Environmental Stewardship

EH&S Governance

Avient’s Board of Directors has a long-standing Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S) Committee. The charter of the Committee is to oversee and monitor the establishment and maintenance by management of comprehensive environmental, health, safety, security and product stewardship policies, standards and practices to procure regulatory compliance and safety/environmental operational excellence on a global basis.

Oversight for the Environmental Management System is further embedded throughout the organization:

• Avient’s SVP of Global Operations and Process Improvement, an executive officer of the company (C-Suite), has leadership responsibility for the Environmental Management System. This role reports directly to the CEO.
• Avient’s Vice President of Environmental, Health and Safety has oversight of Environmental management at our sites globally. Every site has an EH&S resource, in addition to regional EH&S leaders, who report to the Vice President of Environmental, Health and Safety, who reports to the SVP of Global Operations and Process Improvement.
• Any material risks identified by the Management System, as well as plans to address them, are reported to the Board of Directors EH&S Committee on an annual basis.

EH&S Management, Reporting & Auditing

A key part of our management systems are internal audit and review programs, which periodically examine plant operations and develop recommendations to enhance performance. The scope of this audit/review process includes compliance to Avient policies and standards as well as applicable regulations. These standards include:

• Environmental, Health and Safety Capital Appropriation Review
• Chemical Release Reporting
• Recycle/Reuse and Waste Management Procedures
• Groundwater Protection Program
• New Chemical Review
• Crisis Management Emergency Response Planning
• Product Regulatory Compliance Review

Avient strives to achieve high environmental standards in both mature and emerging markets through the development of security and environmental management systems, audit/review procedures, certifications, local training programs and best-practice management systems.

Our EH&S Security Management System includes forward-planning process which reviews potential environmental and community impact of our manufacturing operations and identifies opportunities to improve the performance of our operations and comply with current and anticipated regulations.

Our Environmental Management System establishes internal performance and audit/review standards for all our facilities comparable to ISO 14001 standards. Certain facilities have also received official certification to the ISO 14001 International Environmental Management System. ISO 14001 certifications follow intensive environmental audits of organizations, conducted by third-party ISO representatives. At present, multiple Avient facilities hold ISO 14001 Certification.

In order to continuously track progress made toward achieving environmental, health and safety (EH&S) goals, Avient has implemented a reporting program which includes:

• Monthly reporting of production rates, waste generation rates, recycling rates, disposal methods, and compliance.
• Quarterly reporting of progress made toward completion of internal environmental audit/review action items.
• Annual reporting of energy use, water use, environmental capital needs for the coming five years, potential impacts of pending regulations, and narrative status reports on management systems related to air, land and water pollution prevention and control.
• Monthly, quarterly and yearly reporting of safety and health statistics and benchmarking against other best-in-class companies.