This chapter covers the company’s impact on the environment, either through the use of non-renewable natural resources as production inputs or through environmental externalities, including releasing harmful substances into the environment, such as air emissions, water and wastewater, effluent and waste, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The Solvay Care Management System (SCMS) covers seven Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) domains: occupational safety, process safety, the environment, industrial hygiene, occupational health, product stewardship, and transport. The system incorporates the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard (edition 2004), the OHSAS 18001 standard (edition 2007), and Solvay group HSE requirements.

SCMS defines four maturity levels for each requirement, from the basic, mandatory level, to operational excellence. Level one corresponds to regulatory compliance. This management system is designed to help sites earn external certifications for their integrated management systems, and to help GBUs earn certification for their multi-site management systems. Decisions to apply for external certification are taken site by site, by the local management. 2017 was the first year that standard audits and SCMS audits were combined.

How Solvay sites control their environmental footprint, in a nutshell

While every industrial site is different, the Group’s commitments remain the same: 

1. reducing greenhouse gas intensity
2. reducing air and water emission intensity
3. performing regulatory compliance audits at all sites
4. consistent risk assessment of non-compliance throughout the Group
5. reducing the number of incidents with environmental non-compliance
6. following up more effectively on waste and water intakes.