Our contri­bu­tion to achiev­ing global sustain­abil­ity goals

The UN’s Sustain­able Devel­op­ment Goals give us at Evonik Active Oxygens a frame­work with which to align our strat­egy and corpo­rate activ­i­ties. It allows us to develop forward-look­ing, commer­cially success­ful prod­ucts and solu­tions offer­ing a range of sustain­abil­ity bene­fits. This is how we can bring about many posi­tive changes for people and the envi­ron­ment, and where we want to go even further.

People, Planet, Pros­per­ity, Peace and Part­ner­ship: the United Nations have head­lined their Agenda 2030 with five core messages. These “five Ps” are now more impor­tant than ever before and focus on people, our planet, pros­per­ity, peace and part­ner­ship as prin­ci­ples guid­ing global action. The UN General Assem­bly adopted Agenda 2030 back in Septem­ber 2015. It contains 17 global sustain­abil­ity goals (Sustain­abil­ity Devel­op­ment Goals, SDGs) and is aimed at poli­cy­mak­ers, the busi­ness and scien­tific commu­ni­ties as well as all members of civic society.

Doing busi­ness responsibly

The Sustain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) call on us as a company to engage in respon­si­ble and forward-look­ing busi­ness practices:

• We are commit­ted to reduc­ing our CO₂ foot­print. That is why we are intro­duc­ing measures to protect the climate.
• We moni­tor the condi­tions along the supply chain, in which the raw mate­ri­als we use are produced.
• We want our employ­ees to stay healthy and feel good about work­ing for us.

We need to do even more as a company that produces some of the world’s most sustain­able chem­i­cals — hydro­gen perox­ide, peracetic acid and persul­fates. The UN states this clearly in its Agenda 2030: “We call on all compa­nies to use their creativ­ity and power of inno­va­tion to meet sustain­able devel­op­ment challenges.”

That’s what we are doing at Evonik Active Oxygens.

We have sustain­able prod­ucts that our experts are constantly enhanc­ing, and we have energy- and resource-saving tech­nolo­gies that we continue to improve. We are there­fore making a posi­tive contri­bu­tion to sustain­able devel­op­ment around the world in a wide range of appli­ca­tions. To become even more sustain­able, we are work­ing on trans­form­ing our processes as we head towards climate-neutral manufacturing.

The Evonik Group is focus­ing on the follow­ing areas:

• preserv­ing our ecosystem
• ensur­ing health and wellbeing
• moving the circu­lar econ­omy forward
• combat­ing climate change.

You can find out more in our special “Sustain­abil­ity Focus Areas” publi­ca­tion on the Evonik website.

Evonik Active Oxygens is also active in these focus areas. Here are a few exam­ples of the activ­i­ties we are undertaking:

Preserv­ing our ecosystem

We use hydro­gen perox­ide and peracetic acid to produce asep­tic pack­ag­ing designed to keep food and bever­age prod­ucts germ-free. These prod­ucts remain fresh for longer, with­out the need for energy-inten­sive refrig­er­a­tion. This enables people in remote regions to be provided with food that’s safe to eat. (SDG 2)

We also want to preserve valu­able food­stuffs by apply­ing our long-estab­lished process, in which peracetic acid is used to combat a fungal toxin that blights wheat and barley. This envi­ron­men­tally compat­i­ble treat­ment enables more cere­als of better qual­ity to be used to feed people and animals. (SDG 12)

Ensur­ing health and wellbeing

An adequate water supply and clean drink­ing water are essen­tial for people and the envi­ron­ment. That is why we are devel­op­ing tech­nolo­gies to use less water in our produc­tion processes. We are also active in the field of water treat­ment: our green prod­ucts, hydro­gen perox­ide and peracetic acid, enable us to replace less sustain­able chem­i­cals like chlo­rine and there­fore help people lead health­ier lives around the world.

A waste­water treat­ment plant using peracetic acid is oper­ated in Memphis, Tennessee, for exam­ple, to treat ‘high-main­te­nance’ waste­water from the Missis­sippi River. The peracetic acid produc­tion plant we built there in the imme­di­ate vicin­ity has also grad­u­ally started supply­ing neigh­bor­ing munic­i­pal waste­water treat­ment plants. (SDG 6)

The hydro­gen perox­ide we produce forms the basis of the Fenton process, which is used to pretreat indus­trial waste­water in Marl, Germany, for exam­ple. This treat­ment reli­ably prevents pollu­tants from enter­ing water­courses. Fenton is also an effec­tive and at the same time envi­ron­men­tally compat­i­ble and energy-saving alter­na­tive to the incin­er­a­tion of aque­ous indus­trial waste. (SDG 6)

Combat­ing climate change

We are devel­op­ing forward-look­ing tech­nolo­gies to conserve scarce resources and energy. Our HPPO process, devel­oped together with thyssenk­rupp Indus­trial Solu­tions, is one exam­ple of how this can be achieved. (SDG 9)

In addi­tion to these tangi­ble appli­ca­tions, a high­light is our roadmap to climate neutral­ity, which we have drawn up in line with the global sustain­abil­ity goals. It describes the climate protec­tion action we intend to take in order to make our manu­fac­tur­ing entirely climate-neutral by 2040. (SDG 13)

These are just a few exam­ples of how our prod­ucts and processes are help­ing us to make people’s lives better today and tomor­row, in accor­dance with the United Nations guide­lines. We will continue to go down this path and open up new lines of busi­ness as well. In keep­ing with SDG 17, we are also only too happy to work together with part­ners to get even faster and more sustain­ably to where we all want to be.