ECO FACTORY: Guidelines for Stable Businesses, Livable Communities, and Sustainable Environment

Operating under its sustainable development strategy, SCG places importance not only on developing innovations that can elevate the quality of life for the public but also on eco-friendly industrial management in order to ensure the integrity and sustainability of natural resources for posterity – another priority that the company has always actively pursued.

Good Factories for Sustainable Society and Environment

An Eco Factory refers to an industrial plant that is committed to eco-friendly business practices for sustainable development; the continuous and sustainable development and improvement of its manufacturing and environmental management both internally and externally and throughout relevant supply chains on the basis of corporate social responsibility; as well as community development and promotion of local economies. The aforementioned definition, which was formulated by the Federation of Thai Industries in 2014, encompasses five facets of a Eco Industrial Town, namely physical, economic, social, environmental, and management dimensions.

To become a certified Eco Factory, an industrial plant must pass an assessment by the Federation of Thai Industries and the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand. The assessment consists of criteria on eco-efficiency and impact evaluation, which altogether comprise 14 issues as follows.

• Issue 1: Raw material management: The improvement or adjustment of manufacturing processes, machinery, and equipment to increase material efficiency in production and services
• Issue 2: Energy: The implementation of energy conservation measures, such as the improvement or adjustment of manufacturing processes, machinery, and equipment to reduce energy consumption and boost manufacturing efficiency
• Issue 3: Transportation and logistics: Reducing the use of relevant resources, increasing efficiency, and applying IT and automated systems to transportation and logistics systems to cut costs and enhancing efficiency and safety in transportation and logistics
• Issue 4: Green supply chain: Aimed at promoting sustainable manufacturing and consumption policies, green procurement refers to procurement of products and services that create minimum environmental impact across all the stages of the life cycle compared to products and services in the same category. Environmental labels include label types 1, 2, and 3.
• Issue 5: Green landscape: Increasing green spaces both inside and outside the factory and designing the layout and area of the green landscape
• Issue 6: Management of hazardous chemicals and substances: Reducing leakages of hazardous chemicals and substances and precluding leakages or accidents that affect employees, communities, and the environment
• Issue 7: Water and wastewater management: Ensuring water efficiency to reduce wastewater, its release outside the plant, and the organization’s water footprint
• Issue 8: Greenhouse gas emission: The improvement or adjustment of manufacturing processes, machinery, and equipment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance efficiency in production and services
• Issue 9: Air pollution management: The improvement or adjustment of processes, machinery, and equipment to reduce the emission of air pollution that negatively affects the environment
• Issue 10: Waste management: Reducing the amount of waste, both regular and hazardous, sent to landfills; increasing waste recovery; and recovering waste and scraps for use, both in the manufacturing process and as raw material in another plant
• Issue 11: Employee health and safety: Ensuring the health and safety of employees by providing a good work environment with suitable air quality, lighting, noise levels, and heat levels; overseeing the occupational health of employees; and analyzing and preventing risks arising from operations
• Issue 12: Biodiversity: Reducing loss of natural habitats and habitat fragmentation of biological resources
• Issue 13: Income distribution to communities: Creating new jobs that generate sustainable income for communities and fostering symbiosis between the factory and communities. A stable and sustainable source of income can be created through several means, such as by promoting the development or new skills or creating new jobs, which can be either related or unrelated to the operation of the factory.
• Issue 14: Co-existence with surrounding communities: Communicating and disclosing information related to the factory’s safety and environmental management and its chemicals; promoting community participation in environmental quality monitoring; carrying out activities that promotes quality of life in communities; and actively applying social responsibility management systems (ISO 26000) or CSR DIW to produce concrete results, encompassing seven key aspects: 1.1) governance, 1.2) human rights, 1.3) labor practices, 1.4) environment, 1.5) fair operating practices, 1.6) consumer issues, 1.7) community involvement and development.

The Chemicals Business, SCG, a leader of plastic and chemical innovations, is committed to continuous and active development towards sustainability. In 2014, Rayong Olefins Company Limited and Thai Polyethylene Company Limited under the Chemicals Business began adopting the Eco Factory criteria to elevate their environmental management systems and successfully became Thailand’s first two certified Eco Factories.

Subsequently, in 2018, the remaining 10 companies and 12 plants under the Chemicals Business applied the Eco Factory criteria and were similarly certified by the Federation of Thai Industries, thus earning the Chemicals Business the status as Thailand’s first-ever company to have 100% of its factories certified as Eco Factories and demonstrating that every company under SCG not only contributes to the creation of Eco Industrial Estates and Eco Industrial Towns but also satisfies all the 14 Eco Factory criteria.

Act for Communities and the Environment

SCG’s commitment to business growth on the basis on sustainable co-existence with communities and the environment is reflected in a wide range of activities that the company has undertaken in earnest. In the physical dimension, protection strips, which are made up of about 52,600 trees and form a total of 293 square rai of green area, have been created to keep industrial zones and communities apart. In addition, the company has transformed more than 19.5% of the total plant area (1,700 rai) into green space as well as conducts an environmental audit and informs communities of the results every three months.

|In terms of management, SCG has developed various innovations to address environmental issues. An example is the enclosed ground flare, which takes advantage of the air movement resulting from temperature differences rather than high pressure steam to draw in oxygen for combustion. The technology not only reduces steam noises and leads to better combustion but also creates no smoke as the flames are kept in the flare stack, thus releasing no light or heat into the environment. This innovation represents a flare management system that takes into account potential impact on all parties. Another example is the Hydrocarbon Exchange Program between the Company’s Factories, in which the company recovers flare gases to be burned off by installing a system that feeds hydrocarbons generated during machine shutdown or startup and previously destined to flare stacks to a fuel production process instead. This innovation can save 450 tons of hydrocarbons, or an equivalent of 2,800 tons of carbon dioxide, per activation.

To enhance energy efficiency in industrial plants, SCG has also invented emisspro®, Thailand’s first industrial furnace and boiler coating material that reduces heat loss in the production process and save 2-6% energy. Currently, SCG offers a full range of services, from consultation and coating application to maintenance. Another invention is the Ci-Bot (Carburization Inspection Robot), which can measure the amount of carbon that has seeped into the material of the coils in a furnace in an olefin plant. As these coils are exposed to high heat for a prolonged period of time, they may be permeated with carbon, which can lead to brittleness, leakage, or breakage. The Ci-Bot can quickly and accurately examine the condition of furnace coils and estimate their lifetime in detail. SCG has also conducted various natural resource conservation projects. Among these are Solar Power Projects, including the piloting of solar PV rooftops capable of generating a maximum of 140.76 kilowatts and the installation of a 1MW floating solar farm in a factory pond; the two projects promote the use of renewable energy and reduce 1,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year combined. Other projects include the Water Recovery Project, which has saved over 3.8 million cubic meters or an equivalent of 20 days’ worth of water consumed by Map Ta Phut residents, and the Fish Home Project, in which leftover PE100 pipes produced during the quality testing of plastic resins are assembled into shelters for small marine life in coastal areas.

SCG also places importance on social and economic aspects. To this end, it fosters cordial relations with communities and supports over 10 communities in the vicinity of its sites by improving their quality of life and promoting their self-reliance in line the principles of sustainable development. The company has also assisted them in establishing community enterprises, such as the Eight Immortals Chinese Pastries business of the Tulip Housewife Group in Noen Phayom Community, which generates an additional THB 200,000 in income per month, and boosting their sales through “Rayong Shop Hi,” an online marketplace that promotes community products and services on social media.

These initiatives bear testament to SCG’s earnest dedication to the advancement of the notion of Eco Factory in order to ensure the growth of businesses that harmoniously co-exist with their surrounding communities and the environment.