Product Stewardship

Product stewardship serves as a cornerstone of Hexion’s sustainability effort by stimulating innovation and helping the company meet society’s needs with products and processes that are more environmentally suitable and offer improved performance. Hexion extends this commitment to its customers by being a strategic partner and supporting their respective innovation efforts.

Product Stewardship Actions

Consistent with the principles of the Responsible Care Product Safety (PS) Code, Hexion’s product stewardship efforts include:

  • Supporting business and new product development to ensure global compliance, risk management and product safety with regards to existing product lines and innovation;
  • Educating associates and customers to ensure products are designed, manufactured, stored, transported, used, and disposed of in a safe and environmentally responsible manner to protect people, customers, communities, and the environment;
  • Actively engaging with internal and external organizations to anticipate regulatory, industry, societal and value chain trends to effectively manage risk, support business sustainability and anticipate need for product evolution;
  • Driving the adoption of science-based regulations;  
  • Proactively guiding Research and Development teams in the selection of lower hazard and more sustainable raw materials during early design phase of new developments;

Regularly reviewing product safety based on Hexion’s Risk Assessment Process to identify and prioritize risks and actions to mitigate them; and

Promoting regulatory compliance, product enhancements, and lower emissions.

Product Stewardship Resources

Hexion’s Product Stewardship team serves as a resource for global customers in a variety of additional areas, including providing important product information. For example: 

  • The Company’s commitments and positions regarding conflict minerals are described in our Policy Statement on Responsible Sourcing of Minerals and Supplier Code of Conduct. 
  • Hexion does not intentionally add nor anticipate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) substances, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonates (salts of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOF)), to be present in its products. 
  • Hexion does not intentionally add or anticipate the presence of chemicals designated as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.   

Formaldehyde Stewardship

Hexion’s formaldehyde and derivative resins and adhesives are used in a wide range of applications, enabling key aspects of society, including affordable housing and construction, sustainable wood products, food and agriculture, modern automobiles, and transportation systems, reliable supply chains, fire safety, and other products.  The chemistry of formaldehyde continues to make it a versatile and valuable material, with applications that enhance the quality and sustainability of modern life. 

The product stewardship team works closely with its business teams to ensure safe use of these products and education of the downstream value chain. Emissions from wood products bonded with formaldehyde resins have been dramatically reduced in recent years. Hexion has led the way in targeting emission reductions by focusing on four fronts: resin formulation/composition, manufacturing techniques, methods of resin use and the application of formaldehyde scavengers. Learn more at Hexion’s product stewardship summary for formaldehyde