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Conserving Our Environment
FMC supports community programs and projects
that mirror our focus on raising environmental
consciousness to protect and preserve natural
resources. Efforts exist across our global
operations, but one example in the Philippines
stands out.
Our FMC site in Cebu finds new uses for existing
resources through a collaborative bottle recycling
program. Working with Marriott Cebu City, FMC
employees collect used plastic bottles from the
hotel and repurpose them, along with bottles
collected from our site location, for local seaweed
harvesting efforts. The recycled water bottles are
used as floats for seaweed systems that grow near
the surface.
Using these bottles reduces the use of polystyrene
floats, which are non-recyclable, have a shorter
usage life and can potentially break up, introducing
smaller pieces of polystyrene into the water.
The bottle collection and reuse effort decreases
waste and reduces operating costs while putting
otherwise waste-generating bottles to productive
use. After this second use, all bottles are disposed
of properly.
The Bottle-to-Floaters Program is a partnership
between FMC and Marriott Cebu City. The two groups
collect plastic bottles for the Indo-Pacific Sourcing
Center, a local FMC BioPolymer seaweed producer. In
Carcar, Cebu, the plastic bottles find a new purpose as
floaters suspending seaweed seedling cultivation lines.
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FOCUSED FORWARD
SUSTAINABLE SEAWEED
FARMING
For over 4O years, FMC's BioPolymer
Division has demonstrated a commitment
to advancing seaweed cultivation practices
around the globe. We took a leadership
role in establishing standards for both
product consistency and the welfare of
our workforce and our suppliers. We also
developed a training program that covers
the latest farming techniques, provides
safety and health education, and offers
guidelines for environmentally sustainable
practices. FMC is currently in the process
of reaching out to stakeholders in an
effort to evolve a shared set of principles
related to the further advancement of
sustainable seaweed farming.
Listening Leads to Collaboration
A key element of FMC’s sustainability approach
is to increase engagement with all stakeholders,
particularly on social, environmental and economic
issues connected to the five market-shaping shifts
(see page 2). In 2012, we established several
efforts to gather feedback and initiate dialogue
with both internal and external groups. These
efforts included:
• Creating activities to engage employees in our
sustainability efforts;