Climate change and efforts to combat it have a significant impact on our world, particularly regarding extreme weather conditions, rising sea levels, and regulations limiting the emission of greenhouse gases. In some jurisdictions, such as Germany, Trinseo complies with extensive regulations required as a result of nationwide or local greenhouse gas targets and resource conservation requirements.
In addition to being an issue of importance for our company, our stakeholders also determined it to be a topic of significance in a recent Materiality Assessment.
To that end, Trinseo began taking steps to launch a Climate Change Strategy. Part of our development process included identifying and assessing recognized climate-related risks and opportunities. The process helped to evaluate and provide insights into market and technology shifts, stakeholder expectations, policy and legal developments, and physical risks.
An element of the process included working with Trinseo’s insurance partners to assess and analyze physical risks related to extreme weather and natural catastrophes, to ultimately act to reduce risks and prepare for business continuity.
In 2019, Trinseo partnered with an external consultant to host scenario planning workshops with subject matter experts throughout the Company on five themes:
Through these workshops, climate-related risks and opportunities were characterized, potential financial implications were assessed, and future scenario impact was considered. Insights from the workshops were shared with a broader group of leaders and subject matter experts and used to develop a strategy framework centered around four themes:
Each theme within the strategy framework was defined and supported by a series of climate objectives, targets, prioritized initiatives, and a target implementation timeframe.
This strategy framework was largely driven by Trinseo’s Climate Change Goal, which is part of the Company’s 2030 Sustainability Goals. Given the natural complement of Trinseo’s Climate Change Strategy and the Company’s Climate Change Goal, the two initiatives were merged, transforming the Climate Change Strategy into an Implementation Plan for the Climate Change Goal.