When it comes to environment, social and governance (ESG), Ashland is investing and delivering in ways that our customers and consumers demand and aligning our strategy to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).

In 2022 Ashland demonstrated the power of a purpose-driven organization to both deliver shareholder value and positively impact the way business is conducted. With aligned resources, fierce customer and consumer focus, and an environmentally conscious approach to business, we understand that collaborations between industries and individuals are required to reshape our world.

Whether it is rethinking coatings formulations to use less water, innovating pharmaceutical technologies to help make medicine more readily available in far reaching corners of the world, or finding new and dynamic ways to harvest and upcycle natural ingredients for personal care, companies today must make a concerted decision to respond to their stakeholders’ requirements for sustainable sourcing, operations and solutions and transparent information.

Ashland’s 2022 ESG report charts the progression of our activities through most material ESG focus areas. With clearly defined subjects, concise metrics, detailed disciplines, and a transparent governance process we’re focused on ensuring our stakeholders understand how we conduct business, manage our relationships, and invent, manufacture, and distribute the full range of our innovative portfolio of products and services.

Ashland’s materiality assessment provides three primary lenses through which stakeholders can view the importance and significance of our plans, actions, and impacts. Year-on-year progress with hard metrics shine a spotlight on what we say we will do and how we do it. Improvements in the efficiency of our energy use, emissions and water usage tell the story of a day-to-day commitment of our nearly 4,000 employees across more than 100 countries, each bringing their unique expertise and problem-solving ability to bear on issues that impact our facilities, customers, communities, and planet.

At the same time, our bottoms-up approach to problem-solving where local employees bring solutions to their specific regions have enabled Ashland to accelerate its implementation of energy saving programs, water management, procurement practices and downstream management of our productions.

In the pages of this report, you will find highlights of our projects and programs staffed and led by problem-solvers at every level of our company. Their solutions are shaped by ESG. Their insights, passion and creativity thrive, often out of the spotlight of others. Their successes, while celebrated locally, are often seen as part of a cumulative improvement that Ashland posts in the aggregate, and these results are the fruits of their labors, their insights, and their commitment to responsibly solving for a better world.

Looking forward, Ashland has submitted science based targets aligned with 1.5C and we will release them following approval by SBTi. We believe that our contributions to this important global initiative support a brighter future. I look forward to continuing communications about reshaping business practices, innovation pipelines and the value chains we support, shape and shepherd for years to come.