Arkema’s corporate headquarters in Colombes, France, and its Marseille and Serquigny plants in France are now SuCCESS™ (Sustainable Castor Caring for Environmental and Social Standards) certified by independent certification bodies empaneled by the Sustainable Castor Association. Consequently, Arkema reports that it can offer advanced bio-circular polymers and oleochemical building blocks certified according to SuCCESS, the world’s first sustainable castor code.

After completing a baseline study of 1,000 smallholder farmers in Western India in 2016, Arkema and its partners BASF, Jayant Agro-Organics, and Solidaridad (a civil society organization) launched the Pragati project, which established a foundation for the creation of the Sustainable Castor Association and the SuCCESS code. Approximately 6,000 farmers have now been SuCCESS trained and certified by the Pragati implementation project so far, and some 13,300 hectares are now certified to be sustainably farmed.

Later this year, Arkema will launch a new state-of-the-art bio-based materials plant in Singapore. The plant will use castor seed for 100% of its monomer, polymer, and oleochemical production.

“Arkema has a long history with renewable castor crop and the farming community,” said Erwoan Pezron, executive vice president of Arkema’s High Performance Polymers business. “Implementing the SuCCESS™ sustainable code is a critical step in empowering the farmers to learn about sustainable farming and to take benefit from best practices and continuous improvement. It is also an excellent opportunity for our customers to join the Sustainable Castor Association and share in our mission to drive sustainability improvements in the supply chain.”

Having successfully completed the third-party certification process administered by DNV Business Assurance Ltd., Arkema reports that it will introduce a range of advanced Rilsan^® polyamide 11 grades as well as a range of Oleris^® oleochemicals that are certified to meet the criteria of the SuCCESS sustainable supply chain code.

For more information, visit www.arkema.com and www.castorsuccess.org.