Keohane, Cabot define success with sustainability, service

BOSTON—You won't ever find Sean Keohane backing down from challenges. He welcomes them.

Because challenges are just opportunities that haven't yet been harnessed.

And Cabot Corp.? Cabot is exactly the kind of company that harnesses opportunities big and small. Has been since 1882.

Because Cabot is, after all, a chemistry company.

And chemistry, Keohane believes, holds the solutions to the biggest challenges the industry and global community face. Tackling those challenges takes a whole lot of innovation, the bravery to go first into uncharted spaces and a clearly defined vision for the future.

Turns out Cabot has all three of those as well as a leader who believes in its potential. Especially when it comes to one of the most significant challenges of all: sustainability.

"Transitions like (sustainability) are very disruptive and some companies just disappear during periods of significant transition because they fail to navigate it," said Keohane, Cabot's president and CEO. "Winning the sustainability transition and making sure that Cabot continues to lead, and making sure that Cabot remains relevant—that the organization remains a strong and healthy enterprise—that is an important measure of success for me."

It is not so coincidental then, that Keohane's definition of success is intertwined with the sustainability vision he has set forth for Cabot. Because achieving sustainability—in operations and through product performance—is imperative for the company and its CEO.

"I believe that the sustainability transition is an urgent one for the world," Keohane told Rubber News earlier this year. "There are some people that have a different technical and world view of whether or not that is the case. I have a worldview that it is the case, and therefore it is important that we do our part. And leading a company that has an impact here, it is really very personal."

For Keohane and Cabot, success can be measured by the ways in which you care for people and your community, act responsibly to protect the planet and work with your colleagues to ensure a better future for everyone. These are the sustainable principles upon which Keohane leads, and they are the principles Cabot reflects.

When it comes to caring for people, Cabot's employees demonstrate just that. In 2022, each of the company's sites across the world participated in activities that benefited their communities through the donation of time, funds and goods.

That same year, the Cabot Corp. Foundation stepped forward to support Ukrainian humanitarian efforts. The foundation has pledged to donate $250,000 to these efforts and has, to date, donated $180,000.

No matter what form Cabot's community support takes—be it volunteering time to beautify the community or giving money to support a charitable cause— Keohane is the first step up.

On a personal level, however, he demonstrates even more.

Keohane is closely involved with the Cassidy Murray Foundation, which was established in memory of Cassidy Murray, 13, who died during a tubing accident while on vacation in 2022. The foundation is dedicated to ensuring grieving families have access to support and resources such as counseling and mental health services.

Keohane recently spearheaded a successful fundraising event for the charity, which is close to his and his family's hearts.

Success, at times, is measured in minutes and hours—those you give back to the communities you call home.

At other times, success is measured by goals, both short and long term. That is especially true for the successes around sustainability.

"We are in the middle—or I would say the early days—of a real transition for sustainability. And so I think winning the sustainability transition and ensuring that Cabot navigates this transition is essential," Keohane said.

Cabot is winning with innovation.

Just this year, Cabot launched its Evolve platform of products, engineered specifically to help tire manufacturers achieve greater sustainability in their own operations and through their own products.

Through Evolve, Cabot commits to product development that leverages:

• Circular value chains by turning to materials recovered from end-of-life tires;
• Renewable and bio-based materials; and
• Processes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

And as it innovates and grows its product offerings, Cabot will focus on recovered materials, renewable sources and reduced carbon footprints.

Evolve may be among the most recent innovations the company has embraced, but it is not alone in its sustainability success. For the tire industry, there is also E2C, a line of engineered elastomer composite solutions designed to enhance product performance while reducing energy and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the manufacturing process.

Cabot recently conducted a life cycle analysis of its E2C products and its findings show what the company already knew. That E2C solutions' lower rolling resistance can improve vehicle fuel economy and result in as much as a 6-percent reduction in GHG emissions. At the same time, E2C compounds can help reduce the number of ELTs and therefore net emissions from tire production by as much as 10 percent.

"We clearly hear from our customers what their goals are, what their needs are, and they are increasingly expressed in terms of sustainability," Keohane said in March. "They want to have products that have more circular content. They want to be using products that are produced from more renewable sources. They want to have products and things that perform better because if the tires perform better, you get better fuel economy or you get better range if it is an EV, and that is a really big deal."

Cabot delivers exactly that, Keohane said. It brings to market products that allow its customers to achieve their own ambitious sustainability goals.

And that is a measure of both Keohane's and Cabot's success.

Embracing the challenge to win on sustainability also involves a willingness to adapt. It requires investments in technologies and a flexibility in processes to ensure more responsible manufacturing.

"The world is changing, it is more complex and there are more factors that we have got to deal with today as companies and as leaders," Keohane said. "Having a capacity in the company for constant renewal, that we can renew ourselves before something forces us to change, that is an important measure of success."

So Cabot is changing, adapting ahead of expectations.

When it comes to Cabot's more sustainable manufacturing operations, the measures are adding up. According to its 2023 Sustainability Report, Cabot has, under Keohane's leadership, achieved ambitious goals.

Among them, Cabot has:

• Achieved its nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions goal to reduce NOX intensity by 50 percent, and it has done so by investing in air pollution control technology and energy recovery systems.
• Exceeded the 2025 energy ratio target of 200 percent by achieving 214 percent in 2022 through energy efficiency improvements and investing in energy recovery systems.
• Converted waste heat into useful energy at 13 of its manufacturing facilities across its global network, enabling a savings of approximately 497,000 metric tons of GHG emissions.
• Achieved its waste reduction goal and decreased total waste disposal by 57 percent from the 2019 baseline due to a reduction in production of off-quality products, an increase in beneficial use and reduction in waste generated.

"Sustainability has really become front and center for us, and is a motivating force for all that we are doing," Keohane said. "I think it is best expressed in our purpose as a company, which we have said is to create materials that basically support everyday life, but also enable this sustainability transition.

"And I think that is the role that we play here. We want to create materials that improve daily life, but also enable this transition to a more sustainable world. And that purpose here, at Cabot, is what really motivates us and serves as a real aiming point for all of the work that we are doing."

It is, in the end, also the measure of success, Keohane said.