Braskem, the largest polyolefins producer in the Americas and leading producer of biopolymers in the world, announced Tuesday its most recent sustainability goals to deliver a 15 percent reduction in carbon emissions from company operations by 2030 and achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2050.
The Brazilian petrochemical company is headquartered in São Paulo, with American operations based in Philadelphia. Braskem will focus on achieving carbon neutrality by improving energy efficiency and increasing use of low carbon and renewable energy in current operations as well as investing in new low carbon intensity process technologies.
Its latest sustainability ambitions also hope to significantly expand company efforts to eliminate plastic waste in the environment by 2030, diverting 1.5 million tons of plastic waste from incineration, landfill, or environment.
“Braskem has a long history of taking action to create a more sustainable world,” Braskem CEO Roberto Simoes said. “We have invested in renewable resources since the company’s formation in 2002. As the first and leading producer of biopolymers…Braskem intends to continue its leadership as the industry transitions to a carbon neutral circular economy.”
In 2009, Braskem launched its long-term sustainability goals for 2020, which emphasized the company’s commitment to providing solutions to address climate change. Through this commitment, Braskem invested in the development of I’m Green brand in 2010, which produces items sourced from renewable and recycled content. The I’m Green initiative reduced Braskem’s intensity of carbon emissions by 20 percent.
Additional sustainability commitments announced this week include expansion of the I’m Green portfolio to include sales of 300,000 tons of recycled content products per year by 2025 and 1 million tons of recycled content products per year by 2030.
“Plastic plays a vital role in society, and we believe that the strategic direction of our latest sustainability commitments will allow plastics to continue its role in advancing innovation and providing sustainable solutions,” Simoes said.