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Sustainability

Our long-term strategy to maintain stakeholder value is dependent on our ability to ensure that we operate our business in a safe, ethical, environmentally and socially responsible manner.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

Westlake is pleased to make available to investors, employees, suppliers and customers our 2019 Sustainability Report.? To view the report, click HERE.? To view Westlake's 2018?Sustainability Report, click HERE.? To view Westlake's 2017 Sustainability Report, click HERE.

IN THE NEWS

Westlake Receives +Vantage Vinyl Reverification?

Westlake recently received the +Vantage Vinyl? reverification, an industry-wide sustainability initiative sponsored by the Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC), part of the Vinyl Institute (VI), and supported by the vinyl product associations.

+Vantage Vinyl promotes the sustainability of the vinyl industry across three impact categories: ?1. Landfill Diversion, 2. Health & Safety, and 3. Emissions.? For a company to showcase the +Vantage Vinyl mark, it must have undergone verification by an independent, third-party to confirm a company’s activities in each of the three impact categories.?

Some of Westlake’s activities included sharing energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission data, and sharing philanthropic and employee participation through our community activities in our sustainability report.? Westlake published its 2019 Sustainability Report in September of this past year, and it can be viewed HERE.? Also, several of Westlake’s facilities have received the ISO 14001 standard, with the goal remaining that all Westlake North American chemical facilities will receive this certification in the coming few years.

To learn more about this initiative, you can view its website at www.vantagevinyl.com.?

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Alliance Releases its 2020 Progress Report

In September 2020, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste released its 2020 Progress Report, sharing AEPW's commitment to project acceleration across its four strategic pillars: waste management and recycling infrastructure, innovation, education and engagement, and clean up.

So far the Alliance has activated projects in 14 cities across South East Asia, India and Africa – all at the frontline of the plastic waste challenge. Westlake joined the Alliance, now made up of over 40 global companies along the plastics value chain, in 2019.

The progress report provides details on recent project milestones, including:

  • Project STOP (Stop Ocean Plastics) in Jembrana, Northwest Bali Indonesia, has created the regency's first-ever solid waste management service with a full recycling system that will create new and permanent jobs. The Alliance and Project STOP will create a system that will aim to collect 20,000 tons of waste per year.
  • Zero Waste Plastic Cities – a combined vision of the Alliance and Grameen Creative Labs co-founded by Nobel Peace-Laureate Professor Mohammed Yunus, to develop sustainable social businesses that improve the livelihoods of many in the cities of Puducherry, India and Tan An, Vietnam.
  • Over the last year, the End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform with Plug and Play has fostered start-ups that can impact the plastic value chain. The program has seen more than 1,000 start-ups from Silicon Valley and Paris apply, while the third hub, Singapore, received widespread interest when it kicked off its accelerator program this summer.

The 2020 Progress Report also announced the Alliance's 2025 Ambition to build investable models and partnerships that will:

  • Demonstrate zero plastic waste in multiple cities and divert well over millions tons of plastic waste through Alliance projects in more than 100 at-risk cities.
  • Support healthy livelihoods for over 100 million people by enabling local ownerships of waste management.

"Westlake is pleased to celebrate its one-year anniversary as a member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. We also want to congratulate the Alliance on its accomplishments since its inception in January 2019," said Albert Chao, president and CEO.??

To view the full progress report, including a message from Albert Chao, click HERE?.??

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Vinnolit Receives Gold EcoVadis Rating for Practiced Corporate Social Responsibility

Responsibility for people and the environment is a core value at Westlake.?Emphasis on this?topic is all the more important as corporate social responsibility (CSR) expectations for global supply chains are on the rise. As evidence of our commitment, Vinnolit has been regularly reviewed by the independent global assessment platform EcoVadis (www.ecovadis.com) for a number of years.? Again, it evaluated Vinnolit’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance and again Vinnolit achieved an excellent rating (“Gold Recognition Level”).

During the assessment, EcoVadis assesses the company's activities in the areas of environmental protection,?working conditions and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement using 21 criteria based on international sustainability standards such as the United Nations Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and ISO 26000.?? Scoring 68?out of 100 possible points in the assessment, Vinnolit ranks significantly above the industrial average?and is in the fourth percentile of the best chemical companies worldwide that have been audited by EcoVadis.

Also, Westlake began the process of having its US chemical sites evaluated by EcoVadis as well.? After its first evaluation, Westlake's U.S. chemicals operations received a bronze rating, placing above average and in the 50th percentile of evaluated companies.? EcoVadis describes companies with a bronze rating as having a "structured and proactive CSR approach with engagements/policies and tangible actions on major issues."

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Industry Associations

Westlake is a proud member of the following organizations which help to drive sustainable action.

Westlake Partners to Drive Sustainable Action

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Protecting the Environment

Acting responsibly

Westlake is committed to the guiding principle of responsible corporate action and sustainable development that combines financial success with social responsibility and responsibility for the environment.

A responsible and sustainable action is firmly anchored in the corporate culture of Westlake and operating in a safe, ethical, environmentally and socially responsible manner.

Lake Charles South Wetlands Planting

To read about the planting of 175 acres of wetlands in Bayou d'Inde, located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, click HERE.