Stepan Company understands the need to reduce its impact on the environment and to promote responsible management in order to reduce water usage, minimize waste, lower emissions and conserve energy.
Efficiency for the Planet
Reducing Our Impact
As a member of the chemical industry, environmental responsibility begins with safety. All Stepan facilities are ISO 9001:2015 certified. Our U.S. sites conform to the American Chemistry Council (ACC) Responsible Care Management System (RCMS) and our facilities outside the United States are encouraged to participate in their country-specific Responsible Care® programs. Our sites in China, Germany and Singapore have achieved ISO 14001 certification for environmental management. China and Germany’s sites have also achieved ISO 50001 for energy management.
In support of our commitments to ACC Responsible Care® and the United Nations Global Compact, Stepan also has set goals to promote energy efficiency, increase our use of renewable energy, and decrease water consumption for manufacturing:
- 10% per metric ton reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per metric ton (MT) production from 2016 baseline by 2025. Based on our 2022 data, Stepan achieved this goal early, reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by about 11% across our sites. Since setting our original reduction goals, Stepan has expanded our manufacturing footprint, and we are excited to have driven these reductions while growing our operations. As we look ahead, we will continue efforts to reduce emissions and use resources efficiently.
- 20% of global electricity from renewable energy by 2025.
- Conduct risk assessments and establish water management plans at all sites by 2023.
- In addition, we've worked to reduce water usage for our 2016 baseline sites by 40%.
Stepan reports emissions of pollutants that affect air quality, as well as our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, annually. We have also identified projects aimed at reducing our greenhouse gas and other emissions over the coming years. Through a combination of process optimization and other projects, our 2025 goal is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions per metric ton production by 10%.
In our manufacturing sites and offices around the world, actions such as switching to high-efficiency lighting, adding motion sensing fixtures, improving insulation, and other similar updates have been implemented to deliver more efficient energy use. Our 2025 goal is to secure 20% of Stepan’s global electricity from renewable sources.
Stepan understands the importance of managing our use of local water in our manufacturing processes, and we have identified numerous opportunities for improving water usage efficiency. Over the past few years, Stepan has implemented projects that have significantly reduced water consumption at some of our sites. Our goal is to conduct water risk analyses across all of our sites and to set relevant site- or region-specific water management goals based on those results. In addition, we aim to reduce our global water usage by 40% by 2025.
Reducing waste supports our ongoing efforts to drive efficiency and promote the responsible use of resources. Several Stepan sites have integrated condensate recovery and reuse systems. Other sites have implemented initiatives to reduce waste with process optimization or material recycling. Finding opportunities to reduce waste generated through our business processes is an additional priority for Stepan.
