2021 Responsible Care^® Competition of Germany’s VCI: WACKER Nünchritz site wins prize for Steam Roadmap

Every year, the VCI confers the award on outstanding projects and responsible stewardship in the areas of health, safety, and the environment. The competition motto this year was “Our contribution toward climate protection.”

The 2021 Northeast regional winner selected by the VCI was WACKER’s Nünchritz site. Between 2016 and 2020, its integrated energy production system was further optimized, achieving a substantial increase in the heat recovery ratio. Thanks to our Steam Roadmap project, the Nünchritz site now recovers 70 percent of the energy used in the form of heating steam (from a base value of 62 percent in 2016). “Doing so has allowed us to reduce our use of primary energy (natural gas) at the Nünchritz cogeneration plant and lower the site’s annual CO₂ emissions by over 30,000 metric tons,” explains site manager Jutta Matreux.

“The Responsible Care prize honors our efforts to find continuous sustainable improvements and innovations,” says Matreux. Having won in the Northeast, WACKER’s Nünchritz site now moves on to the VCI’s nationwide Responsible Care competition.

About Responsible Care^®

The global, voluntary chemical-industry initiative Responsible Care^® is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Germany in 2021. Founding member WACKER has been on board since 1991. With this initiative, companies in the chemical industry promote sustainability, product stewardship, safety for production plants and neighborhoods, and improving environmental and health protection in the workplace.

In the Responsible Care competition, companies use examples from their own operations to demonstrate how they practice responsible stewardship in the chemical industry.