Aug 30, 2023

HM Royal Sustainability Practices Reduce Environmental Impacts

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The growing evidence of climate change highlights the pressing need for global sustainability. It’s crucial to preserve Earth’s resources and lessen our impact on the climate, environment, and people worldwide.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides federal requirements and guidelines for sustainability. These are designed to help facilities lower greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and energy use, all while maintaining efficient, sustainable operations.

Following these guidelines, HM Royal has undertaken several initiatives, including enhancing waste management, increasing energy efficiency, and cultivating an employee culture mindful of environmentally friendly practices.

The chemical industry’s role in sustainability

Profit remains a core focus for businesses, but corporations are increasingly adopting and abiding by practices that also beneficial for society and the environment, aligning with EPA mandates.

The chemical industry is instrumental in this regard. It supports global sustainability through its many processes and innovative products. The following sections detail some of the key sustainability practices that this industry is adopting.

Green Chemistry

This is a strategy employed by chemical companies to design products and processes to minimize or remove harmful substances that could damage the environment and its inhabitants. It’s also referred to as ‘clean chemistry’ because of its emphasis on designing processes and technologies that lower waste production and energy use. This approach also involves substituting harmful elements with safer alternatives and implementing responsible waste management strategies. The ultimate goal is to create safe, efficient, and sustainable chemical products.

Resource Efficiency

This is all about doing more with less. It’s applicable to companies across industries and involves several strategies, including fine-tuning production procedures, shifting towards renewable energy, enhancing equipment productivity, and implementing waste recycling. When chemical companies aim to boost their resource efficiency, they are essentially trying to cut down the amount of raw materials and energy expended in their operations.

Energy Efficiency

As the largest industrial energy consumer, the chemical sector uses different energy sources including natural gas, petroleum, coal, and electricity. It also ranks third in terms of industries with the highest direct CO2 emissions. According to the the National Academy of Engineering, to augment their energy efficiency, chemical companies are honing their existing procedures, recycling waste, investing in renewable raw materials, and developing products that conserve energy. They are also working on improving chemical reaction efficiency and optimizing heat integration within their operations to considerably reduce their carbon footprint.

Renewable Feedstock

Chemical companies are increasingly replacing fossil-based feedstocks such as oil, gas, and coal with renewable or bio-based feedstocks to reduce the carbon emissions of their products. Some are producing chemicals using waste materials as feedstocks, such as crop waste, animal waste, municipal waste and other sources. Others are exploring the use of bio-based feedstocks, including starch, cellulose, fat, and protein. As these renewable feedstocks gain popularity in chemical production, innovative technologies are being developed to transform green carbon into bio-based chemicals. These can then be used to produce other chemicals, according to the Renewable Chemicals Market Study by Global Industry Analysts.

Recycling and Waste Reduction

The effective management of waste is crucial for the chemical industry, particularly when dealing with toxic substances that can harm the environment. The industry has been making progress, as illustrated by the EPA’s report stating that in 2020, only , only 3% of chemical waste was released into the environment. Chemical companies have been adopting strategies to decrease chemical waste, which include transforming or recycling waste into feedstocks and monomers that can be used as raw materials. They are also reusing municipal waste streams for this purpose.

Water Stewardship

Given their substantial water consumption for cooling and manufacturing, chemical companies have a significant role to play in water management. This is particularly important as the water they use often ends up containing highly toxic substances. To manage this, companies are implementing strategies to effectively treat wastewater, recycle water within their production processes, and reduce water usage where possible.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

This emerging field involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, to control emissions produced from burning fossil fuels before they’re released into the atmosphere. Chemical companies are investigating various technologies like chemical looping, adsorption, and gas hydration to remove CO2. Some companies are pioneering the development of these technologies.

Life Cycle Assessment

Chemical companies use life cycle assessment to understand the environmental impact of chemical processes at each stage – from raw material extraction, production, usage, to end-of-life disposal or recycling. This assessment helps identify sustainability impacts and areas that need improvement to shrink their carbon footprints.

Product Stewardship

Using a product-centered approach, chemical companies manage the lifecycle of their products, focusing on environmental, health, and safety impacts throughout all stages.

Supply Chain Management

Chemical companies aim for higher levels of sustainability by reducing the carbon footprint of their supply chains. Sustainable practices for third parties providing raw materials and other goods help lower the environmental impact of the supply chain.

HM Royal Sustainability Practices

By implementing sustainability practices, the chemical industry can significantly contribute to a greener future. HM Royal has implemented initiatives such as improved waste management, greater energy efficiency, and employee awareness of green habits.

Some of our recent sustainability practices include:

• Upgrading warehouse lighting to improve lighting while reducing energy consumption by 65%.
• Replacing a propane forklift with an electric version.
• Installing new office high-efficiency HVAC units that reduced electric consumption while eliminating an inefficient gas-fired steam boiler for heat.
• Roofing warehouses with high-efficiency white Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) to keep them cooler with no additional energy consumption.
• Remediating and selling unused properties to reduce environmental impact and footprint.
• Establishing a 25-mpg min. highway for the sales fleet to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

Future sustainability practices include:

• Converting order to cash processes to a paperless process to reduce paper consumption. Target is a 90% reduction.
• Replacing more warehouse roofs with high-efficiency, TPO material.
• Updating lighting in more offices to reduce energy consumption.
• Increasing fleet mpg to 30 min. to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

Through these green initiatives, HM Royal will positively impact the planet’s health to sustain a cleaner, greener environment for future generations.  We understand that even the smallest improvement can help make a difference and encourage others to follow.

As a specialty chemical and ingredient distributor, HM Royal branded products include a variety of raw materials and chemicals used in compounding to improve the performance and efficiency of rubber, plastics, adhesives, sealants, and protective coatings. Our raw materials experts can answer questions and make recommendations regarding use of different products as compounds in specification applications.  Email us at info@hmroyal.com or complete the inquiry form at https://hmroyal.com/contact/.  Find out more about the products we represent at www.hmroyal.com.