Pioneering Role in Bavaria: WACKER’s Environmental Department Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary

A look at WACKER’s history shows that environmental protection has a long tradition at the company. After all, environmental protection was put into practice as soon as the company was founded. As early as 1916, the year the Burghausen plant was commissioned, precise records were kept of the industrial water being discharged. A year later, plant management formulated specific rules to prevent pollution of the Salzach river and had the site’s first wastewater-treatment plant built. The principle of recycling was first introduced in 1922. At that time, a flue-gas treatment system was put into operation in the acetic ether plant to recover the acetic ether fumes.

Environmental protection was significantly expanded at the Burghausen plant during the 1960s. Among the many measures taken at the time was the construction, in 1962, of separate discharge and treatment channels for five different types of wastewater. Five years later, Germany’s first incineration plant for liquid residues from chlorinated hydrocarbon production was built. At the same time, the chemical-mechanical wastewater-treatment plant went into operation.

In the 1980s, environmental protection was increasingly understood as a value in society, which was reflected in German politics, for instance, by the formation of the Green Party. In the 1990s, the role of environmental protection began to be understood as an integral part of chemical production beyond the mere cleaning of flue gases and wastewater. Rather, continuous improvement processes were seen as the task of systematic environmental management. WACKER underwent major changes during this period, too: in 1996, Dr. Ignaz Bauer, who was also known internally as the “Environmental Czar,” retired after 22 years as head of the environmental protection department.

His successors reorganized the department to reflect the fact that environmental protection didn’t just address individual types of media. It became clear that the tasks of air-pollution control, water-pollution control and waste disposal could not be considered in isolation from one another. New tasks were integrated and cooperation with the authorities was intensified. It was as early as 1995 that WACKER joined the first environmental pact between the Bavarian government and Bavarian industry. It was also a co-founder of this long-term alliance for constructive cooperation in environmental protection.

At the turn of the millennium, WACKER became ever more international in outlook. A start was made on thinking about environmental protection across the Group and developing standards for the various production sites. A standardized strategy for the fields of environment, health and safety has been in place since 2010. Right from the start, Group coordination was based in Burghausen.

Moser added that in general, the work of the environmental-protection department had changed increasingly in the decades since it was first founded: “It all started with the safe and environmentally compatible disposal of wastewater and waste – this still applies today, as can be seen from the current investments in our wastewater-treatment operations, for example. Yet our work also has a lot to do with official approvals, known as licensing. This involves carrying out preliminary inspections for planned changes to a facility and submitting corresponding applications for approval to the authorities.

Another important task is environmental monitoring. We carry out noise measurements, check wastewater and keep an eye on the emissions from the facilities. After all, our clear mission is to always ensure that nothing detrimental affects the local community or the environment. This is because it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about a production plant or a waste-disposal facility: everything must comply with the law and ensure there is no negative impact on the environment.”

The company has set itself ambitious targets: first, the Group’s production base should be absolutely net zero by 2045 at the latest – second, the plan is to halve absolute CO₂ emissions by 2030 compared to 2020. Projects are currently underway at many levels to meet the target of achieving net zero. These include not only efficiency measures, but also approaches to transforming the energy supply – one of the main sources of CO₂ at the Burghausen site. WACKER has just signed a supply contract for hydropower with Austria’s Verbund AG. In addition, PV systems are being installed at the site on a relatively large scale. There are also ideas for replacing the CCGT power station – the most important energy-supply facility at the site – with something that offers a net zero carbon footprint and is thus environmentally compatible.

WACKER’s environmental department intends to continue its success story in the next few decades. This will mainly be made possible by the dedicated team that Andreas Moser has at his side: “Our employees have very in-depth expertise and are a greatly appreciated link between the site’s various facilities and the authorities. What’s even more important, however, is their high level of commitment and their daily dedication to our goal of ensuring that this large chemical plant’s production lines are compatible with the environment and the local community, and that they can continue to operate successfully. In doing so, we are making a significant contribution to the future of our site.”