point out, a lot
of the products that we see in use aren't
recyclable and circular in a traditional
way, but can be harnessed elsewhere.
It's great So what's next for you guys?
What's next in this
journey on CCU and beyond?
Kevin Norfleet: a big part of where we
are is we've got this great project up
and running and, we're really pushing
full speed ahead about being able to
turn that into, customer solutions.
And our goal is hopefully later this year
and into next year that you start to be
able to hear more examples of, this C.
C.
U.
Material turning into, real
products and customer, you know,
visible kind of use case examples.
a lot of exciting things we're working on.
I definitely think towards the 2nd,
half of this year and into next year,
we should start to have a lot of good
announcements to be able to show where
some of those things are happening.
But that's very much where we're
heading and our hope is to be able
to get CCU to a place where it's very
much recognized as a great tool and a
great part of how do we make progress
as society that sits right alongside
recycling and bio based as another option.
Victoria: Great that's awesome.
thanks Kevin.
I appreciate you sharing your
insights and everything with the team
Kevin Norfleet: it.
Thank you for having me on Victoria.
Victoria: I think what Kevin shared
with us was really interesting.
In many ways, it's representative
of the inherent circularity that
exists within the chemical industry.
I think if you just look at your
business and your processes and how
you guys operate, you'll find that in
large part, there's a lot of circularity
because of efficiency, because we
want to save money and save costs.
And then save the environment.
Throughout its history, the chemical
industry has innovated to eliminate off
gases, eliminate waste streams, and turn
them into new, Useful, valuable products.
It's a measure of efficiency.
It's also inherent circularity.
And we're seeing that same thing
from Celanese in their CCU project,
which is intentionally circular and
intentionally built to remove carbon
from the atmosphere, but also is really
collaborative and provides a solution
for themselves, for their customers.
And for their other business partners.
So talking about collaboration and
customers, next up is Garry Grant
from PPG talking about some of the
new products that they've developed
to support EVs and other products and
winning the Climate award from ACC.
Here's Garry.
In automotive manufacturing, the
paint shop has historically been
the most energy intensive area
of the manufacturing process.
Much of this energy intensity is due
to the high temperature ovens needed
to cure the various paints, adhesives
and sealant products that go into cars.
To address this, PPG developed a line
of electric coat products, Paints
to you and I that are specifically
designed to reduce the energy intensity
in this automotive paint shop.
For that PPG was awarded the climate
award by the American Chemistry Council
in their sustainability leadership awards.
Today I am speaking with Garry Grant, who
is the strategic market manager at PPG.
And we're going to be talking
about this project and more Garry,
welcome to The Chemical Show.
Garry Grant: Hey Victoria,
thanks for having me.
Victoria: Thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
So tell me, how did this EnviroPrime
line of products and I guess
specifically EPIC 300 come about?
Garry Grant: what we've been seeing,
obviously, is there is a much
heightened focus on sustainability
across all of our automotive customers.
Through the onset of all this electric
vehicle production that's coming, a lot
of OEMs are looking about how they reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions upstream
and downstream through their supply chain.
And one of the big Points for them
is that use phase of the vehicle.
How can they reduce the greenhouse
gas emissions coming from the use
phase and electric vehicles gets
right at that as a result of that.
That's going to create some
differences in how they.
Manufacture how they assemble a vehicle,
particularly the battery enclosures,
the battery box where that's going
to be is going to be think of it as a
heat sink, on the vehicle that's going
to require more time at temperature.
And clearly we want to partner
with our customers to make sure
that they don't have to make
significant capital investments to
expand their oven or, increase the
footprint slow their lines down.
so in order to do that,
we've got to think about.
Product solutions.
And for me, particularly electric
coat, one of the hot spots in that
paint shop that you mentioned is that
oven that cures the electric coat.
And so if we can either reduce, or at
least maintain, the throughput, the
time in the oven for the OEMs and not
slow down their productivity, by bringing
solutions like EnviroPrime Epic 300, To
market that's a significant advantage
for them again to avoid any capital
investment and even potentially speed
up their lines reduce the time and
improve their productivity or reduce
the oven temperatures and reduce that
impact on the greenhouse gas emissions
there in that part of the paint shop.
Victoria: That's excellent.
And in fact, I know that's one of the
conversations that sometimes happens is
that as we move to a greener economy,
moving from, internal combustion engines
to EVs, the consideration of all the
elements of it and what it, how it
affects the environment, how it affects
energy consumption, is really critical.
What's been the customer response
since this was introduced?
Garry Grant: Just about every
OEM now has some type of
electric vehicle program, right?
And it's not just in one
particular region, it's global.
So with the EPIC 300 technologies
and other EPIC technologies in our
platform, we're seeing, that adoption
rate Increase as we see the increase
in the electric vehicle production.
So it's been a good response so far.
Obviously, the recognition
here by ACC is great.
but we've, had some other
recognitions, not just of epic
300, but other eco products in
our portfolio that are helping.
The OEMs meet their sustainability goals.
whether it's greenhouse gas emissions
or it's water intensity or energy
intensity, anything we can do
again to bring some, solutions
to market that help them help us.
Victoria: Yeah.
So I saw that PPG was recently
awarded, recognition from Toyota.
Can you talk about that?
Garry Grant: Yeah.
That's again, another example,
partnering with a customer who
has, some particular needs for
both performance and sustainability
that they're trying to achieve.
Toyota has always been at the forefront.
Setting their, , 2050 goals for, their
carbon footprint and 2030, depending on
the life cycle that they're looking at.
But again, launching that new product,
great success to be able to measure
and monitor where they were before that
product, where they were after and with
their, collaboration partner with them
to, really show output of, what it is
we achieve with that new product launch.
Victoria: That's great.
I think about panks and coatings
when I typically thought
about it in the environment.
I think of VOCs and other
emissions as a primary concern.
Now I'm learning about
energy, as a consideration.
what else are, is PPG and your
customers thinking about and
that you guys are working on?
Garry Grant: Yeah, it's funny you say
that, too, because I've been around
codings for over 20, 25 years now,
and yeah, you always traditionally
think about the sustainability or the
environmental impact of what's in the can.
And now as we start to look more
at that life cycle, and with our
sustainability partners in the, in
PPG even, you look at that intensity
of where that impact is, the materials
are there for sure, but it's almost.
70 30, 70 percent is
process driven energy.
You know what's going on in the
paint shop versus 30 percent really
what's in the can that we can impact.
So you have to impact both obviously,
but you can have a bigger bang for the
buck, let's say on the process side.
energy you mentioned, but water intensity
again, depending on where customers
are in the world, their ability to
generate water, anything we can do
from a product standpoint that can
reduce the demand for water, reduce the
waste that's generated in the process.
there's obviously a cost to that
and an environmental impact.
But now, again, as we talk about, just
the way vehicles are being used or
how they will be used in the future,
there's only so much metal in the world.
There's only so much
aluminum in the world.
We're going to probably see a lot more
recycled content coming in, circularity
of these vehicles that, maybe they'll
go through 10, 20 years of use and then
they're getting melted down and turned
into a vehicle that you or I don't even,
can't even imagine now, but it's, we
have to ensure that the coating we put
on top of that substrate still meets
performance expectations, but that
we're also enabling that recycling to
happen, so that's better for all of us.
Victoria: And at the end
of life considerations,
Garry Grant: Exactly.
Victoria: that's cool.
Awesome.
thank you.
I really appreciate you joining us today,
and learning more about what's going on.
Garry Grant: absolutely.
Thanks for having me again.
Victoria: That was a great
conversation with Garry.
The insights that Garry shared as we
talked about the award that they've
just won is really just highlights the
fact that for, a future greener, greener
energy, a more sustainable economy.
Chemicals are more important than ever.
And in this example, EVs run at
a different temperature profile.
And so new paints and coatings
are needed for electric vehicles.
At the same time, the fact that the
paint shop and the fact that Paints
are effectively baked on, that's
my layman's terms to automobiles.
and this realization that there are huge
opportunities to reduce power usage,
, and then inherently CO2 production
by taking it a different approach
to paints and coatings and adhesives
that go into automotive processes.
So critical for our traditional
automotives, It's even more critical
as we go into a world where electric
vehicles become more common.
So great stuff.
Finally, I'm talking with Mary
Reinthal from DuPont who shares
some insights about their unique
community engagement opportunities.
Here's Mary.
I'm here with Mary Reinthal from DuPont.
Mary is a scientist, and more importantly,
she is the current leader of Clear Into
the Future, which is DuPont's global
sustainability program that funds
nonprofit organizations to work on
sustainable development initiatives in the
communities near where DuPont operates.
So really critical, opportunity
and outreach into the communities.
And in fact, DuPont received the
Social Responsibility and Community
Engagement Award from ACC this year.
So we're going to be
talking about that and more.
Mary, welcome to The Chemical Show.
Mary Reinthal: Thanks for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Victoria: I'm really
happy to have you here.
So tell us a little bit about the
Clear Into the Future grant program.
Mary Reinthal: Yeah, so I
think you really nailed it.
It's employee driven.
It's a global grants program and
it was founded by DuPont in 2007.
Grants recipients are non government
organizations, so these are non profits
or academic institutes that are going
to be aligned with the Clear into
the Future program purpose, which
is really Driving positive impact
by protecting the environment and
empowering communities to thrive.
Victoria: Yeah, that's really great.
can you create this an example or
two of some of the programs that
you guys have helped to fund?
Mary Reinthal: Yeah, I'd love to.
So in 2023, we were really fortunate
to be able to fund 19 distinct projects
across seven different countries.
So this is a really
exciting achievement for us.
And when I think of Clear into
the Future funded projects, two
in particular come to mind.
So one is a land restoration project
that took place out of Midland, Michigan.
So DuPont has a site in Midland, Michigan.
And this was with the NGO,
Chippewa Nature Center.
And so what they were looking to
do was to remove invasive exotic
species and replace them with a just
diverse array of native planting.
So these would be shrubs.
These would be wild flowers.
These would be trees.
And what we really liked about
this project was not just.
How it impacted Midland, Michigan, but
it really impacted the biodiversity at
large of the Great Lakes Bay region.
So these are ecosystems that have seen
a decline in species, year over year.
so these ecosystems are wetland
ecosystems and field ecosystems.
So it felt really good to give
back to this project in particular,
because of the larger implications.
Victoria: Yeah, that's really cool.
I'm going to just jump in here.
I spent a lot of time in Wisconsin on
a lake up there and frankly, everywhere
there's lakes and waters and wetland,
we're certainly seeing impact of these
invasive species that are non native,
that have a really significant impact
on the local ecosystem, not just from
a plant life perspective, but from
a birds and fish and other animals.
And I think that's really cool
because obviously it is a topic that
hits a lot of different communities.
Mary Reinthal: yes.
And the Chippewa Nature Center has
written, Clear to the Future grants
several years in a row that have
been successfully funded, so they are
undertaking large scale projects that,
are able to deliver on, all of the metrics
that they're hoping to year over year.
So we keep funding them and
it's a fantastic, cause.
Victoria: Sounds like a great partnership.
And so you were going to tell
us about a second one as well.
Mary Reinthal: Yeah, definitely.
So another project that comes to mind
is going to be a little bit different.
It took place in Seoul, South Korea,
and it was to promote urban forests.
So the NGO there was
called Forest for Life.
And what we really liked
about this program was the
strong education component.
It also relied very heavily on community
volunteerism and support in planting
over 700 trees in Seoul, South Korea.
And so the strong education, the
strong volunteerism and introducing
new biodiversity into an urban
area, those were all wins for us.
Victoria: Yeah, that's really great.
and you said that this is
something that's employee driven.
So how do employees get engaged with this?
Mary Reinthal: Yeah, so employees
have multiple opportunities to become
engaged with clear into the future.
I became engaged as a co lead and
as a lead for clear into the future.
So really driving the ship,
employees can also become engaged
as grant review committee members.
So the decision to fund a
project is done with a panel of
employees from across DuPont.
And so folks, if they're interested in
doing work with clear into the future, can
opt to be on the grant review committee
and that time commitment looks like
reading over grants that we've received
and deliberating on them to determine
who should receive funding for the year
and then in another way, employees can
also become involved with clear into
the future by becoming an employee
sponsor for one of these projects.
The way these projects can move forward is
if there is a DuPont employee that pushes
it to the forefront and really drives
it, drives the DuPont volunteerism, can
vouch for the organization, and so DuPont
employees can become involved in volunteer
events or as one of these employees
that can drive the movement forward.
Victoria: Yeah, that's great.
And it sounds like it really helps
to spark, a partnership within the
community of these organizations.
Mary Reinthal: great.
we really appreciate helping out
these local DuPont communities.
So these DuPont communities
are, communities where DuPont
employees live and work.
And so we really, appreciate helping
out employees in those communities,
NGOs in those communities, and
especially employees that have
great connections with NGOs in these
Victoria: Yeah.
And as a global company, figuring
out how to create that community
and local connection is so critical.
And as to your point, like the NGOs
locally really know what the locals need.
So it's hard sometimes as a global,
organization, you sometimes think, okay,
we know what, opportunities they are.
And the reality is it's those local
boots on the ground that really
are able to provide that impetus.
Mary Reinthal: That's exactly right.
Victoria: So what's next for the program?
What should we be looking forward to
the rest of 2024 and as we go into 25?
Mary Reinthal: Yeah.
What I like to look at is the
past as an analog for the future.
So between 2022 and 2023, we really
did see growth in all of our metrics.
We saw more applications being funded.
We saw more people
Putting in applications.
We saw more countries being represented
more regions being represented by clearing
to the future funding And so really
moving on We're hoping to just increase
scope, you know Add more regions that are
represented add more countries affiliated
with, DuPont communities and just
continue, growing our global footprint.
Victoria: Awesome.
Oh, great.
Mary, thank you for joining us today.
And thanks for sharing those insights.
Mary Reinthal: Yeah.
Thank you so much.
This was a pleasure.
Victoria: Three awards, three distinct
companies tied together by a theme of
collaboration, customers, and community.
Thanks for listening.
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