Milliken commits to 'science-based' net zero carbon emissions by 2050

DUESSELDORF, Germany—Spartanburg, S.C.-based industrial and chemical manufacturer Milliken & Co. is committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 using science-based accounting of emissions.

The Science Based Targets initiative, a United Nations-backed collective of international organizations working to help companies set emission reduction targets, approved Milliken's 2050 net zero goal and its more-near-term 2030 goals. Milliken's plan, in line with SBTi's requirements, is "consistent with climate science and the Paris Agreement," breaking its reduction goals into three scopes of emissions.

Scope 1 includes all of the company's direct emissions including on-site fuel consumption such as gas boilers and fleet vehicles. Scope 2 includes all direct emissions from electricity generation purchased for Milliken's operations.

Milliken already has been working toward carbon emission reduction before it explored a net zero commitment, CEO Halsey Cook said at K 2022 in Duesseldorf. Since 2018, the company stopped using coal as a fuel source when it invested $25 million in a cogeneration facility, its largest site globally, that uses steam for power generation for industrial processes.

That capital investment "reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions already," Cook said. It will also work to reducing natural gas consumption in operations.

Scope 3 includes all other direct emissions from activities within the company or occurring from sources it does not control "including the carbon inherent in the materials that we are purchasing from our suppliers," he said.

Working with SBTi helped Milliken accurately account for all its emissions, Cook told Plastics News in an interview. "We actually weren't emitting as much carbon as we thought; that's the good news."

SBTi also helped Milliken to "learn what to look for" when setting its targets to achieve reductions "that are consistent with the pathways science tells us will limit global temperatures' rise to 1.5°C," Cook added.

"In the near term, we've committed to reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50.4 percent by 2030 and reducing absolute Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030," he said.

Since 2030 is only seven years away, the company already is working to meet those reduction goals.

Longer term, Milliken plans to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 90 percent by 2050 from its 2018 base year. It also looks to reduce Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent within the same time frame. In order to meet the Scope 3 goal, Milliken will need to collaborate and establish transparency with its suppliers while improving product analysis and product end-of-life considerations, Cook said.

"We'll share our progress as we go," he said, but most of these goals are on the company's "to-do list." One of the items on Milliken's to-do list is making emission reduction requirements for its suppliers.

"We feel like it's possible, but we still have to go toe to toe," he said. "It turns into a price discussion. … For now anyway, I think the price of carbon is going to go up every time, so I think taking carbon out of products will create pricing opportunities in the future."

Out of Milliken's top 100 suppliers, 45 percent "already have some form of emission reduction commitments," Deidre Sandrock, director of sustainability and innovation, said. "So this lift isn't from zero. … We've already got nearly half of that top hundred supplier base … (that are) committed to the same values.

"Our Scope 3 emissions are estimated to be almost three quarters of (our emissions), which is in line for chemical industry," Sandrock said.

But learning that estimation through SBTi approval placed emphasis the company's "upstream engagement," she added, and its tools for carbon accounting of the items it's purchasing.

The same emissions reduction requirements will not be expected of Milliken's customers, Cook said. "If we've set the price and they want to buy it, even though they may not have environmental goals, we know that because they're buying our product and there's less inherent carbon in that ... that's a good thing for the world."

Milliken's customers, especially in the automotive sector, are independently demanding carbon emission reductions from the company to decrease their own Scope 3 emissions, he said, "and they don't want to pay a dime more for it."

Those companies are also moving back requirement dates for those reductions, Cook added. "2050's not good enough; (automotive customers) want 2035 and you're not going to qualify if you don't do it."

Cook said he expects sustainability, decarbonization and circularity "will become the very basis of competition in the future" for all of Milliken's end markets.

The company hopes "low carbon" will become its own grade of polypropylene so its customers know that parts from the material have "inherently less carbon" in the production of the clarifiers or other additives, he said.

"We're enabling (our customers') sustainability initiatives," Cindy Boiter, executive vice president and president of Milliken's chemical business, said. "We're helping all the way through the value chain."

Despite stressful market conditions over the last few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Milliken was able to continue its sustainability goals uninterrupted, Boiter said. "It's been a crazy couple of years … but you've got to continue. … It's the right thing to do for the long term.

"We're ahead of the game in reducing through 2030," she added. "We've got to continue to reduce 4.2-4.3 percent a year. Whatever the market conditions are, we've still got the goals.

"It helps that we're privately held," Boiter said. "Our ownership has much longer-term patience. Sustainability has been on the forefront … so they're looking way far beyond what some other companies would be thinking. Long-term patience pays off."

"All of our capital now is examined with the lens of sustainability and what it will bring to these targets that we've set ,which are very ambitious and are going to take a lot of investments," Cook added.

"Nearly half the decarbonization that's going to be required is going to come from circularity technologies," Sandrock said.

The "whole purpose" of Milliken's acquisition of German compounder and concentrates maker Zebra-chem GmbH in 2021 was to advance its mechanical recycling capacity, said Wim Van de Velde, Milliken's global vice president of plastic additives.

"We have technologies which work together in collaboration with the Zebra-chem site that allow mechanical recyclers to put their products in more applications," Sandrock said.

Milliken's net-zero-by-2050 plan, which still has many details that need to be ironed out, is still at only 90 percent emissions reduction. In order to meet the additional 10 percent reduction needed for net zero, the company created a "community of innovators," Cook said, consisting of 250 Ph.D. and MBA scientists to brainstorm on inventing carbon capture technologies or investing in wind, solar or other clean energy technologies.

"I don't know where on Earth that could take us. … We've got a history in the company of saying 'why not' and coming up with things," he said. "The whole chemical business came out of the fact that we were a textile company. In the '50s we started to go into polymeric research around polyesters and nylons and … over time learned how to manipulate and color them … and now our chemical business is as big as our textile business."

"Other [companies] are going to be innovating as well, so to see how that impacts us and what we can do," Boiter said. "That's the beauty. … When you put something out there, you get the whole industry going."

"Somewhere between 30-40 percent of the technologies that are going to be required to achieve net zero by 2050 have yet to be invented," Sandrock said. "This is terrifying but exciting all at the same time.

"The beautiful part about being a scientist is if we put our heads together and [set our goal], anything is possible from an innovations standpoint," she added. "That's my hope as we try to march toward 2050 is that the really smart people are going to help invent that 30-40 percent required."

"We were trying to do this, to do the right thing," Cook said. "It's turned into something much bigger."

Going after these goals "could create new segments and revenue streams for the company in the future," he said. "We are going to continue to invest in innovation so we can avoid the worst effects of climate change for ourselves and for humankind. … Our stakeholders including the company's owners, our board of directors all of our associates and our customers stand with us.

"If you ask us today how we'll get there, our answer is simply that we don't have all the answers yet," Cook said. "We're still in the process of creating a clear and actionable plan as we've set out for our 2030 goals … We will not be able to succeed in isolation. There are technologies that are in the process of coming to market or being invented that will allow Milliken and the world to be successful."