Grassroots Sustainability

The following article is excerpted from BDO Solutions, a publication of BDO USA , LLC; an accounting, tax, audit and consulting services company (formerly SS&G).

AMERICHEM’S ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP IS DRIVEN BY EMPLOYEE IDEAS

When Americhem’s manufacturing facility in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, earned the prestigious ISO 14001 certification for environmental management, it was a huge victory for a company that is already committed to conducting business with respect for the environment. But some of the company’s employees wanted to take sustainability efforts even further.

“They were very enthusiastic, and they brought up even more ideas to our quality manager at the plant,” says Scott Blanchard, corporate marketing and communications manager at the global leader in color concentrates, additive concentrates and specialty dispersions.

The ideas that came rolling in included cardboard and universal waste recycling, practices that have now been incorporated into Americhem’s daily operations.

The ISO certification is only the latest example of innovative sustainability thinking at Americhem, where a company principle is to “be a proactive steward of the environment.” While it’s not always easy, Americhem is constantly looking for ways to sustain the environment.

Finding recycling solutions
When the company tried to recycle its plastic scrap at the Cuyahoga Falls plant, just like at its other facilities, it faced a big hurdle. While the company’s other facilities used single streams of plastic, the Ohio plant had a diverse mix of polymers, making the process a bit more challenging.

“The recycling facilities want a dedicated stream of plastic because it’s an easier process, but we found one that would take our mix,” says Blanchard. It was just one more obstacle to being environmentally responsible that the company successfully overcame.

Saving water with efficient processes
Recent gains at Americhem have made as much sense economically as environmentally. For instance, one of the company’s boldest processing initiatives in sustainability involves the introduction of solution dyeing of synthetic fibers.

The traditional method is to apply liquid dyes to white yarn after the fibers are made. However, this process uses a huge amount of water that is now polluted. It’s estimated that the industry uses as much as 99 million gallons of water globally every year just to dye yarn.

In contrast, solution dyeing is a process by which colorant is added to the fiber as it’s being spun. No water is used at this stage, and very little is used in the overall process. In fact, estimates are that solution dyeing uses about 1 percent of the water used in the old process. There’s also significant energy conservation with solution dyeing, lowering production costs while saving natural resources.

Reducing electricity
Lighting improvements at several Americhem facilities were another smart business move. By replacing the metal halide lighting fixtures with high-efficiency fluorescents, the immediate result was a 56 percent reduction in electricity usage and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. As a bonus, the new fixtures increased lighting levels by 40 percent for a safer workplace.

Practicing smart business
Far from being a cost burden, sustainable practices are actually turning a profit in unforeseen ways. For example, the company’s cardboard and polymer waste, which once posed a high landfill cost, has been diverted for sale to recyclers.

“We believe progressive environmental practices are good for the environment, as well as good for business,” said Americhem CEO Rick Juve in a recent company newsletter. “Ultimately, it reduces cost, increases profit through the supply chain and protects the environment for the future.”

Smart business practices are leading to smart individual practices, as well. “Our people told us that our environmental management certification made them think of all the things they could do to increase sustainability around their own homes,” says Blanchard.

Sustainability is just good business sense — and a value for generations to come.

Americhem’s Environmental Efforts

Since 2008, Americhem has had an active approach to become an environmentally friendly company. We set and accomplish our goals by changes in how our business operates, the products we provide and the technologies we develop. Environmental responsibility is a key element in our company principles, and we are always trying to better ourselves to follow through with our commitment to our people, the public and the environment.

Office Improvements

• We have made big changes at our plants and in our offices where there are many opportunities to continue to improve.
• Implemented recycling programs at all of our locations for polymer waste, cans, bottles, paper and items such as ink cartridges.
• Installed light switch sensors and high efficiency lighting across our US plant network.
• Departments such as accounting and purchasing made an effort to go paperless by using systems such as the automated clearing house (ACH).
• Americhem corporate offices have solar tubes in the ceilings, increasing the use of natural light and reducing electrical consumption.

ISO 14001 Certification

The ISO 14001 standard certifies that companies follow a specific framework to help reduce negative impact on the environment. Our plant located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio has been ISO 14001 certified for a year and we have a goal to certify all of our plants in the future, starting with our plant in Suzhou, China in 2016.

In Our Plants

We identified a list of potential changes when we evaluated our plants. All of our plants are working towards zero landfill input, which is a work in progress but a goal that we see as possible. At our plants, we use recirculating cooling systems (chillers) to cool many different pieces of equipment. The heat absorbed from the process must be dissipated to allow reuse of the water so cooling towers/chillers are used for this purpose. They save us from using a lot of city water that normally would be wasted once used in processing.

Eco-Friendly Products

Another way that we reduce environmental impact is through products such as nBalance™ sustainable solutions and solution dyeing technology.

• 31 of our American PET colorants received Oeko Tex certification for synthetic fibers in Europe.
• nBalance - a mix of color and additive masterbatches that are designed to reduce consumption of natural resources and use minimal energy in manufacturing and distribution.
• Solution Dye Process - enhances your fiber production by coloring and spinning fiber in just one step. It also requires less water and eliminates the need for downstream equipment.

We also make hundreds of unique masterbatches for building products that do not require on-site applied materials, such as paint and stain. We help create products that contain recycled materials, giving you consistent results with more environmentally-friendly materials. We also help reduce the yellowness characteristics of recycled polymer streams.

Go Green with Americhem

With Americhem, you have a partner that not only provides you with state-of-the-art color and additive masterbatches, but also one that can help you limit your impact on the environment. Call us today at 1-800-228-3476 or contact us online to see the Americhem difference for yourself.

 

Aubrey Barto

Marketing Assistant, Americhem

 

ISO 14001: What it Means For You

At Americhem, we make a commitment to the public and the environment. We strive to maintain safe work practices that will not only benefit the environment, but also our community.

Since environmental responsibility is a key element in our company principles, we became certified to ISO 14001, a family of standards that helps companies and organizations focus on ways to responsibly operate and minimize impact on the environment.

What ISO 14001 Means

By following ISO 14001, Americhem and other companies follow a framework to help minimize negative impacts on the environment. It also means that we are constantly striving to find ways to improve our environmental management strategies and making for a better future.

How it Impacts Americhem

Currently, our Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio manufacturing plant, which handles a lot of our automotive products, is certified to the ISO 14001 standard.

Eventually, we will be moving to have all of our plants certified to help the environment and everyone in the surrounding communities. Some of the ways we reduce waste and energy usage is by:

• Utilizing product development to engineer greener products
• Implementing recycling programs
• Developing more efficient supply chains
• Preventing spill containment and practicing safe waste disposal
• Improving energy efficiencies
• Ensuring reporting requirements are met

We pride ourselves on offering high-quality, custom color concentrates while maintaining safe environmental practices. Give us a call at 1-800-228-3476 or contact us online today to see the benefits of working with Americhem for yourself.

How Americhem Helps Reduce Your Environmental Impact

Since its start in 1970, Earth Day has grown to become the largest civil observance in the world. In honor of the 45th annual Earth Day on April 22, we’re going to examine what Americhem does to make the world a greener place.

Environmental Goals

At Americhem, everything starts with the company principles that have guided us for the past 70 years. Part of those principles asks us to act as proactive stewards for the environment while providing value for our customer. We achieve this through:
· Product designs with the lowest environmental impact
· Innovative ways to reduce our use of natural resources
· Manufacturing and distribution methods that minimize energy use
· Partnerships with suppliers who share our dedication to sustainability

Providing nBalance™

One of the ways that we reduce environmental impact is through nBalance™ sustainable solutions, a mix of color and additive masterbatches that are designed to:
· Lower environmental impact
· Reduce consumption of natural resources
· Use minimal energy in manufacturing and distribution

Our color and additives also help create products that contain various recycled materials, giving you consistent results with more environmentally-friendly materials. We also make close to 900 unique products that do not require on-site applied materials, eliminating the need for painting, staining, or other on-site finishing methods.

Go Green with Americhem

With Americhem, you have a partner that not only provides you with top-of-the-line color and additive masterbatches, but also one that can help you limit your impact on the environment. Call us today at 1-800-228-3476 or contact us online to see the Americhem difference for yourself.

Why Solution Dye?: Environmental Advantages

English author and historian Thomas Fuller once said, “We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” This quote brings to mind one of Americhem’s most sacred company principles, which is, “Be a proactive steward of the environment.” One of the ways we do this as a company is to promote environmentally friendly practices and manufacturing methods. One of our biggest company initiatives toward that end is our promotion of the solution dyeing of synthetic fibers. With a solution dye process you not only see better quality, but the process preserves more natural resources.

Post dyeing is the process by which finished white yarn is colored with liquid dyes after the fiber is made.  This process leads to an extraordinary amount of water being used and a huge amount of that water being permanently polluted. According to the Color Masterbatch Technical Handbook, there are about 30 metric tons of PET fiber produced globally every year. Let’s assume that a third of those products will require color. In this scenario, if post dyeing is used exclusively, 99,000,000 gallons of polluted color effluent is produced. It brings to mind the African proverb, “Filthy water can not be washed.” And indeed, the industry must find a way to safely dispose of this effluent water, which is not an easy task.

Solution dyeing, which adds the colorant from a masterbatch to the fiber as its being spun, presents a more eco-friendly alternative. No water is used during the solution dyeing process and very little water is used in the overall process.  It has been estimated that the overall water consumption in post dyeing is one hundred times greater than that of using masterbatch in the solution dye process.

Solution dye not only saves water during the process, it also saves energy. By combining fiber spinning and coloring into one step, the amount of energy used is considerably reduced. This one-step process also means that no additional equipment is needed, whereas the spinning and coloring steps in post-dyeing each require their own special equipment.

You can read more about the advantages of solution dye from Americhem global director of business development, V.G. Kulkarni, in his recent article in International FiberJournal.

Environmental Themes and Record Attendance Characterize SPE TPO Conference

This week’s 16^th annual Society of Plastics Engineers TPO Automotive Engineered Polyolefins Conference was bigger and better than ever.  More than 500 people attended the conference, most of them representing molders, tier suppliers and OEMs in the automotive industry. The event, held annually in Detroit, has grown steadily over the last few years and seems to be outgrowing the current venue.

In addition, attendees included 15 media members from the automotive and plastics press. The media attendees even included Chinese and Spanish language publications this year. The exhibitors were also at an all-time high, with 72 exhibiting companies, including Americhem, occupying much more floor space than in prior years.

There were over 60 technical presentations given and several of the topics revolved around an environmental theme. IAC and Ford gave one of the initial papers on bio-based materials, and that conference hall was dedicated to environmental topics for the balance of the conference’s first day. Another key theme was lightweighting of polyolefin parts, and this topic continues to be a big focus in this industry as OEMs struggle to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. These topics were of specific interest to Americhem, as this week, our automotive manufacturing plant in Ohio is completing an ISO 14001 audit. This standard sets out the criteria for an Environmental Management System. More and more automotive suppliers are realizing the importance of this standard to their customers.

With the record attendance, the exhibitor hall was filled with Tier suppliers and OEM’s looking for suppliers who can help them solve complex problems and add value in the global automotive marketplace. For our part, Americhem’s booth was visited by most of our automotive customers. Our message revolved around Americhem’s color management capabilities. As a global supplier of automotive color masterbatch, Americhem helps OEM’s and Tier 1’s manage the variability of raw materials used in extrusion and injection molding technologies. With examples we can point to from our work with a large global OEM, we are able to demonstrate the color harmony that Americhem helps promote across different materials, plants, suppliers and geographies. The message is becoming more commonly understood and is gaining momentum within the industry.

It’s exciting to be part of the growing community that this conference represents. We certainly plan to keep our ear to the pulse of these SPE members and the tier suppliers and OEM customers they represent. We look forward to participating again in 2015.

Brian Kady
Market Manager, Americhem, Inc.