We recognize the importance of strong corporate governance, including effective guidance for sustainability and other ESG-related matters.

The Corporate Risk and Sustainability Committee of our Board of Directors reviews and advises the Board of Directors on our sustainability initiatives and oversees our sustainability reporting, including certain risk management matters. Westlake also has additional responsibilities and collaboration among Sustainability Subject-Matter Experts across the Businesses.  The Vice President of Corporate Development & Sustainability and the Vice President of Health, Safety & Environment attend the Corporate Risk and Sustainability Committee meetings to provide strategic insight into ESG topics. These insights are determined through engagement with various members of our community addressing a myriad of ESG risks, opportunities, and issues.
 

 

Policies  Policies, Ethics and Compliance

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Business Ethics and Global Code of Conduct

Our Global Code of Conduct applies to all employees, directors and officers, and governs individual behavior and ethical practices for company actions. The Global Code of Conduct covers Health, Safety and Environment; Our People, which includes a range of concerns, such as non-discrimination, data privacy and conflicts of interest; Quality and Continuous Improvement; Competitiveness; and Citizenship, which includes several areas, including fair dealing and human rights.

Environmental Management System

Fundamental to our operations and our focus on continuous improvement is our environmental management system. ISO 14001 certified environmental management systems are in place across our compounding facilities.

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rss  Procurement and Supply Chain Management

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Suppliers Code of Conduct

Our Suppliers Code of Conduct applies to all of our suppliers and their manufacturing facilities, including any subcontracting and packaging facilities. It explicitly sets forth our expectation of compliance with applicable laws and regulations including, but not limited to, those related to labor, immigration, health and safety, and the environment; and expectations around conducting business in an ethical and safe manner. Conflicts of interest, corruption, unfair wages and any form of forced labor or human trafficking are expressly prohibited.

Procurement and Supply Chain Management

At Westlake, sustainability is one key element for our procurement strategy to overcome and secure supply-chain resiliency. To enhance our supplier-relationship management effort, we incorporated additional sustainability and safety-related questions in our supplier questionnaires and required that all suppliers acknowledge our Supplier Code of Conduct.

In 2022, we engaged with EcoVadis in our suppliers audit to discern challenges and opportunities for our supply chain management. In 2023, we aim to expand our auditing efforts, to include a few more direct material suppliers. Our new supplier questionnaire includes topics such as Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and certain human rights matters.
 

 

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Climate

Carbon Goal 

In 2022, Westlake established a major climate goal: a 20% reduction in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2e emissions per ton of production by 2030 from a 2016 baseline. As of December 31, 2022, we achieved a total reduction of 18% in Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions intensity from our 2016 intensity baseline.

We continue to research economically feasible technologies, which could help us establish a path to reach operational net zero carbon on or before 2050.

 

Responsible Logistics

Our environmental footprint extends beyond the perimeters of our plants. In this regard, we recognize the importance of smart logistics and transportation and have been working for years to reduce their climate impact. In 2022, Westlake continued to expand use of data-driven tools to optimize our transportation asset mix and efficiency by optimizing moves between our plants and customers as we integrate new facilities from acquisition.  We also leveraged our diverse North American fleet of 140+ barges to maximize efficient marine transportation.  Additionally, we operated unit tows between key locations to improve our transportation efficiency.  

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Cyber Security

Keeping our operations secure from cyber threats protects the health and safety of our workers and our neighbors, and helps us to avoid disruptions of our business processes. It is critical to keep our chemical plants running properly without interference so that we only scale back those operations in a controlled, orderly fashion. Our employees are trained on how to identify and report attempted cyber incursions through quarterly global training. In addition, as we add more digital enhancements to our operations, such as machine learning for certain processes, we are addressing cybersecurity concerns as well.

In our current report, you'll find more detailed information about our governance, our efforts to make Westlake resilience towards any external forces, and the progress we've made over the past year.