Covestro's largest production site in the Americas has achieved a major environmental certification.
In a news release, officials with the materials maker said that the firm's Baytown, Texas, site has received ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) PLUS certification.
They added that the certification "significantly expands the reach of its product portfolio for the circular economy." In addition to leading the Americas, Baytown is Covestro's third-largest production site worldwide.
All of Covestro's major sites now have the ISCC PLUS standard. In addition to Baytown, certified sites include locations in Germany — Leverkusen, Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen — Shanghai; Changhua, Taiwan; Map Ta Phut, Thailand; Antwerp, Belgium; and Filago, Italy.
"Thanks to this new milestone, Covestro will soon be able to serve even more customers around the world with an easily accessible, more sustainable product portfolio," Chief Commercial Officer Sucheta Govil said.
She added that customers in North America "can now reduce their carbon footprint and Scope 3 emissions with drop-in, mass-balanced materials derived from recycled and bio-attributed products."
Covestro officials said that the firm is the first manufacturer of polyurethane and polycarbonate raw materials to receive this certification in the U.S. They added that the certification "is an important milestone" for both Covestro and the industries it serves, including automotive, construction, comfort, electronics and appliance.
Covestro has introduced a product line with the suffix CQ, which stands for Circular Intelligence. Products in that portfolio have at least 25 percent alternative raw materials derived from biomass or recycled plastics.
Covestro is also introducing the Evocycle CQ brand name for "all evolutionary recycling processes." The first project under that brand is Evocycle CQ Mattress, which uses chemical recycling technology for PU mattress foam.
ISCC PLUS certified products made by Covestro at Baytown will include Makrolon RE-brand PC and PU feedstocks methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and toluene diisocyanate (TDI). The firm expects to begin supplying select ISCC PLUS products from Baytown in the second half of 2023.
ISCC PLUS products from Baytown will be made using a mass-balance approach, officials said. Sustainable raw materials will be accounted for throughout the value chain and production process, allowing for accurate attribution to end products. Existing production infrastructure will be used while reducing the carbon footprint of the final products, they added.
ISCC is an internationally recognized sustainability certification for biomass and bioenergy. The global standard applies to all stages of the value chain.
Covestro is based in Leverkusen, Germany, with U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh. The firm is a global supplier of PC resins and films, thermoplastic PU, PU materials and foams and other specialty chemicals and materials. Covestro employs almost 18,000 and posted sales of $19.6 billion in its 2022 fiscal year.