Jim Haney started his professional career in chlorine and chlorinated organics at a time when Greenpeace was calling chlorine "the devil's chemical."
"At that time, the industry worked to develop safe handling standards and public education," Haney said.
This collaboration helped industry competitors generate innovations and come up with alternative technologies for some downstream products and chemicals, particularly in refrigerants that use chlorine as a raw material.
"It generated a whole new area of products and markets just by evolving from that space," Haney said. "That industry is now thriving, and we still have air conditioning in our homes and in our workplaces."
Haney, now business manufacturing and technology director for Dow Chemical, noted the quest for plastics sustainability is no different.
"It's much more in the news, mainly because of the waste in the oceans. At Dow, we feel like we should help lead this effort," Haney said, speaking on a panel at the Gulf Coast Industry Forum held recently in Pasadena, Texas.
To "walk the talk," Dow has become a leading member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, an industry organization in which producers and users of different plastic materials work to help support infrastructure for waste handling.
"Plastic is just too good a material to ignore," Haney said. "We'll continue to figure out how to manage it properly -- from start to finish, the entire lifecycle of that material -- so it will evolve just like the 'devil's chemical' back in the late 1980s."
Safety first, in all kinds of weather
In addition to recycling and sustainability, safety and emergency response is a topic that commands the attention of industry and community leaders.
"I'm humbled to talk about the men and women in [our response team]," said co-panelist Bob Bradshaw, site manager for INEOS. "We have a highly trained emergency response volunteer team that spends time in that world-class facility at Texas A&M in regards to training."
In the past two years, INEOS has invested several million dollars in new fire fighting equipment and response equipment for its Alvin and La Porte, Texas, sites.
"Since we are in La Porte, [there is] constant communication with the Office of Emergency Management in La Porte," Bradshaw said, noting that INEOS also maintains active membership in Channel Industries Mutual Aid (CIMA) and the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC).
"As part of the new RMP (risk management plan) requirements OSHA came out with recently, that joint training is an offer we now make to the City of La Porte through the LEPC," Bradshaw said. "That's how we stay in constant contact with them."
"Safety, in general, is part of who we are and part of everything we do. The safety of our people and the communities that surround us is our primary focus," said co-panelist Gary Piana, plant manager for Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. and East Harris County Manufacturers Association's chairman of the board.
"Our sites are VPP Star certified, part of OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program, and that's something we're very proud of. We are members of CIMA, and we conduct mutual aid drills with CIMA member sites."
Piana also explained that while Tropical Storm Imelda dropped as much as 40 inches of rain within a three-day period, flooding many south central Texas communities, it triggered Chevron Phillips to evaluate whether it could commit people and resources to assist areas struggling with the inclement weather.
"We're there if the community or surrounding communities need us, and we're glad and proud to be part of that," Piana said.
