Can you talk about you or your company’s efforts relating to renewability, sustainability or other environmentally-friendly activities?

Ansell has announced net zero by 2040 to accelerate climate action and is leading as a company worldwide in this initiative. We have declared sustainability as the foundation of a new purpose we have fully integrated into our business strategy at Ansell: “Thinking of People and Planet First.”

As senior counsel in global operations, I am responsible for rolling out Ansell’s ESG initiatives across Asia-Pacific. I head the legal aspect of contract reviewing, drafting and negotiating for biomass contracts, reverse osmosis contracts, re-usable waste-water agreements, solar energy and other sustainability projects across our manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Thailand.

We are also educating hundreds of our global suppliers to work alongside Ansell under a supplier management framework. Ansell organised its inaugural Global Supplier Summit in February this year to bring together Ansell’s key supply chain partners to engage with and emphasise shared sustainability ambitions, commitments, and innovation for a better future. As master of ceremonies, I presented an award to a supplier who significantly contributed to Ansell’s strategic imperatives and led as an example to other suppliers.

We have commenced the construction of certain key projects and July 2022 marked a milestone for Ansell as our Kovai plant became operational, supplying the world’s fast-growing surgical and life sciences market. When completed in 2024, Ansell Kovai will consist of a manufacturing plant, compounding facility, dipping hall, post-processing building, warehouse, packaging facility, administrative block, canteen, biomass thermal energy generation building, and gamma radiation facility.

Completing this plant will set a new benchmark for Ansell’s sustainable manufacturing. When fully operational, this facility will mark a glove industry milestone by operating with zero liquid discharge, meaning that all wastewater is fully recycled and re-used in production. Further, all the Kovai buildings are designed according to criteria established by the Indian Green Building Council in 2001 to support India’s aim to become a global leader in sustainably-built environments by 2025. A ‘sustainably built’ environment is designed for longevity, flexibility, adaptability, re-use and recoverability, and considers future climate risks.

Construction materials for the Kovai plant incorporate low-carbon, low-impact, non-toxic and re-purposed materials. Ansell has made a commitment to shift away from fossil-fuel based energy sources to renewable energy at our plants, with a goal of using 100% renewable energy at each site. As a result, our new plant designs minimise water and energy use and maximise renewable energy sources, including sustainably-sourced biomass for thermal energy and solar photovoltaic panels as we move.

Separately, this year, three Ansell plants were successfully certified in their achievement of a waste-to-landfill diversion rate exceeding 99%.