Continuous Improvement at Arclin
President and Chief Executive Officer
“As an end-to-end innovator in mission-critical applications, we place a high value on continuous improvement throughout all our work, from how we go about daily business to how we interact with our community and promote STEM initiatives. Because our technologies touch so many areas of life, we have a responsibility to positively impact the people and industries around us. We strive to leave the world better than we found it, innovating products that benefit the planet, governing our corporate footprint with care, and pouring back into causes that are close to our hearts.”
As a company committed to excellence in everything it does, Arclin employed the core principles of ESG long before it became the key focus it is now. In 2021, Arclin began the process of creating a more formalized ESG program and began considering how to strengthen its approach to ESG. While different teams were addressing relevant topics within their functional areas, the company had yet to develop a centralized approach to ESG. With support from a third party, Arclin performed a peer assessment and stakeholder interviews to develop a framework that would guide their ESG efforts. This framework has four pillars: People First, Environmental Stewardship, Innovation, and Accountability.
After completing this project, Arclin evaluated the many ways a company can operationalize an ESG framework and determined that building an ESG Committee would be the right fit for their culture. This cross-functional committee is comprised of people from all areas of the business, including human resources, supply chain, operations, technology, sales, quality, and research and development, led by Arclin’s EHS Director. The interdisciplinary team brings their respective areas of expertise to the table while developing solutions and executing projects within their various functions. Over the past year, the Arclin ESG Committee undertook several initiatives with a continuous improvement mindset.
Third-Party Assessment
A number of customers invited Arclin to report using EcoVadis, a reporting and assessment framework used to score company performance on ESG. A member of the ESG Committee raised this framework as an opportunity to understand best practices and a helpful source of feedback for Arclin. After a detailed evaluation of the framework and Arclin’s most recent score, the Committee identified several continuous improvement opportunities. These opportunities included formalizing processes that were in place but not yet codified in policy, such as development and implementation of energy and waste reduction projects using Lean methodology and tracking and visibility of employee community engagement efforts. It also helped Arclin make progress on topics the company was still learning how to measure and manage, such as Arclin product life-cycle analyses.
STEM-Focused Community Engagement
As a materials science company driven by innovation and engineering, Arclin is passionate about developing the next generation of STEM talent and making sure all students have access to STEM career pathways. Arclin team members participated in more than 15 STEM focused student events. The newly acquired facility in Belle, West Virginia, is a leader on this topic, and the ESG Committee is sharing lessons learned from their community engagement efforts with other sites around the country.
It should not be assumed that the investment above was or will be profitable. Please see “LEGAL” page for important information regarding this content.
