Sasol Limited Sustainability Report 2021 - Book - Page 21
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SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE AGAINST OUR FOCUS AREAS: SAFE AND ENDURING OPERATIONS (CONTINUED)
Product stewardship
We work diligently to continuously
improve SHE impacts of our products,
as well as manage security throughout
the product life cycle, in partnership
with suppliers and customers.
Our approach
Focus area
• D
emonstrating our commitment to product stewardship
along the value chain helps to build trust in the Sasol
brand by reducing Sasol’s product risk and liability,
enabling compliance with applicable regulations
and sustaining our ability to deliver products that meet
customer needs today and into the future.
High-Purity
Isopropanol
(IPA)
• A
team of global technical experts with a sound
understanding of the hazards, risks and regulatory
requirements applicable to all our products drive
continuous improvements to prevent product-related
incidents and limit health and environmental exposure.
• W
e continue to enhance our approach, informed
by global guidance such as the Strategic Approach to
International Chemicals Management objectives, evolving
chemical control legislation, our product hazard and risk
assessments, and opportunities identified in product
design, digitalisation, and customer engagements.
• Product stewardship involves conscientious engagement
of partners and stakeholders along the value chain.
Through our collaborative approach we promote the safe
and responsible storage, use, conversion and end-of-life
management of our products.
Purpose
Progress
Fortuitously, a few months
before COVID-19 was
declared a pandemic,
our Chemicals Business
investigated, re-purposed
and trialled existing
production equipment
and systems for the
conversion of acetone to
high-purity IPA.
As COVID-19 cases spread across South Africa in calendar year 2021,
Sasol worked together with the Department of Trade, Industry &
Competition to prioritise the availability and local supply of ethanol
for use in hand sanitisers. South African Revenues Services (SARS)
amended the ethanol registration requirements which allowed for
the quick registration of manufacturers of hand sanitisers utilising
ethanol as the active ingredient. The availability of Sasol’s IPA
facilitated the immediate supply of SARS-compliant ethanol to
South African formulators of disinfectants and hand sanitisers, as
IPA is a SARS-recognised denaturant which in addition re-enforces
the efficacy of the sanitiser formulation in the fight against
COVID-19.
Isocarb 16
We are providing a critical
chemical building block for
the new COVID-19 vaccines
that are being used around
the world.
Sasol’s Isocarb 16 – a Guerbet acid derived from Sasol’s ISOFOL
16 alcohol – is a key ingredient in a unique lipid nanoparticle that
creates a fatty layer of protection for the COVID-19 vaccine’s active
component, allowing it to safely make its journey into the body’s
cells. The lipid nanoparticle, created from Isocarb 16 and other
chemicals, surrounds the messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA) and acts
as a 'bodyguard' to protect against enzymes that would otherwise
destroy it or degrade its effectiveness.
Sustainable
fuels
Positioning for sustainable
fuels in South Africa.
South Africa published for comment draft regulations regarding the
mandatory blending of biofuels - including third generation biofuels
- with petrol and diesel. We recognise the potential contribution
of biofuels as an enabler towards sustainable fuels and support a
coordinated industry approach to enable this.
Designing safe chemicals
Sustainable products make a net positive contribution to society in their particular applications and intended uses while
minimising harm to human health and the environment. To establish which products are sustainable requires a holistic
assessment of their impacts and benefits along the product life cycle.
A product classified as hazardous, when responsibly managed, can be of significant value to society. Sasol supports the
responsible management of all materials and chemicals across the life cycle, regardless of their hazard classification.
This approach means that a sound understanding of product chemistry, hazard profiles and potential exposure to people
and the environment is required to establish whether a product is suitable and safe for use in its applications. As part
of our project to pilot a sustainability portfolio assessment tool, we tested chemicals hazard and exposure across the
life cycle.
Our ongoing portfolio review process is fundamental to ensuring that Sasol offers the market a safe and competitive
product portfolio for today and the future. Regulatory scanning, screening of peer-reviewed scientific research on
chemical safety, and product development work occur on a continuous basis to ensure that any anticipated changes
in legal requirements that impact our products are known and addressed in advance of formal regulatory changes
being adopted. As a result of this, while Sasol has six products listed on the European Union’s Registration, Evaluation,
Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regulation (REACH) substances of very high concern candidate list, we have no
products on the REACH Authorisation list, since we had made chemical substitutions in advance of these developments.
We also do not have any materials present in our value chain relating to multilateral environmental agreements on
chemicals under the Montreal Protocol or the Stockholm Convention. One product which will require Prior Informed
Consent under the Rotterdam Convention and the international shipment of some low-volume spent catalyst material,
classified as hazardous waste, is managed under the Basel Convention with all required permits in place, and is necessary
to enable catalyst regeneration.
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Sasol Sustainability Report 2021