INEOS is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement and has a company-wide GHG management system in place to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. All our businesses monitor and report emissions in accordance with the GHG Protocol and have dedicated emissions reduction roadmaps for each of their sites. Based on these roadmaps, we have set a company-wide target to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 33% by 2030 compared to 2019, while allowing for growth.

INEOS’ site-roadmap initiative and 2030 investment plans aim to drive down our GHG emissions, while remaining profitable. To back our plans and take advantage of opportunities offered by the evolving energy and climate environment, we will invest over €6 billion in the years to come. We pursue a broad range of initiatives including:

• Developing a new hydrogen business
• Producing clean hydrogen as a fuel
• Purchasing green power to run our operations
• Producing recycled plastics products
• Using bio-based feedstocks instead of fossil-based resources
• Pursuing continuous process optimisation
• Implementing electrification and low-carbon technologies
• Capturing CO2 for storage or utilisation
• Partnering with our suppliers to reduce value chain emissions Investing in new assets that effect a step change in energy and emissions intensity

Alternative Energy Sources

The potential of hydrogen in the economy

Europe has proposed scaling up renewable hydrogen production to 10 million tonnes by 2030, and other major regions such as North America and Asia have similarly ambitious plans to expand low-carbon hydrogen production to reduce emissions. INEOS is well positioned to take a leading role in the emerging low-carbon hydrogen market as it is currently Europe’s largest operator of electrolysis through its INEOS Inovyn business.

INEOS launched a new hydrogen business to develop and build green hydrogen capacity across Europe in November 2020 and has plans to invest €2 billion in electrolysis projects across Europe, starting with projects in Norway, Germany, and Belgium, and looking to invest further in the UK and France. In 2022, we selected Atkins to design a world-scale low-carbon hydrogen plant at our Grangemouth site that is expected to reduce our annual emissions by 1 million tonnes once up and running in 2030.

Developing clean hydrogen as a fuel

Hydrogen has been used for a long time in the chemical industry as feedstock in the manufacture of products such as fertilisers. There is also growing interest in hydrogen and its derivatives, such as ammonia and methanol, as a zero-carbon energy source in the chemical industry and wider economy, for example in transportation.

Each year INEOS produces more than 400,000 tonnes of hydrogen through its chlor-alkali, refining and cracking operations. This is enough to fuel 300 million miles of heavy goods vehicle travel: the equivalent of 12,000 trucks circumnavigating the world. Hydrogen is essential for our transition to net zero by 2050 and can contribute significantly to our 2030 reduction target.

While the key advantages of hydrogen lie in it being a zero-carbon energy carrier and the fact that it can be used to store energy, it is important to note that it should be produced in a low-carbon manner, such as electrolysis with renewables, or through steam methane reforming (SMR) with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

In addition to being Europe’s largest operator of electrolysis technology, INEOS also owns hydrogen storage infrastructure. The two combined can help buffer the intermittency of renewable energy. As a producer and user of hydrogen, we are in a unique position to use our existing co-produced hydrogen to kickstart the hydrogen economy for INEOS, Europe, and the wider world.

Process Optimisation

Continuous improvement in efficiency and reduction of energy use and carbon emissions is standard practice across INEOS.

INEOS is pursuing a wide range of optimisation opportunities, such as new methods that improve process efficiency, innovative solutions for heat and power integration, waste heat valorisation, and more selective catalysts. Our projects encompass:

Efficiency improvements in our power plants, such as at our Grangemouth site.

• Optimisation of the steam networks at our sites with substantial steam consumption.
• Integrated waste heat valorisation, such as at our Tavaux site through mechanical vapor recompression.
• Electrification of low-temperature processes, as planned for our operations in Antwerp.
• Minimisation of waste heat from processes at our sites.
• Recovery and reuse of off-gasses in utilities, such as at our Chocolate Bayou site.
• Flaring reduction, such as envisioned for our Lavera site.
• Cooling tower optimisation, such as at our Cologne site.
• Advanced process control strategies, such as the advanced distillation columns at our Sarnia site in Canada. Catalyst improvements to enhance process efficiency.

Each INEOS site is measured against the previous year and our 2019 baseline, as well as compared with other manufacturing sites in the business, and benchmarked for its profile in a region or country. At a higher level, emissions and energy data are ranked per INEOS business, highlighting potential areas of improvement and measures to replicate across the group.

Carbon Capture Storage & Use

Although it is INEOS' primary goal is to cut emissions at source, we recognise that CCUS will play an important role in mitigating GHG emissions in the short run, either through utilisation or storage. In fact, several INEOS sites have been capturing emissions for a long time.

Over the past two decades, INEOS has been capturing GHG emissions at plants in Antwerp (Belgium), Tavaux and Lavera (France), and Cologne (Germany), removing over 300’000 tonnes of CO2 per annum – equivalent to the annual emissions from around 30’000 cars. We are also leading the Greensand consortium that is undertaking a pilot project in Denmark.

Project Greensand aims to develop and demonstrate that CO2 can be stored underground in the Danish part of the North Sea. This will take place in the INEOS operated Siri field, located more than 200 kilometres west of the Danish coast. In the short term, the project will store up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year in 2025. By 2030, Project Greensand aims to store up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

Sustainable Feedstocks

Several INEOS businesses continue to substitute fossil-based raw materials with recycled and bio-based feedstocks at commercial scale.

For example, at our olefins plant in Cologne (Germany), biomass co-produced by the wood pulping industry has been successfully converted into bio-olefins. Similarly, our Inovyn plant in Tavaux (France) is producing bio-attributed epichlorohydrin (REODRINTM) from renewable feedstocks that do not compete with the food chain, reducing GHG emissions by up to 70% compared to the fossil-based equivalent. INEOS has also started producing commodity chemicals, such as phenol, acetone, styrene, and PVC, with bio-based feedstocks.

INEOS’ bio-attributed products can be made with 100% substitution of bio-feedstock on a mass-balance basis and provide significant GHG savings in the value chains of our products. It results in products which have a proven positive impact on the environment without sacrificing product performance.

Using alternative feedstocks can also have a positive impact on INEOS’ emissions from its operations by reducing non-biogenic emissions released from chemical reactions or when process steps can be avoided by using more refined or recycled feedstocks. This is why the use of alternative feedstocks is included in our 2030 roadmaps, even if the impact of this pathway on scope 1 and scope 2 emissions is modest.

Climate & Energy Network

A critical element of our drive for a more sustainable business is ensuring that we capture and share best practice across the diverse range of businesses that form INEOS.

To do this, we have an active Climate and Energy network. This Group-wide network gathers and shares information, best practices and shapes actions and strategies on all matters to do with sustainability, for example GHG emissions, innovations in recycling, government policies, and more. The information is captured in a comprehensive sharepoint which is available to all businesses.

The network is led by a dedicated team, and governs INEOS' database on emissions, energy, water, waste, and feedstock data from across all INEOS businesses and sites.

The network engages at all levels in the company. It ensures that important developments are communicated company-wide via weekly bulletins and to CEOs and other executives via monthly briefs. It also holds annual review meetings attended by CEOs and subject experts from each business. Since 2021 'young CEN' is also active across all businesses, engaging INEOS' new/next generation in the post-2025 climate and energy agenda and driving the INEOS Talks.

Resource conservation and waste reduction are major societal and political challenges that demand a response from industry. Across INEOS our chemical sites aim to optimise material efficiency and use recycled or renewable materials as feedstock to cut waste and pollution.

We contribute to the transition to a bio-based and circular economy by investing in bio-attributed and circular products that save resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create opportunities for our customers and businesses to meet consumer demands and enter new markets. We also work to improve the recyclability of our products, so they can be reused, or recycled to the maximum extent possible, reducing landfill, incineration, and lowering the demand for fossil-based raw materials.

This is a particular priority for our businesses that make products that reach end-consumers, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and PVC. The move to a circular economy will maximise the valuable contribution that such plastics make to society, while minimising their environmental impact.

We have set ambitious targets to incorporate recycled material into our polymers and ensure our polymer products are 100% recyclable by 2025. We are on track to exceed these targets and have made a new pledge to incorporate at least 850,000 tonnes of recycled and bio-sourced material per annum into our polymers by 2030.

Waste

INEOS is committed to monitoring and reducing its waste footprint and safely managing its hazardous waste to protect the natural environment, comply with national regulations, and conserve resources.  

As a partner in the transition to a circular economy, INEOS plays its role in optimising resources and eliminating waste where possible. We are dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of our operations on air, soil, and water and we strive to minimise the consumption of virgin materials and the volume of waste generated through our activities.

Across INEOS we seek to optimise resource efficiency and minimise waste at our sites by following the principles of the waste hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover (energy). In 2022, 18% of all waste generated at our sites was recycled or reused, and another 20% was sent for energy recovery.

Our sites have environmental management systems in place in line with ISO 14001 to identify and implement opportunities to reduce material consumption and valorise waste and by-products.

Bio-based and Circular Products

INEOS' businesses have introduced bio-based feedstocks into a range of bio-attributed polymers and chemicals. At all INEOS sites offering such products, each step in the supply chain has been fully certified by ISCC or RSB. In both cases the final product carries an attribution according to the displacement of fossil fuel-derived raw materials.

These sustainable products are introduced by our businesses into a range of polymers and chemicals, following the mass balance approach.

• For example, instead of using fossil-based carbon to produce polyolefins and PVC, INEOS is using UPM BioVerno, a sustainable raw material from a renewable residue of wood pulp production. The carbon footprint of these bio-attributed materials can be up to 90% lower than conventionally made products. One of these products includes BIOVYN^TM, the world's first commercially available bio-attributed PVC, produced by INOVYN and certified by RSB.
• Our Styrolux ECO and Styroflex ECO resins products enabling the substitution of traditional styrene with a certified bio-attributed styrene. Over their production lifecycle, our ECO resins provide GHG savings compared to a fossil-derived equivalent.

Recycling

Product Innovation

Incorporating recycled and renewable content

INEOS has launched more than 30 product grades that contain over 50% recycled content. Many of these products match the performance of new materials. This includes our Recycl-IN range of mechanically recycled polyolefins that compound recycled plastic waste with highly engineered virgin resins, as well as our Terluran ECO range of mechanically recycled ABS–both of which offer drop-in performance with up to 70% recycled content. We have also launched a mechanically recycled polystyrene with 100% recycled content behind a functional barrier that makes it suitable for food contact applications.

Designing for circularity

Plastics have many beneficial properties and make a significant contribution to modern life but currently only about 20% of plastic waste is recycled globally.

As a plastics producer, INEOS recognises that designing products to be recyclable is an essential part of the solution to improving recycling rates and reducing end-of-life impacts.

We have pledged to ensure that all our polymers are recyclable by 2025. Through our Design for Recycling initiative, we are working with value chain partners to develop mono-material plastic applications that are easier to recycle. We are investing in Machine Direction Orientation technology to produce recyclable films using fewer polymers and we are switching to carbon-free pigments in our black plastics that can be detected by sorting facilities.

Materials

INEOS’ main raw materials derive from natural gas and crude oil, which contain the hydrogen and carbon molecules we need to make many vital chemical products.

As well as using natural gas to make ammonia, for instance, we use ethane derived from natural gas in our steam crackers to produce ethylene, which is the building block for a wide range of our chemicals. Similarly, we use materials derived from crude oil, such as naphtha that we crack to produce ethylene, and aromatics that we use to make many of our chemicals and plastics.

INEOS recognises that fossil resources are limited and valuable, and yet they often end up in landfill or incineration. Extracting these resources also has a significant environmental footprint. This is of particular concern in value chains where resources are used in short-lived applications, such as single-use plastic items. INEOS is committed to using raw materials as efficiently as possible and transitioning to renewable and recycled materials, when available and affordable, so we can continue to make products of vital importance to modern life, while minimising our environmental impact.

Water shortage affects every continent we operate in, so we have a duty to use water responsibly for the good of society and the natural environment.

INEOS is committed to using water sustainably and recognises the human right to water and sanitation.

As a Responsible Care company, we strive to protect water as a scarce resource, reduce emissions to water, and continually improve the water efficiency of our sites. We monitor our wastewater as a priority and evaluate its potential impact in accordance with local regulation. We work with local authorities to ensure compliance with safety measures and minimise the environmental impact of wastewater on water bodies and drinking water. This helps protect the natural environment and the wellbeing of our employees and people near our sites.

We have a company-wide system in place to track our water withdrawals and discharges, and many of our sites have environmental management systems in place in line with ISO 14001. We implement opportunities to strengthen our sustainable water management through recycling our process water, minimising our drinking water consumption, and optimising our handling, transport, and treatment of wastewater.

We closely monitor data from all INEOS manufacturing sites to manage our water balance and optimise our water strategy.

Water consumption per site is calculated as the difference between withdrawal and discharge and this balance is shared with each INEOS business for appropriate water planning and actions. This is a particular priority at INEOS sites in water stress areas. We have identified 22 such sites by screening all our locations using the WRI Water Risk Atlas (Aqueduct 3.0, 2019) in accordance with GRI standards. These sites (17% of our 129 manufacturing sites in 2022) account for approximately 2% of our total water withdrawals and discharges, as well as 6% of our total water consumption.

Reducing our water consumption is a group-wide ambition that we put into practice at each of our manufacturing sites. It is also an essential consideration in the design and retrofit of our plants.

INEOS is committed to advancing towards sustainable chemical value chains with zero pollution.

We require that our suppliers do the same through our Supplier Code of Conduct. We have a company-wide REACH network in place to ensure excellence in product stewardship, meeting all regulatory requirements and identifying opportunities to substitute hazardous substances for more sustainable alternatives.

INEOS monitors its pollution through a company-wide data platform and is committed to complying with all regulations governing pollution and implementing measures across its sites to reduce environmental and social impacts of pollution.

AVOIDING POLLUTION TO AIR, WATER, AND SOIL

Safe handling and containment of chemicals and products is of critical importance to INEOS. Our processes, operating procedures and working practices are designed to secure containment of all products and raw materials. The loss of containment of any materials is extremely rare, but any accidental emission of material is reported to the authorities according to the local regulations. To avoid or keep such risk to a minimum, we closely monitor all systems. We have internal reporting systems in place that trigger online reporting and full internal investigation when there is any loss of containment that is 10% of the reportable level. We call these LOC10s.

Through monitoring and taking corrective action in response to LOC10s, we have reduced the frequency of minor losses significantly over the last eight years. This includes:

1. Operating according to Best Available Techniques (BAT): INEOS sites adhere to industry-leading practices and technologies, known as Best Available Techniques, to minimise pollution.
2. Monitoring emissions to air, water, and soil: robust monitoring systems are in place to measure emissions to detect issues or potential risks, allowing for timely corrective actions.
3. Assessing pollution-related risks: our sites conduct risk assessments to identify potential sources of pollution and prioritise prevention measures and mitigation strategies.
4. Observing strict procedures in case of incidents: in the event of an incident, we have well-defined procedures in place at our sites to contain the situation and provide appropriate remediation.
5. Communicating internally and with authorities: INEOS shares information internally and with local authorities to learn from incidents, disseminate best practices, and comply fully with regulations, facilitating continuous improvement across the company.

PREVENTING POLLUTION IN THE VALUE CHAIN

INEOS is committed to advancing towards zero pollution in its value chains.

We consider it a priority to prevent chemical pollution downstream of our operations through effective product stewardship and sustainable product innovation. We also expect all our partners to comply with relevant environmental laws, use resources responsibly, and minimise negative impacts relating to pollution. As outlined in our Supplier Code of Conduct, we require our suppliers to manage their emissions to air, water, and soil, and follow Responsible Care principles when managing chemicals. Suppliers are also required to participate in the Operation Clean Sweep initiative if they handle plastic pellets

For sustainability initiatives we have signed up to, please click on the below link:

ASSOCIATIONS & INITIATIVES

BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS

INEOS recognises that chemical pollution can be harmful to ecosystems and biodiversity, whether it is industrial spills or downstream pollution from products at the end-of-life stage.

We are committed to building sustainable chemical value chains that minimise the impact of pollution on the natural world through effective product design and strong stewardship. 

We welcome the global biodiversity framework agreed at COP15 in December 2022. In light of potential targets, and forthcoming reporting requirements under frameworks such as the CSRD in the EU, INEOS conducted an initial screening for biodiversity risks at all our manufacturing sites in 2022. This entailed assessing each site based on its GPS coordinates against 17 measures of biodiversity risk to identify those with the most contact with endangered species, protected areas, and key biodiversity areas, as recognised by organisations such as IUCN and UNESCO.

Building on this initial assessment we intend to examine our biodiversity contact points more thoroughly in future years in accordance with the LEAP process advocated by TNFD to identify our dependencies and gauge our impacts, including in the value chain, so we can take targeted action and disclose high quality information for stakeholders.

REACH, RESPONSIBLE CARE & PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP