PPG aims high with sustainability, partners with customers for biggest impact

PITTSBURGH—Sustainability is a beautiful thing.

And that's the way it should be, PPG's Diane Kappas, vice president of global sustainability, and Juliane Hefel, general manager of specialty coatings and materials, told Rubber News.

Innovation, they said, shouldn't come at the cost of the planet. So when companies set and achieve big goals for product performance and sustainable manufacturing, the impact can be significant.

That's why PPG is aiming high and following through.

"PPG has a steadfast commitment to sustainability, guided by our purpose: We protect and beautify the world," Kappas and Hefel said in a written statement.

That purpose is not one the company takes lightly. PPG believes it should be a sustainability leader, one that is helping to set the bar for the rubber and tire industries. So the company is articulating a vision that is built around big goals.

And to accomplish those goals, you have to move forward. That requires focusing on smaller strides—short-term goals—that keep you moving along the sustainability path.

For PPG, those short-terms goals were articulated in May 2022, and they focused on near-term company-wide emissions reductions that were aligned with the Science Based Targets initiatives (SBTi).

PPG has vowed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions intensity and has made strides, Kappas and Hefel said, noting that as of last year, it had reduced GHG emissions intensity by 17 percent when compared to its 2017 baseline.

And that's just the start.

PPG also submitted 2030 Scopes 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions reduction targets—that align with the Paris Climate Agreement—to SBTi for validation. The company also intends to invest in renewable energy sources and energy efficient projects to reduce its operational emissions footprint.

"In this critical moment for climate change, we are committed to further evaluating and reducing emissions throughout our value chain," Kappas and Hefel said. "… Following our validation work with SBTi, we intend to announce new, aggressive 2030 goals that will define our decarbonization strategy to help protect the planet for current and future generations."

For now, though, PPG has a good idea of where it's heading as it pursues greater sustainability. And its 2022 successes embody that.

Last year, PPG:

• Launched sustainable solutions to meet customers' needs.
• Finalized a new global sustainability organization, which includes embedded sustainability business partners for each strategic PPG business that works with customers to innovate solutions that support customers' sustainability ambitions.
• Initiated supplier collaborations to identify more sustainable raw material solutions.
• Increased sustainability and climate change educational opportunities for PPG employees through new learning modules and internal podcast series.

PPG's approach to sustainability is holistic, focusing on its own operations and products, while targeting innovation to ensure that its customers' products and operations are sustainable as well.

"Product sustainability is an integral part of our enterprise sustainability strategy," Kappas and Hefel said. "We aim to invest in sustainable solutions to solve our customers' greatest challenges through new and existing innovations.

"We support our customers' contributions to global goals and minimize the environmental impacts associated with the application and use of our products," they added. "We also evaluate our existing product portfolio to understand where and how there are opportunities to make them more sustainable."

Doing that, though, requires a strong partnership.

So PPG works closely with its customers to better understand their own goals and expectations. Because you can't deliver on promises to provide the best possible products in terms of performance and sustainability without first understanding and embracing your customers' biggest goals and expectations.

For proof of just how far those partnerships and commitments can go, look no further than PPG's Agilon high-performance silica.

"With PPG Agilon performance silicas, tire makers, for example, can achieve the 'magic triangle' by lowering rolling resistance for improved fuel efficiency, increasing traction for improved safety and handling, and durable construction that extends the useful life of tires," Kappas and Hefel said.

With products like Agilon, tires perform more sustainably. But they're made more sustainable, too.

"We're also invested in making tire manufacturing more environmentally conscious. To accomplish this, PPG produces Agilon performance silica by pre-reacting silica, silane and proprietary additives at our own facilities. Removing this step from the manufacturing process eliminates more than 99 percent of the associated alcohol-related volatile organic compound emissions, cuts mix times and accelerates throughput, enabling manufacturers to produce more tires with less energy," Kappas and Hefel said.

"Our research shows that Agilon silica allows tire manufacturers to cut energy use in half and improve throughput by a third."

And Agilon is just one example of how PPG's sustainability commitment is embodied in its innovation and product offering. Last year, Kappas and Hefel said, the company launched "a number of sustainable products," which helps to bolster its aim of achieving 40 percent of sales from sustainably advantaged products.

As of last year, sustainably advantaged products accounted for 39 percent of the company's sales.

"We continue to strengthen our efforts across all areas of our footprint, including water, waste, energy and emissions," Kappas and Hefel said. "In addition to our operations and our customers' operations, PPG takes responsibility for minimizing the environmental impact of our products throughout their entire life cycle. Our Product Stewardship Management System and an updated sustainable product assessment process are the bedrocks of our process."