Women at work

INEOS channels energy into creating a more equal and diverse workforce for the benefit of all

20
min 2023

“But now that I look back, it was quite abnormal and it was not right the way women were treated.”

Today thanks to a focus on recruiting more women, the number of female chemical engineers in INEOS has never been higher.

“The chemical industry is still quite predominantly male, but it is changing in a really positive way,” said Sharon Todd, CEO of SCI (Society of Chemical Industry), a global innovation hub which helps to accelerate science out of the lab and into industry for society’s benefit.

“The industry just needs to change faster.”

INEOS is helping to close the gender gap, but realises there is still much work to be done.

Years ago, entering a world where few women had worked had its challenges.

Anja Hilden, who works at INEOS Köln in Germany, said she was often the only woman in her department when she became a chemical engineer about 30 years ago.

“It was challenging because I didn’t have any role models,” she said.

Women also faced further obstacles if they decided to start a family because there was an assumption that they would be the baby’s primary carer.

“It’s not just an issue that INEOS still has to tackle,” said Anne-Gret Iturriaga Abarzua, Head of Communications at INEOS Köln. “Society has to change as well.”

Quantaze Watts, Global Talent Director at INEOS Styrolution, believes the stereotypes are embedded in society.

“It goes back to when you are a kid, and you go to the store and ask for the Tonka truck and it’s mainly a boy’s toy, not a girl’s toy,” he said.

“We need to go to the little girls and let them know that they can do this, so that engineering jobs are not seen as men-only jobs.”

Prof. Dr. Petra Skiebe-Corrette, Director of NatLab, a non-formal science laboratory at the Freie Universität Berlin, believes the problem stems from the moment a child becomes aware of his or her gender.

“It is important that, before these gender stereotypes kick in, girls have STEM experience and know they can do it and enjoy it,” she said.

For more than 14 years INEOS has been involved in a programme in Germany, known as TuWas! The company believes that promoting science in schools is key to getting children – boys as well as girls - interested in STEM careers.

“Of all the companies supporting TuWas! – and I think there are more than 80 – INEOS is the one that supports the most schools,” said Petra.

Sharon, who graduated with a degree in chemistry from Southampton University in 1988, is also all in favour of a more diverse workforce.

“Our founders were creative, inventive and valued diversity,” she said. “They recognised the importance of diversity for innovation.”

She believes the industry has an image problem and does not sell itself to young people be they men or women.

“It needs to present itself as an opportunity to create change to enhance society through innovation, and as a place where, certainly for
young scientists and engineers, they can put their skills to work and have a really valuable and rewarding career,” she said.

She described it as a massively important challenge.

“We need this flux of diversity,” she said. “We need diversity in our young people and in our middle and senior management.”

She said people from all different backgrounds could help to contribute to a new wave of scientific innovation to tackle the big societal challenges of climate change and global health.

“The industry has a vital role to play in delivering real societal benefit, not just profit,” she said, adding: “If we promoted the diversity of job opportunities, the breadth of experience that industry can offer and the direct ability to affect real change, I think we'd get a higher influx of women.”

WOMEN may have dominated the 1971 Grammy Awards, but elsewhere, opportunities were few and far between for American women – especially those seeking careers in traditonally male-dominated professions. Kathryn Shuler had grown up knowing – and feeling – that. Even her parents tried to dissuade her from pursuing a career in science. Technical jobs were for boys. Not girls.

To appease her parents, she opted to study business at university.

But the lure of science was too great, and she eventually switched to chemistry.

She also hoped that American society would change thanks to Title IX, a 1972 piece of landmark civil rights legislation that banned sex discrimination in schools and colleges.

“Before the introduction of Title IX, universities could refuse to allow girls to enrol in certain courses,” she said.

“Women could be summarily dismissed from engineering courses or stopped from pursuing science degrees. The prevailing thought was that they were only going to university to get a husband. And that they were only pursuing engineering or science courses to get a better husband.”

But despite the change in the law, old habits and attitudes remained.

“There wasn't a lot of encouragement for women who pursued engineering and science,” she said.

“If we were working in groups, some of my male classmates would not listen to my ideas and went so far as to meet without me.”

Kathryn was determined to complete her course, though, and finally graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984
with a degree in BS biochemistry.

She initially worked for a small Japanese-owned commercial analytical laboratory where she later discovered that men were paid $0.50 an hour more than women.

“It was the equivalent of a car payment back then,” she said.

A year later she was working as a lab technician at a nationwide metal company’s research facility, where she was responsible for a specialised piece of analytical equipment.

“I was very proud of the work I did,” she said.

The job required a specialised set of tools, which kept disappearing.

“A colleague told me that he had lent them to someone, but he could never remember who,” she said. “I got to the point where I couldn't do my job because I had no tools.”

Thankfully her understanding male boss replaced the tools – and offered her a safe place to store them.

At the time, Kathryn remembers feeling frustrated, but today she realises what her colleague was trying to achieve.

“It was just a very passive, aggressive way of saying, you shouldn't be here,” she said.

Despite the negativity that surrounded her, though, quitting was never an option.

“I saw other women leave because they weren’t prepared for some of the resistance,” said Kathryn. “But I never felt like giving it up because it was something I loved.”

She went on to co-author several patents and started working on a company-subsidised Master’s Degree despite being told she could never be promoted to a scientist even if she got her degree.

Finally, she decided to leave and secured a job as a chemist at a small analytical equipment manufacturer.

“It was 1989 and it was the first place I worked that considered me as an equal to my male counterparts,” she said.

Two years later she moved to Houston to become a chemist at Solvay.

At the time, it never occurred to her that her views and abilities were being challenged more than her male colleagues.

All she knew was that she would only be treated as an equal there if she could prove she was capable wof doing the job. Equality, however, didn’t always extend to the facilities.

“If you needed to use the bathroom, you had to leave where you were and go to the administration building to use the ladies’ room,” said Kathryn. “It was about a 10-minute walk.”

Thankfully, as more women started to join the company, management recognised the need for change, and some of the men’s rooms became women’s rooms.

“Not everyone was happy about that,” she said.

Kathryn later moved into the Tech Service & Product Development group.

“There was only one woman in the group apart from me,” she said.

Within a few years, though, she was managing the polypropylene TS&D group After BP acquired Solvay’s Houstonbased polypropylene assets in 2001, Kathryn was transferred to BP’s research centre near Chicago, only returning to Houston when INEOS bought most of BP’s chemical assets in 2005.

Today, she’s happy and fulfilled in her role at INEOS which has given her tremendous freedom over the years to make a difference.

“Over time, I've really seen a major change and a major shift,” she said. “I don't hear about some of the issues that we used to hear about. I don't think everything's solved, but I think that we've really come a long way.”

What’s particularly pleasing to Kathryn is seeing men and women engineers or plant operators working together.

“I see more of an equal footing than I've ever seen before,” she said.

But Kathryn believes what has really made the difference is INEOS’ commitment to diversity.

“Sometimes I think that's taken the wrong way,” she said. “Some see it as ticking a box but it goes deeper than that."

“When you hire people with different experiences, from different backgrounds, and who have different ways of looking at life, you have a bigger diversity of problem solvers.”

And that, she said, is where real power lies.

“You want that diversity of thought,” she said. “You need people who look and think differently. We should want diversity in the workplace because we are better for it.”

Her own team reflects that approach. She works alongside a former teacher, an exercise scientist, a graphic designer and a PR expert.

“None of them came from a corporate background but they're really phenomenal people with some really specialised skills,” she said.

Despite all the positive changes, Kathryn believes some things will only change when people recognise their own prejudices.

“We all have our way of looking at the world,” she said. “But we need to make sure we are not unfairly judging or limiting people based on our own prejudices. We need to look at people as individuals.

“There's still work to be done but I'm pleased that we've come a long way and I look forward to future generations making things even better.”

TODAY Stacy Putman is in charge of producing many of the leaders of tomorrow for INEOS’ businesses in the US.

The careers of more than 300 people are currently in her hands. “It’s the most amazing job I have ever had,” she said. “I am helping them to develop the skills to make them great leaders of the future.” She understands how important it is to help, guide and support employees, because it’s what was lacking when she set out on her own journey 40 years ago. Back then, the world she entered was really for men only.

“I had studied chemistry at school and really liked it,” she said. “It was like magic and cooking at the same time.”

But after securing a place at Texas Tech University to study chemical engineering, an advisor took her to one side.

Find a husband quickly and then you can transfer to an easier degree, or you can just quit, he told her.

“It was pretty disheartening because this was the early 80s, not the 1940s,” she said.

She did find a husband on the course, but she also decided to stay, graduated and joined the world of work.

But hers has not been an easy journey.

“The view was if you don’t like it, leave,” she said. “It was very much sink or swim. If you could swim, then you might get some neat opportunities or you might not. No one understood community or networking, other than the good old boy network.”

Stacy said she was always made to feel that she was ‘taking the place’ of a man by simply working.

“We accepted a lot of things and attitudes then that we certainly would not accept today,” she said.

A few years ago, she experienced a huge – and welcome – change. She was asked by INEOS O&P’s board of directors to lead a polypropylene facility in California. The job would mean moving 1,800 miles.

“I was thrilled and challenged to be given such an opportunity,” she said. “I told my manager that I had watched and learned from a lot of our other site directors.”

But that’s not what he wanted to hear. He didn’t want her to copy what men had done. He wanted her to forge her own path. To be herself.

“I was being asked to go and set the course for the future for that plant and do it the way I saw was needed,” she said. “Not follow what the guys had done.” She left for California.

“I had never experienced that before in my life,” she said. “I made my own decisions and led a team to make recommendations. It was the best job and best experience I had ever had in my entire career.”

Stacy praises INEOS’ senior leadership team.

“For some time now, they have understood the importance of a diverse workforce and diverse leadership,” she said. “And I think we've started to see the benefit of that in different locations and different roles.”

But she believes women are sometimes holding themselves back from these opportunities.

“Just because you have never seen a woman in a role at INEOS doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t apply for it,” she said.

“I’ve always replaced a man in every role I’ve ever had in my career. Women, and really everyone, should not hold themselves back because they don’t look like the person in the job.”

“So could a woman be a maintenance manager? Could a woman be a business director? Could a woman be a fire chief? That's happening all over our industry today. Until we see it repeated, society will continue to question whether or not some of these roles are really the right roles for women. Let’s keep this going so we can repeat, repeat, repeat.”

WOMEN were still in the minority when Cassie Bradley signed up to study chemical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. Family and friends were supportive of her choice, but others often seemed surprised. “The surprised reaction wasn’t unusual,” said Cassie. “And looking back, it did have a negative effect because it reinforced the feeling that I was out of place or didn’t belong there.”

But since 2015, she has been working for INEOS and has had a very positive experience.

“INEOS is a good place for women to work,” she said.

But she believes the company could make it even better by engaging with the women’s groups that now exist within the company.

“INEOS could learn from these women’s experiences, identify the reasons why so few women are in senior executive roles and, more importantly, work out how to close the gap,” she said.

Cassie, who initially worked as a production engineer at the company’s Channahon polystyrene plant, launched Lean Into Success, women’s networking group at INEOS Styrolution.

It is one of several groups that now exist within the INEOS group.

“It is important for women to be part of organisations like this so they can learn from each other and find mentors,” she said.

“Although we may ultimately realise we are a minority, we can build a community of belonging within the organisation.”

One reason why Cassie believes very few women become senior executives is due to visibility. Or lack of it.

“Women don't see other women in those roles, so they don't view themselves in those roles, and therefore don't aspire,” she said.

She felt women could help support each other by learning how to ‘lean in’ and push outside their comfort zones to demonstrate they had the skills to become a leader.

“Women are often not given the benefit of the doubt and have to perform at a higher level early on in order to be considered as a future leader,” she said.

But Cassie, who is the sustainability commercial manager at INEOS Styrolution, remains optimistic about the future for INEOS. And for women in INEOS too.

“Traditionally there has been a difference in expectations between men and women in the home as well as the workplace,” she said. “A lot of times women have a full-time second job at home as well as what they're doing at work which strains both their physical and mental energies.

“But that’s changing. Men want a good work life balance too. We all want to be successful both at work and at home.”

“I was being asked to go and set the course for the future for that plant and do it the way I saw was needed. Not follow what the guys had done.”

FRAN Millar freely admits that she was once loud, pushy and aggressive at work. She saw it as the best way to operate in male-dominated environments.

“I just used to go at it,” she said. “But I was like a bull in a china shop and I would leave a trail of destruction behind me.”

Today she is CEO of INEOS Belstaff and credits those who helped her early on in her career to refine her leadership skills.

“They sort of course corrected me,” she said. “I was lucky. They showed me how to refine how I operated and refine how I dealt with people without compromising who I am and my own principles.”

Fran had left school at 18 because she didn’t want to go to university. She initially worked as a PA to Anthony Boucher and Peter Worth,
businessmen with a track record of event management and representing athletes including Björn Borg.

When Fran’s brother, David, took the yellow jersey on stage one of his debut Tour de France, Anthony suggested she should consider
managing him.

“He thought I was a pretty awful PA but felt I had the attitude needed to manage talent,” she said.

She went on to set up her own talent and event management agency, FACE Partnership.

Within two years she was representing most of the major cycling talent in the UK, including her brother, Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas.

In mid-2003 she came up with a concept for a major track cycling event that would showcase the very best of international track talent in the UK’s only international standard velodrome in a Saturday night format that involved live music and track centre entertainment.

“Everyone told us it wouldn’t work, but in the end they had to delay the start because the queues were so big that they couldn’t get everyone into the venue,” she said.

Revolution went on to become the most successful track cycling event in the UK at a time when British Cycling was achieving unprecedented success – with the track team consistently dominating international competition.

The hugely successful national programme was producing talent in all disciplines of the sport under the leadership of Dave Brailsford.

In 2007 the Tour de France started in London, with five British riders in five different teams and the seed was planted that the time had come to build a British team.

Dave approached Fran to help with the project and, over the next 18 months, Team Sky took shape.

Fran, who supported Dave in the project management whilst he focused on the Beijing Olympics, was fundamental in helping to build and project manage the team’s creation.

“We were working 24 hours a day, seven days a week and doing everything we could to make it successful,” she said.

In the 10 years of Team Sky they won six Tours, with four different riders.

When Sky ended their involvement in cycling, INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe stepped in to take over the team, which became Team INEOS in May 2019.

As part of the INEOS ownership Dave and Fran were asked to support in the concept, management and delivery of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge.

“We were being asked to do something that nobody had ever been able to do before,” she said. “It was such a massive undertaking. But it would not have happened if it had not been for INEOS and Jim.”

It is that INEOS spirit – and that belief that anything is possible – that Fran admires greatly.

“I believe in what the business stands for, its values, how it operates, and how it treats people,” she said.

Not long after Eliud Kipchoge’s historic run in Vienna, Fran was offered another challenge – as CEO for INEOS’ fashion business Belstaff.

Her whole life changed in five days as she left her life in Manchester to begin a new role in London.

Looking back, despite her own personal success story, she knows that many women, women of colour and people with disabilities have struggled with
the uneven playing field.

“I have had nothing but backing since I joined INEOS,” she said. “INEOS doesn’t care whether I am male or female.” But she is aware of the need to help where she can.

“We have a diversity panel on Belstaff, and levelling the playing field is important when you are in a position of leadership,” she said.

“But getting enough women into businesses, getting enough people of colour into businesses, getting enough diversity into businesses, starts way further
down the pipeline than people realise.

“It's like sport. You don't have any talent in sport if you don't start at development level and build them through the talent pathway.”

ANUPRIYA Gupta comes from a family of chemical engineers. Her father was one, so too was her grandfather. So both were supportive when she decided she too wanted to become a chemical engineer.

For the past three years she has worked at INEOS O&P at Chocolate Bayou in Texas. It’s an environment dominated by men.

“Frequently being the only woman in the room, I always wondered what to do,” she said. “I was hesitant to speak out in case my ideas got passed up because I had a unique perspective.

“But I also thought that the only way to find out the answer would be to jump straight in.”

And that’s what she did, starting with asking colleagues very early on to learn how to pronounce her name, rather than giving her a nickname.

“My name is my identity,” she said. “It’s who I am. If you change my name, you change my identity.”

As a process engineer, she is responsible for the day-to-day performance of the plant to ensure it runs smoothly and efficiently.

“Occasionally I have been on the receiving end of some strange looks,” she said. “But having that pushback to some of my ideas has just made me a stronger engineer.”

Over the past few years, she has witnessed and welcomed change and changing attitudes within INEOS.

“I can see the transition happening,” she said. “INEOS is definitely moving in the right direction in terms of diversity in the workplace.”

Anupriya said a diverse workforce was important.

“We need people looking at the same problem from a different perspective,” she said. “If we don’t, if we are all looking at it from the same place, how are we going to be trailblazers in our industry?”

She said she was encouraged when she attended a recent career fair with a team of engineers from INEOS. “We did a good job of setting the standard because we were a team of mainly women,” she said.

EVIDENCE has shown that for a woman to succeed in a male-dominated industry, confidence matters as much as competence.

Gabriela de Gouveia, who joined INEOS Styrolution in Switzerland in May 2022, believes that to be true. “In my career, there have been times when I have faced prejudice outside the company,” she said. “But I have found it is important to manage those situations confidently.” The problem is that women are sometimes less self-assured than men.

Gabriela is a commercial product manager whose job involves managing the supply and demand of a range of plastic products.

In addition to deciding the price and analysing the market, she is the intermediate between the sales and supply chain teams.

She says it is sometimes challenging to work in an industry dominated by men, but is full of praise for INEOS’ approach to women in the workplace.

“Women are generally well received and encouraged to improve and grow,” she said.

Her hope, though, is that more women seek jobs in the chemical industry.

“If more women join the field and break stereotypes, there will be a greater acceptance of women in the industry,” she said.

“It is sometimes challenging to work in an industry dominated by men, but is full of praise for INEOS’ approach to women in the workplace.”

AN ORGANISATION, which was founded by Facebook’s former chief operating officer to empower women at work, continues to spread its wings. More and more women around the world are now setting up their own Lean In Circles so they can share their struggles, get and give advice and celebrate their achievements.

“Just hearing how somebody else went through a battle can be so encouraging and spark new ideas for you,” said Cassie Bradley, a sustainability commercial manager who set up a Lean In Circle for her female colleagues at INEOS Styrolution in Illinois in America. The small group of women now meet regularly.

“Lean In Circles are all about peer mentoring,” she said. “We share experiences and ideas, and give feedback when we succeed and when we fail.”

Lean In was founded by Sheryl Sandberg, a Harvard-educated mother of five who stepped down as Facebook’s chief operating officer last year to focus on her philanthropic work.

In 2010, she gave a TED talk in which she called on women to believe in themselves and their own success.

“Women systematically underestimate their own abilities,” she said. “Men will attribute their success to themselves. Women will attribute it to other external factors. If women do a good job, they will say someone helped them, they got lucky and worked really hard.”

INEOS Köln in Germany has also recently introduced a Lean In Circle.

“I really hope this will help my female colleagues to develop their communication and leadership skills and stand up for their needs,” said Anja Hilden, who has worked for the chemical industry for more than 30 years.

“I was very often the only woman in the department which was challenging because you didn’t have role models, so you had to invent yourself.”

LISA Wiedenhaus has no qualms about working in a male-dominated industry because, at INEOS Köln in Germany, the fact she is a woman is irrelevant. Everyone, she says, is treated equally.

“Sometimes I realise that I am the only woman in a meeting, but nobody makes me feel as if I am,” she said. “It makes no difference to them. We all get the same chances, are appreciated and taken seriously.”

Lisa officially joined INEOS in October 2016 after graduating from the European University of Applied Sciences in Brühl, Germany.

But by then, she had actually been working for the company for three years as part of a dual-study programme after finishing school at 19.

“The programme allowed me to study and work at the same time,” she said.

Today, she is an energy business controller, with responsibility for reviewing the monthly results of the Köln energy business, and providing business analysis
to the Energy Commercial Manager to enable him to deliver business targets.

She also produces management reports that are used to make economic decisions.

It is a job she loves. “I cannot think of any aspect or situation in which being a woman would be disadvantageous,” she said.

“Even after maternity leave, most women come back to either the same job, or at least a very, very similar job which makes it easy to return to work.”

Although she feels confident and supported at work, she values the opportunity to meet other women working in INEOS.

“It is always good to share experiences and listen to each other’s problems, but it is equally important to hear about each other’s successes,” she said.

AN ORGANISATION, which was founded by Facebook’s former chief operating officer to empower women at work, continues to spread its wings. More and more women around the world are now setting up their own Lean In Circles so they can share their struggles, get and give advice and celebrate their achievements.

“Lean In Circles are all about peer mentoring,” she said. “We share experiences and ideas, and give feedback when we succeed and when we fail.”

Lean In was founded by Sheryl Sandberg, a Harvard-educated mother of five who stepped down as Facebook’s chief operating officer last year to focus on her philanthropic work.

In 2010, she gave a TED talk in which she called on women to believe in themselves and their own success.

INEOS Köln in Germany has also recently introduced a Lean In Circle.

“I was very often the only woman in the department which was challenging because you didn’t have role models, so you had to invent yourself.”

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INEOS Energy

INEOS cannot survive without energy. And neither can the world. Both rely on oil and gas to function. And they will do for years to come until governments and consumers are able to tap into a source of energy that is reliable, affordable and sustainable. “Oil and gas companies can support this transition by providing alternatives, but they can’t make people buy electric cars or use less energy,” said David Bucknall, CEO of INEOS Energy and former head of BP’s global oil and low carbon trading businesses. INEOS, which manufactures essential chemicals for the preservation of food and water, for clothing, medicines, electronics, cars, planes, buildings, wind turbines and solar panels, has used gas and oil for decades. As both a fuel and as a raw material. INEOS also uses wind power and hydrogen to run some of its plants. Wood pulp and recycled plastic is also being used – instead of gas and oil – to make some of its products. “If we can, we are doing it,” he said. That transition is also one of the reasons why INEOS Energy was launched. The new business is designed to reflect the changing climate. “This isn’t green washing,” said Brian Gilvary, who became chairman of INEOS Energy after he retired from BP. “INEOS Energy is an exciting new business that incorporates all of the existing INEOS Oil & Gas assets and will also enable INEOS to become a powerful force in the coming energy transition.” Hydrogen and renewable energy will both play a huge role in that transition. INEOS has set out plans to develop ‘green hydrogen’ projects – using electrolysis and renewable energy – in Norway, Germany and Belgium, as well as the UK, which will also host the headquarters of its new hydrogen-focused unit. What industry needs, though, says INEOS, is greater policy certainty from government. “If the investment framework is in place, then investment tends to follow it,” he said. “Germany is very advanced. It has tax incentives and fiscal incentives which you need to create those investments.” The German government recently awarded INEOS €770,000 to carry out a feasibility study into its plans to build and operate a new green hydrogen plant at the Verbund site in Koln – a move that could cut CO2 emissions by more than 100,000 tonnes per year. “The funding decision shows the significance that the state attaches to our project,” said Dr Stephan Müller, Commercial Energy Manager at INEOS in Köln. “Water electrolysis for the production of green hydrogen is an incredibly important component of our ambitious sustainability agenda with the goal of reaching net zero by 2045. Those plans, though, are only part of INEOS’ €2 billion Euro package of green hydrogen projects across Europe announced in October last year. Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Former Minister of Economics and Innovation, described the German project as an important step on the way to a climateneutral chemical industry in North Rhine-Westphalia. “In the future, the project can supply not only the Köln Chempark but also logistics with green hydrogen,” he said. “We need precisely such holistic projects to be successful in the transformation.” Up until 2015, INEOS had focused solely on chemicals. But in October of that year, it ventured upstream for the first time. It bought all the UK North Sea gas fields owned by the DEA Group, followed by Fairfield Energy Holdings Ltd’s 25% interest in the Clipper South platform.  Months later, INEOS bought DONG Energy’s entire oil and gas assets in the North Sea for more than €1 billion and acquired the 235-mile Forties Pipeline System, which delivers about 40% of the UK’s oil and gas to the mainland. They were landmark acquisitions and steered the company into new, exciting territory. Acquiring DONG Energy’s assets has also meant INEOS Energy is now at the forefront of one of the most exciting projects in the world. The Greensand carbon capture and storage project in Denmark has the potential to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere efficiently and quickly. In March, the INEOS-led Greensand project achieved a world first, proving to the world that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) can work, after carbon dioxide (CO2) from Belgium was successfully captured, transported cross border and stored under the Danish North Sea in a retired INEOS oil reservoir. “It cannot stand alone, but it is an important tool if we are to solve the climate crisis,” said David. He said the determination to seek alternative, cleaner sources of energy was high on INEOS’ agenda. Each business has developed a roadmap – effectively an investment plan – to achieve net zero by 2050, while still remaining profitable and ahead of evolving regulations and legislation. “Based on the roadmaps developed to date, we will achieve a reduction of over 33% by 2030, the one third marker on the road to net zero,” he said. Its plans are also backed by investment. Over €6 billion is currently being invested in a wide range of projects that will reduce INEOS’ CO2 footprint by harnessing the power of a natural gas that INEOS has been producing as a by-product for 100 years. As Europe’s largest operator of electrolysis – the technology to produce hydrogen – INEOS is in a unique position to serve the hydrogen economy. In the UK, the focus is on green and blue hydrogen. Recently, INEOS also provided cornerstone funding for HydrogenOne Capital which was established to provide investors with opportunities in clean hydrogen and energy storage for the energy transition. Despite the huge strides that INEOS is making, the company believes that natural gas will still play a huge part in life after 2050. And it’s not alone in thinking that. The Gas Exporting Countries Forum, an international governmental organisation made up of 19 member countries, believes natural gas will actually increase its share in the global energy mix from over 23% today to 27% in 2050 – not least because theglobal population is set to rise by almost two billion to 9.7 billion by 2050, which will pile additional pressure on the demand for energy, food and materials. “Natural gas will come out on top in the global energy mix,” said a spokesman. It argued that despite ‘aggressive’ decarbonisation actions under the EU’s proposed Fit for 55 package, natural gas was still viewed as having a future. Earlier this year The European Commission also said that natural gas and nuclear power had a role to play in the shift to a renewable-based future. “It’s about time,” said Robert Bryce, author of A Question of Power. “The policymakers in Europe are finally embracing energy realism.”

5 min read

Carbon Capture & Storage

INEOS has helped to prove to the world that CO2 can be safely captured, transported and injected into retired oil and gas wells under the seabed. On March 8th 2023 it achieved the world’s first cross border off-shore CO2 storage initiative intended to mitigate climate change. The successful trial saw CO2, captured from INEOS Oxide’s plant in Belgium and shipped 500 miles by Danish Shipping to INEOS’ Nini offshore oil platform in the Danish North Sea. There, the liquefied gas was injected into the retired oil reservoir 2km under the seabed. The INEOS-led Project Greensand was hailed as a big moment for Europe’s transition to a greener economy and the world’s understanding of carbon capture and storage. “You have shown that it can be done,” said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission in recognition of the Greensand project and the first injection event in Denmark on March 8. “You have shown that we can grow our industry through innovation and competition, and at the same time, remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, through ingenuity and cooperation.” There to witness the historic moment was Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik, Brian Gilvary, Executive Chairman of INEOS Energy, and Hugo Dijkgraaf, Chief Technology Officer at Wintershall Dea, which, along with INEOS, headed the consortium of 23 organisations involved in Project Greensand. “This project proves that carbon capture and storage is a viable way to permanently store CO2 emissions under the North Sea,” said Hugo. Anne H. Steffensen, CEO of Danish Shipping, said failure was not an option. “There is no way we could have failed on this,” she said. And the reason is simple. For carbon capture and storage is seen as critically important to help decarbonise the world’s energy and tackle climate change. The consortium of 23 partners is jointly led by INEOS. Project Greensand, as it is known due to the type of sandstone under the seabed, is the first time that the full value chain has been tested – and it is being done purely to protect the environment. “All the parts of the process had been developed and worked well in isolation,” said David Bucknall, CEO of INEOS Energy. “Connecting the parts and building the infrastructure was the challenge.” The plan now – following the successful trial – is to start operating commercially in 2025. Once fully operational, it should be able to store up to eight million tonnes of CO2 every year. There is immense pride within the company at being involved in such a ground-breaking project. Mads Weng Gade, CCO, Head of INEOS Energy Denmark, described it as a fantastic milestone in the fight against climate change.“I have been looking forward to this day for a very long time,” he said. “We have all shown true, pioneering spirit and worked hard to achieve this.” Many critics have argued that carbon capture and storage is unscalable, expensive and energy-intensive. But David, a former BP executive, said the project was based on proven technologies. “The pilot and development phases are about making them work together effectively,” he said. In December, the INEOS-led project received £22 million from the Danish government – the largest single grant ever awarded in Denmark. “Denmark has one of the most ambitious climate targets in the world and sees carbon capture and storage as one of the steps necessary to reach its goals,” said David. “This project will contribute significantly to Denmark's carbon reduction targets.” The project will also secure highly-skilled jobs. “It makes sense for the oil and gas industry to drive this new industry because they have many years of experience in this field,” said Mads. “We will be using the same infrastructure, the same geology and the same people who have detailed knowledge of these reservoirs.” Instead of dismantling oil rigs, they can be repurposed. Instead of gas flowing out, the process will simply be reversed to allow  carbon dioxide to be injected into the wells. INEOS’ long-term goal is to build a fleet of ships and CO2 storage facilities on land and a terminal so that the ships can dock, load the CO2 into containers and then sail out to the platform. “We anticipate Greensand to be competitive commercially once a commercial market for CO2 is up and running,” said David.

5 min read

Hydrogen – European governments support INEOS

INEOS is not short of ambition when it comes to hydrogen and how it can help cut greenhouse gas emissions. But it cannot do  anything without government support. Europe’s on board, but more is needed from the UK Government. GOVERNMENTS around the world are now investing their time, energy and money in hydrogen projects. For INEOS, that is good andwelcome news. “The lead in all this has to come from industry, but we cannot do anything without government support,” said Wouter Bleukx, INEOS' Hydrogen Business Manager, who likened it to the early days of wind power, which attracted significant government investment. “That’s what we need here,” he said. Governments in Norway, Belgium and Germany are all investing in hydrogen projects put forward by INEOS. “Hydrogen projects are not without risk because they are extremely expensive, but if we didn’t believe in this, we wouldn’t be doing it,” he said. INEOS was recently awarded €770,000 to carry out a feasibility study to see whether green hydrogen can be integrated at INEOS’ O&P site in Köln, Germany, and converted into green ammonia by INEOS Nitriles. Producing green ammonia could cut global greenhouse gas emissions by almost 1% every year. In April this year, the Norwegian government gave INEOS Inovyn €1 million to thoroughly analyse its Project Aquarius plans to build one of Norway’s first hydrogen plants at its chemical manufacturing site in Rafnes. “We support those who take the lead in technology development,” said Nils Kristian Nakstad at Enova, a state enterprise owned by Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment. Geir Tuft, CEO of INEOS Inovyn, said the Aquarius project was an important part of INEOS' strategy to take a leading role in developing industrial-scale hydrogen manufacturing. Zero-carbon electricity will be used to produce clean hydrogen through the electrolysis of water. These government investments follow similar funding for an ambitious project in Belgium to investigate the possibility of mixing captured carbon dioxide waste with sustainably-generated hydrogen to produce methanol, a chemical widely used in everything from medicines, clothing and paints, to car parts and fuel. If the consortium agrees, a plant, capable of producing 8,000 tonnes of sustainable methanol every year, will be built at INEOS Inovyn's chemical manufacturing complex at Lillo. The UK government has so far been slower to react, but Wouter said INEOS Inovyn, which has been producing and using low-carbon hydrogen in the UK for over 100 years, was pressing ahead with its plans for its Runcorn site regardless. It is currently building a compression unit to increase the supply of hydrogen to help fuel the UK’s transport network – and produce hydrogen-powered stationary fuel cells, allowing polluting diesel generators to become a thing of the past. Funding, though, will be sought for its planned electrolyser. “We are planning to apply for government funding, but if it is not forthcoming, we will have to look elsewhere,” said Wouter. What INEOS hopes to establish, through its many hydrogen-based projects around the world, is credibility. “We are gaining a lot of expertise, a lot of knowledge, a lot of networks and a lot of partners,” he said. “But we need to make something work on the ground before we set off on another big adventure.” INEOS believes in a future powered by hydrogen.  The challenge for its hydrogen team, which recently doubled in size, is convincing governments that a net zero economy by 2050 will be impossible without it. For INEOS’ ambitions don’t end here. It is already exploring the possibility of building a large-scale electrolyser ‘in a windy and sunny place’ so it can produce enough cheap green hydrogen – and its derivatives – to be transported to the European market. INEOS wants to be at the forefront of the energy transition and is prepared to invest to make that happen.

3 min read

Hydrogen pipeline trial

PIONEERING research is to be carried out to discover whether existing natural gas pipelines in the UK can be repurposed for hydrogen. The research is critical to understanding whether hydrogen can replace natural gas in the UK’s gas network and help to decarbonise heating. INEOS will supply hydrogen to SGN, which will flow through a 30km decommissioned pipeline between INEOS’ Grangemouth refinery and Granton on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Andrew Gardner, chairman of INEOS Grangemouth, said if the trial – the first of its kind – was successful, the Scottish petrochemicals site could become a hub for hydrogen production, use and export. “Hydrogen gas behaves slightly differently from natural gas, so it is important to understand what is needed to repurpose the pipeline, and the wider 11,000km of local transmission system (LTS) pipelines throughout the UK, to carry hydrogen,” said Gemma Simpson, SGN Director of LTS Futures. “SGN’s LTS Futures project combines a suite of laboratory and offsite testing in preparation for a live trial of the Grangemouth to Granton pipeline.” In August, the energy regulator Ofgem approved the research to understand if the Grangemouth to Granton pipeline could be repurposed for the live trial. “The offsite trials’ work will allow us to develop and test procedures for making new connections to the live trial pipeline,” said Gemma. The project is currently developing evidence for the next stage. If successful, SGN will be able to carry out a live trial next year, which will deliver a blueprint for repurposing the UK’s LTS network, driving decarbonisation and supporting SGN’s net zero goals. Frazer Smith, Business Manager for INEOS FPS, said the trials were important. “With the project programme concluding in 2025, vital learning and validation of the hydrogen evidence base will be available to support both Scottish and UK Government decarbonisation policy, including the UK Government’s heat policy decisions due for 2026,” he said. SGN’s local transmission system is part of the national critical infrastructure that reaches millions of homes and businesses across the UK. “We believe hydrogen has the potential to provide customers with a choice on how they heat their homes as part of a whole systems approach for decarbonising heat,” said Gemma. The trial is the latest good news for the Grangemouth site. Earlier this year, INEOS invited major engineering design contractors to tender for the next stage of its world-scale hydrogen production plant. Once built, clean, low-carbon hydrogen will be used to power its processes and manufacture vital materials for a wide range of sectors, cutting emissions by more than one million tonnes of CO2 each year. “We are determined to reduce our own emissions to net zero by 2045, create products that will help others reduce their emissions and play a leading role in a clean hydrogen revolution,” said Andrew. The €1.2 billion investment by INEOS in blue hydrogen is allied to carbon capture technology. Carbon captured during the process will be piped offshore and permanently stored in rock formations deep below the North Sea.   “We believe hydrogen has the potential to provide customers with a choice on how they heat their homes as part of a whole systems approach for decarbonising heat” – Gemma Simpson, SGN Director of LTS Futures

3 min read

Hydrogen-powered Grenadier

INEOS has built a hydrogen-powered 4x4 to prove its commitment to net zero. It can do everything that a diesel or petrol-run Grenadier can do, but it emits nothing but water vapour. What’s stopping it hitting the road? A lack of infrastructure in the UK. HYDROGEN has long been championed as the fuel of the future because it produces zero emissions when used for energy. But it’s also been put on a back burner for years, much to INEOS’ dismay. Now, to demonstrate its own commitment to net zero, INEOS has built a hydrogen fuel cell variant of its 4x4 Grenadier that emits nothing but water vapour. “It’s an extraordinary vehicle,” said Lynn Calder, CEO INEOS Automotive. “It’s capable of doing everything a conventionally-powered Grenadier can do, but with zero emissions.” The Grenadier Demonstrator made its global debut earlier this year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It is fitted with BMW Group’s latest hydrogen fuel cell, zero-emissions powertrain, which is considered to be the most advanced and powerful in the car industry. The project to develop a hydrogen-fuelled Grenadier began in June 2022 with one, clear aim: its on- and off-road capabilities and towing capacities must not be compromised. To ensure they weren't, the 4x4 underwent rigorous testing, which included the notorious trails of the Austrian mountains and the various offroad challenges around Graz. Over the years there has been widespread debate about the pros and cons of electric versus hydrogen vehicles. INEOS Automotive will bring a battery electric 4X4 to market in 2026, but believes there needs to be a mix of powertrains, with different technologies suited to different uses. Electric batteries are viewed as ideal for city centres and short journeys, but unsuitable for haulage and public transport because of their weight, charging times and range. Filling a car or truck with hydrogen, on the other hand, is quick and easy. But there just aren’t enough hydrogen refuelling stations. “Our demonstrator proves that the technology is capable,” said Lynn. “What we need now is support from policymakers to help provide the infrastructure for the next generation of hydrogen vehicles.” INEOS already produces and uses 450,000 tonnes of low carbon hydrogen every year, the equivalent of replacing up to 2 billion litres of diesel. The company is Europe’s largest existing operator of electrolysis, the critical technology which uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen for power generation, transportation and industrial use. “Along with our all-electric model due in 2026, our hydrogen-powered Grenadier Demonstrator shows INEOS’ commitment to net zero and to hydrogen as a key fuel of the future,” said Lynn.

2 min read

Liquefied Natural Gas

INEOS is stepping up to help Europe cut its greenhouse gas emissions – to fill the gap left by Russian gas, and to help alleviate the structural energy issues in Europe. It has signed a contract with Sempra, an American energy  infrastructure company, to start exporting 1.4 million tonnes of affordable, clean and reliable energy every year for 20 years, from 2026. The decision to start exporting liquefied natural gas from the US Gulf Coast – and enter the global LNG market – is a first for INEOS, and comes at a time of significant transformation in the energy industry. “We are looking forward to building a longterm relationship with a company that shares our vision of increasing the world’s energy security while simultaneously advancing lower-carbon energy sources,” said Justin Bird, CEO of Sempra Infrastructure, which will be developing the export terminals. Brian Gilvary, Chairman of INEOS Energy, said INEOS also intends to build partnerships with other industrial users of energy in Europe to help them access the same competitive sources of energy. “We will be the first market entrant to operate in this way in many years,” he said. Although INEOS has never shipped LNG before, it has been safely transporting America’s competitively-priced liquefied ethane gas to Europe since 2015. David Bucknall, CEO of INEOS Energy, described Sempra as experts in building and operating LNG facilities and said the American company shared its vision. “This agreement is an important part of our strategy,” he said.  The LNG will be delivered free-on-board from either the proposed LNG processing and export facility in Jefferson County, Texas, or the Cameron LNG Phase 2 project in Hackberry, Louisiana.  INEOS, though, remains committed to achieving net zero by 2050 across its operations. “The company is working to decarbonise the supply chain through carbon capture and storage and provide optionality for alternative sources of energy, such as its leadership in the production of hydrogen, as we develop them over time,” said David.  Sempra’s agreement with INEOS is a preliminary non-binding arrangement, and the development of the Port Arthur and Cameron sites are subject to securing all necessary permits, signing  engineering and construction contracts, obtaining financing and a final investment decision.

2 min read

Full of eastern promise

INEOS has signed four deals that will significantly reshape – and strengthen – its business in China. INEOS Chairman and Founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe said the joint ventures with state-owned SINOPEC would establish ‘a very large footprint’ for INEOS in China. “Both parties recognise the potential for closer collaboration across a number of other areas as we look ahead,” he said. SINOPEC has agreed to sell a 50% stake in Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Company Limited to INEOS. The Chinese company is currently capable of producing 4.2 million tonnes of vital raw materials including ethylene, polystyrene and acrylonitrile. In addition, INEOS and SINOPEC have agreed to form two joint ventures to increase production of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) to meet China’s rapidly growing domestic market. As part of the ABS joint venture, SINOPEC will acquire a 50% stake in INEOS Styrolution’s Ningbo plant, which is currently being built and expected to become operational next year. “INEOS Styrolution has come a long way from being a joint venture itself in its early years,” said CEO Steve Harrington. “After acquisitions and investing into new greenfield production sites, setting up this joint venture with a strong partner in China feels like the natural next step for growth. “This collaboration with SINOPEC allows us to continue to grow in China in fast-forward mode.” INEOS Styrolution and SINOPEC also plan to build two additional ABS plants, based on INEOS’ world-leading technology. One will be in Tianjin where the two companies also intend to build a new HDPE plant to manufacture high density polyethylene. Long-term they hope to build at least a further two HDPE plants. INEOS and SINOPEC have also announced a joint venture agreement that will see INEOS acquire a 50% share in the existing Tianjin Nangang Ethylene Project from SINOPEC. The project is currently building a 1.2 million tonne ethane cracker, expected to come on-stream at the end of 2023, and downstream derivative plants in Tianjin. INEOS and SINOPEC have worked together for years. “Through this close relationship SINOPEC gains access to some of the best downstream technology in the world from INEOS and INEOS achieves a substantial presence in China, which is the fastest-growing market in the world,” said Jim. In 2013 INEOS began building the largestever acetone and phenol production plant in China after signing a joint venture with SINOPEC Yangzi Petrochemical Company. And last year INEOS inherited a joint venture with SINOPEC after it bought BP’s global acetyls and aromatics business for $5 billion.

2 min read

Women at work

THE chemical industry is traditionally dominated by men. But it is changing. And women, who have worked in the industry for decades, are testament to that. “When I first started out in the industry 30 years ago, things were happening that I thought were normal because I didn’t see anything else,” said Kathryn Shuler, Executive Director of the INEOS ICAN Foundation. “But now that I look back, it was quite abnormal and it was not right the way women were treated.” Today thanks to a focus on recruiting more women, the number of female chemical engineers in INEOS has never been higher. “The chemical industry is still quite predominantly male, but it is changing in a really positive way,” said Sharon Todd, CEO of SCI (Society of Chemical Industry), a global innovation hub which helps to accelerate science out of the lab and into industry for society’s benefit. “The industry just needs to change faster.” INEOS is helping to close the gender gap, but realises there is still much work to be done. Years ago, entering a world where few women had worked had its challenges. Anja Hilden, who works at INEOS Köln in Germany, said she was often the only woman in her department when she became a chemical engineer about 30 years ago. “It was challenging because I didn’t have any role models,” she said. Women also faced further obstacles if they decided to start a family because there was an assumption that they would be the baby’s primary carer. “It’s not just an issue that INEOS still has to tackle,” said Anne-Gret Iturriaga Abarzua, Head of Communications at INEOS Köln. “Society has to change as well.” Quantaze Watts, Global Talent Director at INEOS Styrolution, believes the stereotypes are embedded in society. “It goes back to when you are a kid, and you go to the store and ask for the Tonka truck and it’s mainly a boy’s toy, not a girl’s toy,” he said. “We need to go to the little girls and let them know that they can do this, so that engineering jobs are not seen as men-only jobs.” Prof. Dr. Petra Skiebe-Corrette, Director of NatLab, a non-formal science laboratory at the Freie Universität Berlin, believes the problem stems from the moment a child becomes aware of his or her gender. “It is important that, before these gender stereotypes kick in, girls have STEM experience and know they can do it and enjoy it,” she said. For more than 14 years INEOS has been involved in a programme in Germany, known as TuWas! The company believes that promoting science in schools is key to getting children – boys as well as girls - interested in STEM careers. “Of all the companies supporting TuWas! – and I think there are more than 80 – INEOS is the one that supports the most schools,” said Petra. Sharon, who graduated with a degree in chemistry from Southampton University in 1988, is also all in favour of a more diverse workforce. “Our founders were creative, inventive and valued diversity,” she said. “They recognised the importance of diversity for innovation.” She believes the industry has an image problem and does not sell itself to young people be they men or women. “It needs to present itself as an opportunity to create change to enhance society through innovation, and as a place where, certainly foryoung scientists and engineers, they can put their skills to work and have a really valuable and rewarding career,” she said. She described it as a massively important challenge. “We need this flux of diversity,” she said. “We need diversity in our young people and in our middle and senior management.” She said people from all different backgrounds could help to contribute to a new wave of scientific innovation to tackle the big societal challenges of climate change and global health. “The industry has a vital role to play in delivering real societal benefit, not just profit,” she said, adding: “If we promoted the diversity of job opportunities, the breadth of experience that industry can offer and the direct ability to affect real change, I think we'd get a higher influx of women.” WOMEN may have dominated the 1971 Grammy Awards, but elsewhere, opportunities were few and far between for American women – especially those seeking careers in traditonally male-dominated professions. Kathryn Shuler had grown up knowing – and feeling – that. Even her parents tried to dissuade her from pursuing a career in science. Technical jobs  were for boys. Not girls. To appease her parents, she opted to study business at university. But the lure of science was too great, and she eventually switched to chemistry. She also hoped that American society would change thanks to Title IX, a 1972 piece of landmark civil rights legislation that banned sex discrimination in schools and colleges. “Before the introduction of Title IX, universities could refuse to allow girls to enrol in certain courses,” she said. “Women could be summarily dismissed from engineering courses or stopped from pursuing science degrees. The prevailing thought was that they were only going to university to get a husband. And that they were only pursuing engineering or  science courses to get a better husband.” But despite the change in the law, old habits and attitudes remained. “There wasn't a lot of encouragement for women who pursued engineering and science,” she said. “If we were working in groups, some of my male classmates would not listen to my ideas and went so far as to meet without me.” Kathryn was determined to complete her course, though, and finally graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984with a degree in BS biochemistry. She initially worked for a small Japanese-owned commercial analytical laboratory where she later discovered that men were paid $0.50 an hour more than women. “It was the equivalent of a car payment back then,” she said. A year later she was working as a lab technician at a nationwide metal company’s research facility, where she was responsible for a specialised piece of analytical equipment. “I was very proud of the work I did,” she said. The job required a specialised set of tools, which kept disappearing. “A colleague told me that he had lent them to someone, but he could never remember who,” she said. “I got to the point where I couldn't do my job because I had no tools.” Thankfully her understanding male boss replaced the tools – and offered her a safe place to store them. At the time, Kathryn remembers feeling frustrated, but today she realises what her colleague was trying to achieve.  “It was just a very passive, aggressive way of saying, you shouldn't be here,” she said. Despite the negativity that surrounded her, though, quitting was never an option. “I saw other women leave because they weren’t prepared for some of the resistance,” said Kathryn. “But I never felt like giving it up because it was something I loved.” She went on to co-author several patents and started working on a company-subsidised Master’s Degree despite being told she could never be promoted to a scientist even if she got her degree. Finally, she decided to leave and secured a job as a chemist at a small analytical equipment manufacturer. “It was 1989 and it was the first place I worked that considered me as an equal to my male counterparts,” she said. Two years later she moved to Houston to become a chemist at Solvay. At the time, it never occurred to her that her views and abilities were being challenged more than her male colleagues. All she knew was that she would only be treated as an equal there if she could prove she was capable wof doing the job. Equality, however, didn’t always extend to the facilities. “If you needed to use the bathroom, you had to leave where you were and go to the administration building to use the ladies’ room,” said Kathryn. “It was about a 10-minute walk.” Thankfully, as more women started to join the company, management recognised the need for change, and some of the men’s rooms became women’s rooms. “Not everyone was happy about that,” she said. Kathryn later moved into the Tech Service & Product Development group. “There was only one woman in the group apart from me,” she said. Within a few years, though, she was managing the polypropylene TS&D group After BP acquired Solvay’s Houstonbased polypropylene assets in 2001, Kathryn was transferred to BP’s research centre near Chicago, only returning to Houston when INEOS bought most of BP’s chemical assets in 2005. Today, she’s happy and fulfilled in her role at INEOS which has given her tremendous freedom over the years to make a difference. “Over time, I've really seen a major change and a major shift,” she said. “I don't hear about some of the issues that we used to hear about. I don't think everything's solved, but I think that we've really come a long way.” What’s particularly pleasing to Kathryn is seeing men and women engineers or plant operators working together. “I see more of an equal footing than I've ever seen before,” she said. But Kathryn believes what has really made the difference is INEOS’ commitment to diversity. “Sometimes I think that's taken the wrong way,” she said. “Some see it as ticking a box but it goes deeper than that." “When you hire people with different experiences, from different backgrounds, and who have different ways of looking at life, you  have a bigger diversity of problem solvers.” And that, she said, is where real power lies. “You want that diversity of thought,” she said. “You need people who look and think differently. We should want diversity in the workplace because we are better for it.” Her own team reflects that approach. She works alongside a former teacher, an exercise scientist, a graphic designer and a PR expert. “None of them came from a corporate background but they're really phenomenal people with some really specialised skills,” she said. Despite all the positive changes, Kathryn believes some things will only change when people recognise their own prejudices. “We all have our way of looking at the world,” she said. “But we need to make sure we are not unfairly judging or limiting people based on our own prejudices. We need to look at people as individuals.  “There's still work to be done but I'm pleased that we've come a long way and I look forward to future generations making things even better.” TODAY Stacy Putman is in charge of producing many of the leaders of tomorrow for INEOS’ businesses in the US. The careers of more than 300 people are currently in her hands. “It’s the most amazing job I have ever had,” she said. “I am helping them to develop the skills to make them great leaders of the future.” She understands how important it is to help, guide  and support employees, because it’s what was lacking when she set out on her own journey 40 years ago. Back then, the world she entered was really for men only. “I had studied chemistry at school and really liked it,” she said. “It was like magic and cooking at the same time.” But after securing a place at Texas Tech University to study chemical engineering, an advisor took her to one side. Find a husband quickly and then you can transfer to an easier degree, or you can just quit, he told her. “It was pretty disheartening because this was the early 80s, not the 1940s,” she said. She did find a husband on the course, but she also decided to stay, graduated and joined the world of work. But hers has not been an easy journey. “The view was if you don’t like it, leave,” she said. “It was very much sink or swim. If you could swim, then you might get some neat opportunities or you might not. No one understood community or networking, other than the good old boy network.” Stacy said she was always made to feel that she was ‘taking the place’ of a man by simply working. “We accepted a lot of things and attitudes then that we certainly would not accept today,” she said. A few years ago, she experienced a huge – and welcome – change. She was asked by INEOS O&P’s board of directors to lead a polypropylene facility in California. The job would mean moving 1,800 miles. “I was thrilled and challenged to be given such an opportunity,” she said. “I told my manager that I had watched and learned from a lot of our other site directors.” But that’s not what he wanted to hear. He didn’t want her to copy what men had done. He wanted her to forge her own path. To be herself. “I was being asked to go and set the course for the future for that plant and do it the way I saw was needed,” she said. “Not follow what the guys had done.” She left for California. “I had never experienced that before in my life,” she said. “I made my own decisions and led a team to make recommendations. It was the best job and best experience I had ever had in my entire career.” Stacy praises INEOS’ senior leadership team. “For some time now, they have understood the importance of a diverse workforce and diverse leadership,” she said. “And I think we've started to see the benefit of that in different locations and different roles.” But she believes women are sometimes holding themselves back from these opportunities. “Just because you have never seen a woman in a role at INEOS doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t apply for it,” she said. “I’ve always replaced a man in every role I’ve ever had in my career. Women, and really everyone, should not hold themselves back because they don’t look like the person in the job.” “So could a woman be a maintenance manager? Could a woman be a business director? Could a woman be a fire chief? That's happening all over our industry today. Until we see it repeated, society will continue to question whether or not some of these roles are really the right roles for women. Let’s keep this going so we can repeat, repeat, repeat.” WOMEN were still in the minority when Cassie Bradley signed up to study chemical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. Family and friends were supportive of her choice, but others often seemed surprised. “The surprised reaction wasn’t unusual,” said Cassie. “And looking back, it did have a negative effect because it reinforced the feeling that I was out of place or didn’t belong there.” But since 2015, she has been working for INEOS and has had a very positive experience. “INEOS is a good place for women to work,” she said. But she believes the company could make it even better by engaging with the women’s groups that now exist within the company. “INEOS could learn from these women’s experiences, identify the reasons why so few women are in senior executive roles and, more importantly, work out how to close the gap,” she said. Cassie, who initially worked as a production engineer at the company’s Channahon polystyrene plant, launched Lean Into Success, women’s networking group at INEOS Styrolution. It is one of several groups that now exist within the INEOS group. “It is important for women to be part of organisations like this so they can learn from each other and find mentors,” she said. “Although we may ultimately realise we are a minority, we can build a community of belonging within the organisation.” One reason why Cassie believes very few women become senior executives is due to visibility. Or lack of it. “Women don't see other women in those roles, so they don't view themselves in those roles, and therefore don't aspire,” she said. She felt women could help support each other by learning how to ‘lean in’ and push outside their comfort zones to demonstrate they had the skills to become a leader. “Women are often not given the benefit of the doubt and have to perform at a higher level early on in order to be considered as a future leader,” she said. But Cassie, who is the sustainability commercial manager at INEOS Styrolution, remains optimistic about the future for INEOS. And for women in INEOS too. “Traditionally there has been a difference in expectations between men and women in the home as well as the workplace,” she said. “A lot of times women have a full-time second job at home as well as what they're doing at work which strains both their physical and mental energies. “But that’s changing. Men want a good work life balance too. We all want to be successful both at work and at home.” “I was being asked to go and set the course for the future for that plant and do it the way I saw was needed. Not follow what the guys had done.” FRAN Millar freely admits that she was once loud, pushy and aggressive at work. She saw it as the best way to operate in male-dominated environments. “I just used to go at  it,” she said. “But I was like a bull in a china shop and I would leave a trail of destruction behind me.” Today she is CEO of INEOS Belstaff and credits those who helped her early on in her career to refine her leadership skills. “They sort of course corrected me,” she said. “I was lucky. They showed me how to refine how I operated and refine how I dealt with people without compromising who I am and my own principles.” Fran had left school at 18 because she didn’t want to go to university. She initially worked as a PA to Anthony Boucher and Peter Worth,businessmen with a track record of event management and representing athletes including Björn Borg. When Fran’s brother, David, took the yellow jersey on stage one of his debut Tour de France, Anthony suggested she should considermanaging him. “He thought I was a pretty awful PA but felt I had the attitude needed to manage talent,” she said. She went on to set up her own talent and event management agency, FACE Partnership. Within two years she was representing most of the major cycling talent in the UK, including her brother, Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas. In mid-2003 she came up with a concept for a major track cycling event that would showcase the very best of international track talent in the UK’s only international standard velodrome in a Saturday night format that involved live music and track centre entertainment. “Everyone told us it wouldn’t work, but in the end they had to delay the start because the queues were so big that they couldn’t get everyone into the venue,” she said. Revolution went on to become the most successful track cycling event in the UK at a time when British Cycling was achieving unprecedented success – with the track team consistently dominating international competition. The hugely successful national programme was producing talent in all disciplines of the sport under the leadership of Dave Brailsford. In 2007 the Tour de France started in London, with five British riders in five different teams and the seed was planted that the time had come to build a British team. Dave approached Fran to help with the project and, over the next 18 months, Team Sky took shape. Fran, who supported Dave in the project management whilst he focused on the Beijing Olympics, was fundamental in helping to build and project manage the team’s creation. “We were working 24 hours a day, seven days a week and doing everything we could to make it successful,” she said. In the 10 years of Team Sky they won six Tours, with four different riders. When Sky ended their involvement in cycling, INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe stepped in to take over the team, which became Team INEOS in May 2019. As part of the INEOS ownership Dave and Fran were asked to support in the concept, management and delivery of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge. “We were being asked to do something that nobody had ever been able to do before,” she said. “It was such a massive undertaking. But it would not have happened if it had not been for INEOS and Jim.” It is that INEOS spirit – and that belief that anything is possible – that Fran admires greatly.  “I believe in what the business stands for, its values, how it operates, and how it treats people,” she said.  Not long after Eliud Kipchoge’s historic run in Vienna, Fran was offered another challenge – as CEO for INEOS’ fashion business Belstaff. Her whole life changed in five days as she left her life in Manchester to begin a new role in London. Looking back, despite her own personal success story, she knows that many women, women of colour and people with disabilities have struggled with the uneven playing field. “I have had nothing but backing since I joined INEOS,” she said. “INEOS doesn’t care whether I am male or female.” But she is aware of the need to help where she can. “We have a diversity panel on Belstaff, and levelling the playing field is important when you are in a position of leadership,” she said. “But getting enough women into businesses, getting enough people of colour into businesses, getting enough diversity into businesses, starts way furtherdown the pipeline than people realise. “It's like sport. You don't have any talent in sport if you don't start at development level and build them through the talent pathway.” ANUPRIYA Gupta comes from a family of chemical engineers. Her father was one, so too was her grandfather. So both were supportive when she decided she too wanted to become a chemical engineer. For the past three years she has worked at INEOS O&P at Chocolate Bayou in Texas. It’s an environment dominated by men. “Frequently being the only woman in the room, I always wondered what to do,” she said. “I was hesitant to speak out in case my ideas got passed up because I had a unique perspective. “But I also thought that the only way to find out the answer would be to jump straight in.” And that’s what she did, starting with asking colleagues very early on to learn how to pronounce her name, rather than giving her a nickname. “My name is my identity,” she said. “It’s who I am. If you change my name, you change my identity.” As a process engineer, she is responsible for the day-to-day performance of the plant to ensure it runs smoothly and efficiently. “Occasionally I have been on the receiving end of some strange looks,” she said. “But having that pushback to some of my ideas has just made me a stronger engineer.” Over the past few years, she has witnessed and welcomed change and changing attitudes within INEOS. “I can see the transition happening,” she said. “INEOS is definitely moving in the right direction in terms of diversity in the workplace.” Anupriya said a diverse workforce was important. “We need people looking at the same problem from a different perspective,” she said. “If we don’t, if we are all looking at it from the same place, how are we going to be trailblazers in our industry?” She said she was encouraged when she attended a recent career fair with a team of engineers from INEOS. “We did a good job of setting the standard because we were a team of mainly women,” she said.  EVIDENCE has shown that for a woman to succeed in a male-dominated industry, confidence matters as much as competence. Gabriela de Gouveia, who joined INEOS Styrolution in Switzerland in May 2022, believes that to be true. “In my career, there have been times when I have faced prejudice outside the company,” she said. “But I have found it is important to manage those situations confidently.” The problem is that women are sometimes less self-assured than men. Gabriela is a commercial product manager whose job involves managing the supply and demand of a range of plastic products. In addition to deciding the price and analysing the market, she is the intermediate between the sales and supply chain teams. She says it is sometimes challenging to work in an industry dominated by men, but is full of praise for INEOS’ approach to women in the workplace. “Women are generally well received and encouraged to improve and grow,” she said. Her hope, though, is that more women seek jobs in the chemical industry. “If more women join the field and break stereotypes, there will be a greater acceptance of women in the industry,” she said. “It is sometimes challenging to work in an industry dominated by men, but is full of praise for INEOS’ approach to women in the workplace.”AN ORGANISATION, which was founded by Facebook’s former chief operating officer to empower women at work, continues to spread its wings. More and more women around the world are now setting up their own Lean In Circles so they can share their struggles, get and give advice and celebrate their achievements. “Just hearing how somebody else went through a battle can be so encouraging and spark new ideas for you,” said Cassie Bradley, a sustainability commercial manager who set up a Lean In Circle for her female colleagues at INEOS Styrolution in Illinois in America. The small group of women now meet regularly. “Lean In Circles are all about peer mentoring,” she said. “We share experiences and ideas, and give feedback when we succeed and when we fail.” Lean In was founded by Sheryl Sandberg, a Harvard-educated mother of five who stepped down as Facebook’s chief operating officer last year to focus on her philanthropic work. In 2010, she gave a TED talk in which she called on women to believe in themselves and their own success. “Women systematically underestimate their own abilities,” she said. “Men will attribute their success to themselves. Women will attribute it to other external factors. If women do a good job, they will say someone helped them, they got lucky and worked really hard.” INEOS Köln in Germany has also recently introduced a Lean In Circle. “I really hope this will help my female colleagues to develop their communication and leadership skills and stand up for their needs,” said Anja Hilden, who has worked for the chemical industry for more than 30 years. “I was very often the only woman in the department which was challenging because you didn’t have role models, so you had to invent yourself.” LISA Wiedenhaus has no qualms about working in a male-dominated industry because, at INEOS Köln in Germany, the fact she is a woman is irrelevant. Everyone, she says, is treated equally. “Sometimes I realise that I am the only woman in a meeting, but nobody makes me feel as if I am,” she said. “It makes no difference to them. We all get the same chances, are appreciated and taken seriously.” Lisa officially joined INEOS in October 2016 after graduating from the European University of Applied Sciences in Brühl, Germany. But by then, she had actually been working for the company for three years as part of a dual-study programme after finishing school at 19. “The programme allowed me to study and work at the same time,” she said. Today, she is an energy business controller, with responsibility for reviewing the monthly results of the Köln energy business, and providing business analysisto the Energy Commercial Manager to enable him to deliver business targets. She also produces management reports that are used to make economic decisions. It is a job she loves. “I cannot think of any aspect or situation in which being a woman would be disadvantageous,” she said. “Even after maternity leave, most women come back to either the same job, or at least a very, very similar job which makes it easy to return to work.” Although she feels confident and supported at work, she values the opportunity to meet other women working in INEOS. “It is always good to share experiences and listen to each other’s problems, but it is equally important to hear about each other’s successes,” she said.  AN ORGANISATION, which was founded by Facebook’s former chief operating officer to empower women at work, continues to spread its wings. More and more women around the world are now setting up their own Lean In Circles so they can share their struggles, get and give advice and celebrate their achievements. “Just hearing how somebody else went through a battle can be so encouraging and spark new ideas for you,” said Cassie Bradley, a sustainability commercial manager who set up a Lean In Circle for her female colleagues at INEOS Styrolution in Illinois in America. The small group of women now meet regularly. “Lean In Circles are all about peer mentoring,” she said. “We share experiences and ideas, and give feedback when we succeed and when we fail.” Lean In was founded by Sheryl Sandberg, a Harvard-educated mother of five who stepped down as Facebook’s chief operating officer last year to focus on her philanthropic work. In 2010, she gave a TED talk in which she called on women to believe in themselves and their own success. “Women systematically underestimate their own abilities,” she said. “Men will attribute their success to themselves. Women will attribute it to other external factors. If women do a good job, they will say someone helped them, they got lucky and worked really hard.” INEOS Köln in Germany has also recently introduced a Lean In Circle. “I really hope this will help my female colleagues to develop their communication and leadership skills and stand up for their needs,” said Anja Hilden, who has worked for the chemical industry for more than 30 years. “I was very often the only woman in the department which was challenging because you didn’t have role models, so you had to invent yourself.”

20 min read

Sustainability

The journey to net zero is not going to be an easy one for INEOS, but it knows that. Despite the challenges – and there are many – INEOS remains focused on the future and is prepared to invest billions to ensure it hits net zero by 2050. TRANSITIONING to net zero by 2050 will not be an easy journey for industries that rely heavily on the earth’s precious resources. But INEOS has been making – and continues to make – huge strides so it can continue to provide modern society with what it needs without damaging the planet. Its achievements and ambitious goals are set out in its 2022 sustainability report, which has been prepared in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative Standards and externally assured by KPMG. “Sustainability is fundamental to how we do business,” said Tobias Hannemann, CEO of INEOS Oxide. Despite the challenging market conditions, INEOS' ambition refuses to be dampened. Despite the many distractions, momentumcontinued – with bold new projects, continued investment, and steady progress towards net zero. All INEOS’ businesses have developed – or are finalising – workable roadmaps to ensure all its operations are net zero by 2050, while still remaining profitable and ahead of evolving regulations. Based on the roadmaps developed to date, it has set a reduction target of 33% by 2030. INEOS will spend over €6 billion to back its plans. In addition to investing over €3 billion in a wide range of projects that will reduce the company’s footprint, it has announced ambitious plans to harness its expertise and technology to drive the development of a new hydrogen economy. In addition to a €1.2 billion investment in blue hydrogen in carbon capture technology at Grangemouth in Scotland, it has also announced a further €2 billion in a series of green hydrogen plants throughout Europe. INEOS intends to play a full and active part in the transition to net zero and in doing so, it will not only reduce the impact of its own operations, but will be able to provide the products that support other industries and individuals to reduce their own impact on the climate. INEOS has always seen opportunities where others see issues. “The entrepreneurial foundation of INEOS has fostered a culture where anything is possible, where ownership is for everyone and where change is to be embraced,” said Alison Mills, HR Director INEOS Acetyls and Nitriles. “This is the key to our continuedsuccess.” Doing well by doing good not only drives innovation, though. It also matters to INEOS’ employees, customers and investors all over the world. Last year alone INEOS signed three major agreements with offshore Belgian wind farms which will reduce its emissions by more than three million tonnes of CO2 over 10 years – and it is at the heart of several major projects to capture and permanently store CO2. It also helping to push the circular economy, where nothing is wasted, by introducing new products made from waste materials and investing in advanced recycling technologies. Most nation states have agreed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. But INEOS believes this will only be achieved through the concerted efforts of governments, industry and the public.“INEOS is fully committed to playing a key role in this transition,” said a spokesman. The 130-page 2022 sustainability report, which can be viewed in full on INEOS’ website, details INEOS’ progress.

3 min read