Sustainable development for INEOS Vinyls

At INEOS Vinyls we are aiming to build an organisation that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. We are engaged in a constant quest for improvements, including more efficient processing techniques, more cost-effective manufacturing, safer working conditions, and products that more accurately meet customer needs. This section of the report summarises INEOS Vinyls's approach and progress in relation to social and environmental sustainable development.

Social sustainable development for INEOS Vinyls

Safety at work and occupational health are of paramount importance for INEOS Vinyls. In 2002 INEOS Vinyls launched a Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Charter. Key targets of the commitment are:

1. our actions will support the belief that all injuries, occupational illnesses and incidents are preventablewe
2. will comply with all applicable laws, regulations, the Industry Charters and Responsible Care initiative and take any additional measures considered necessary
3. our stewardship of SHE matters will be such that the community at large considers INEOS Vinyls as a good neighbour
4. employees and contractors will be thoroughly trained to work safely and to anticipate and prevent SHE incidents
5. line management and supervisors will provide leadership to the implementation and execution of the SHE policy and SHE improvement plan
6. employees and contractors will maintain the proper level of safety awareness to do their job without causing injury to themselves, their co-workers or the environment.
   

The system for managing SHE is the 'INEOS Vinyls Rating System' (ECVRS). INEOS Vinyls worked with the internationally respected risk management group Det Norske Veritas (DNV) in developing this comprehensive management system that reflects the specific hazards and priorities of INEOS Vinyls's various businesses.

In 2001 the INEOS Vinyls Group started to focus on the number of classified injuries as well as 'Over Three Day' (OTD) injuries. The classified injury measure was chosen as it provides a clearer indicator of our safety performance and is based on specific measurable criteria that are of a lower severity than OTD injuries. Contractors have been included in our measure alongside our own employees. In 2005 the INEOS Vinyls Group achieved a classified injury rate per 100,000 working hours of 0.22.

The standards for controlling and monitoring exposure to VCM, EDC and PVC dust by operating personnel and contractors at Polymer sites is rigorous within INEOS Vinyls. The resulting low measurements are supported by area monitoring and are well below European Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs). Each site has specific targets for occupational health levels and across the Group there has been year on year improvement.

Environmental sustainable development for INEOS Vinyls

In 2000 the European Commission published the PVC Green Paper as part of its sustainable development programme. This identified key environmental sustainability issues for the PVC industry to address relating to additives - especially Cadmium and Lead containing stabilisers; and waste management - as PVC landfilling is considered to be sub-optimal and recycling of end-of-life products is felt to be currently too limited.

Cadmium based stabilisers have now been phased out throughout the European PVC industry. INEOS Vinyls has in place within its compounding business a development programme for alternatives to Lead based stabilisers for all relevant compounds. INEOS Vinyls is supporting all the PVC recycling projects across Europe and we have also developed our own PVC recycling operation at the Frosinone compound plant.

However, no organisation can address all the key environmental sustainability challenges in isolation as the issues span the supply chain and include waste management. Some networking is therefore essential. The PVC industry as a whole is addressing these priorities via the Vinyl 2010 sustainable development initiative and INEOS Vinyls is playing a leading role. Full details of Vinyl 2010 are available from the website www.vinyl2010.org. On 3 June 2004 DG Enterprise published on the European Commission's website the long-awaited PVC life cycle study of products made from PVC and their main competitors. In a statement to introduce the study DG Enterprise declared that one of the main study conclusions is that 'from a life-cycle perspective, the matierla choice may be important, but it is often simply one parameter among many.' Vinyl 2010 issued a press release welcoming the study and highlighting the key positive conclusion that 'there is no reason to treat PVC differently from other materials.'The ECVM Charters for the production of S-PVC/VCM and E-PVC set demanding standards in respect of emissions to air and discharges to water. These Charters pre-date the Vinyl 2010 initiative, however performance in relation to these Charters is now reported within the Vinyl 2010 progress reports (downloadable from the website www.vinyl2010.org).

The result of the first audit of compliance with the ECVM S-PVC/VCM Charter in 1999 resulted in a 98% compliance rate at those INEOS Vinyls sites audited. The compliance rate at these same sites was increased in the latest audit conducted in 2002. The remaining non-compliance, a technical issue with the incinerator at Porto Torres, was evaluated in 2003 and further work undertaken in 2004.

The VCM plant at Runcorn was not included in the first audit of the ECVM Charter but was included in the 2002 audit. The plant was still in the optimisation phase following a major refurbishment and the flue gas composition of the incinerator did not achieve the Charter standard at the time of the audit. Improvements have been made during the year and the incineration unit was in compliance in 2004.

In addition to reporting against the ECVM Charters we have also set internal standards for our Polymer businesses. We have measured ourselves against these standards since flotation of INEOS Vinyls in 1994. Our aim is to continually improve our performance moving ever closer towards 100% reduction in all emissions whilst achieving and maintaining compliance with industry charters and legal requirements:

1. VCM emissions to air down by 67% since 1994
2. EDC emissions to air down by 67% since 1994
3. dust emissions to air down by 54% since 1994
4. copper discharges to water down by 87% since 1994
5. EDC discharges to water down by 85% since 1994
6. VCM discharges to water down 53% since 1997 (1997 level is taken as benchmark instead of 1994 as this is when INEOS Vinyls took control of the VCM plant at Runcorn)
7. waste sent to brine cavities down 100% since 1994. INEOS Vinyls eliminated this disposal method in 1999.

We maintain the belief that further reductions are possible and will be delivered.

All liquid wastes resulting from the manufacture of VCM are now incinerated. There is no waste sent to brine cavities and over 50% of waste is treated in order to recycle HCl.

There is no industry-wide standard to cover all the measures we are reporting against, furthermore the basis on which many of the legislative or industry charter standards are formulated varies and does not allow comparison.

The measures INEOS Vinyls has taken and the progress that continues to be made are consistent with moving INEOS Vinyls's operations towards environmental sustainability. However, we want to extend our measurement and reporting procedures to examine more closely the progress we are making with respect to other areas of environmental sustainability. In particular we decided to develop our approach in 2004 with respect to reporting energy efficiency improvements with a demonstration of how this links to reductions in greenhouse emissions.

INEOS Vinyls remains committed to achieving ISO 14001 environmental management standards at all its polymer sites as well as its Film plants in Europe. The main focus in the Compounds business is hygiene and occupational safety. All the requirements needed to achieve ISO 14001 standards are already incorporated in INEOS VinylsRS. All the VCM, S-PVC and E-PVC plants are now ISO14001 registered. The Film plant at Cagliari, Italy has also secured ISO 14001 certification and a programme being developed to achieve certification for all the remaining Film plants.