SABIC wins Seven Coveted ACC Responsible Care® Energy Efficiency Awards, Demonstrating its Commitment to Sustainability

BERGEN OP ZOOM, The Netherlands – May 2, 2012 – On April 30, SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business was recognized by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) for its extensive world-class programs designed to improve energy efficiency, taking seven Responsible Care® Energy Efficiency Awards, including three for its Mt. Vernon, Indiana, manufacturing facility. This accomplishment marks the second consecutive year in which SABIC’s sustainability initiatives have been honored by the ACC. These multiple awards for a diverse range of projects demonstrate SABIC’s strong leadership, world-class technology and culture of innovation that enables the company to minimize environmental impact while strengthening operational excellence, all of which significantly benefit its customers worldwide.

“We are honored to receive the ACC Responsible Care Energy Efficiency Awards as we continue to build our sustainability programs with strong and steadily increasing focus, resources and commitment,” said Mike Walsh, General Manager, Resins Operations, Innovative Plastics, SABIC. “SABIC works continuously to minimize its operational footprint by reducing carbon intensity, improving energy and water use and increasing material efficiency. This effort complements our drive to meet our customers’ toughest environmental challenges as well as their needs for superior-quality, high-performance sustainable materials.”

The ACC Responsible Care Awards are presented annually to honor companies with energy efficiency improvement projects, including the creation of energy teams, communications, goal setting, recognition and management support. Individual ACC member companies nominate specific projects for recognition; winners are selected by the judging committee. ACC presented 73 awards to 19 member companies.

Awards Spotlight SABIC Innovation

The seven Responsible Care Awards presented to SABIC recognize a variety of innovative projects to reduce energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce waste disposal.

• SABIC’s Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, facility, won for a focus on electrical efficiency in three areas: plant lighting, solar, and replacement of a chiller with a centrifugal compressor.

• SABIC replaced a 20-year-old process chiller at its Burkville, Alabama, resin manufacturing plant with a more efficient and environmentally responsible chiller. The old equipment used a refrigerant with high ozone-depleting and high global warming potential. The replacement uses new technology and refrigerants to cut energy usage equivalent to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 432 tons per year.

• At SABIC’s headquarters in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the company undertook a multi-year site improvement that featured energy-efficient heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) retrofits. The project led to energy savings and a reduction of 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year.

• SABIC’s Washington, West Virginia, site undertook a project to simplify plant and instrument air systems. The redesign reduced total electrical usage by an estimated 2.24 MMkW hours per year and elimination of 2,930,000 lbs/year of CO2 emissions.

• At the SABIC Mt. Vernon facility, a process was successfully developed to recover and purify the sodium nitrite from a wastewater stream, and then sell it commercially. Eliminating disposal of the material resulted in reduction in total combined energy intensity for the Mt. Vernon production facility and the offsite disposal facility. This project was awarded “Exceptional Merit” by ACC.

• Also at Mt. Vernon, a specialized chemical unit was upgraded to reduce steam usage and operating costs. The reduction in steam demand resulted in a reduction of 4,198 tons of CO2 per year and 50,156 MMBTU/year of energy.

• The final award honored yet another project at the Mt. Vernon facility. This project was an upgrade to a Lexan* resin unit to recover energy, cut operating costs and reduce greenhouse gases. By reducing the steam demand of the boiler unit, the plant achieved a reduction of 2,006 tons of CO2 per year and 24,000 MMBTU of energy per year.

For additional information on SABIC’s sustainability strategy please go to www.sabic-ip.com or technical product inquiries, please contact us at www.sabic-ip.com/prtechinquiry.

About Saudi Basic Industries Corporation
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world’s top petrochemical companies, and is a global market leader in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene, advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers. SABIC manufactures with a global footprint in Saudi Arabia, the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. The company operates in more than 40 countries across the world with 33,000 employees worldwide. It has significant research resources with 18 dedicated Technology & Innovation facilities in Saudi Arabia, the USA, the Netherlands, Spain, India and China. SABIC recorded a net income of SR 29.21 billion (US$ 7.79 billion) in 2011, and sales revenues totaled SR 190 billion (US$ 50.67 billion).

About Innovative Plastics
SABIC’s Innovative Plastics strategic business unit is a leading, global supplier of engineering thermoplastics with an 80-year history of breakthrough solutions that solve its customers’ most pressing challenges. Today, Innovative Plastics is a multi-billion-dollar company with operations in more than 35 countries and approximately 9,000 employees worldwide. The company continues to lead the plastics industry with customer collaboration and continued investments in new polymer technologies, global application development, process technologies, and environmentally responsible solutions that serve diverse markets such as automotive, electronics, building & construction, transportation, and healthcare. The company’s extensive product portfolio includes thermoplastic resins, coatings, specialty compounds, film, and sheet. Innovative Plastics (www.sabic-ip.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC).

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* Trademarks of SABIC Innovative Plastics IP B.V.
SABIC is a registered trademark of SABIC Holding Europe B.V.
® Responsible Care is a registered service mark of the American Chemistry Council, Inc.

Kevin Noels
Marketing Solutions
Lelyweg 6
4612PS Bergen op Zoom
The Netherlands

This release was published on openPR.