One of the pressing issues of this decade is industrial decarbonization. There is a strong government and consumer demand for a transition to a Net Zero economy and the impetus towards the decarbonizing of industry is creating exciting opportunities for businesses. Industry leaders are focusing on clean and renewable energy innovation, the development of profitable circular economies, and a generational shift to sustainability.
This article gives an insight into how ICL is pioneering a radical decarbonization process across its own operations, while creating model circular economies and helping others to reduce their carbon footprint.
The Background to Decarbonization
Since the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the mid 1700s, industry has polluted the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, contributing to a rise in average global temperatures. These temperature rises are creating widespread negative impacts and are particularly detrimental to the environment and the global food supply chain.
The 2015 Paris Agreement sets out clear goals to reduce global warming by holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Many governments and corporations have accepted the objectives of the Paris Agreement and are actively working to implement them.
ICL is pursuing its own ambitious industrial decarbonization roadmap to achieve Net Zero by 2050. The company is also aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative SBTi with the bold objective of having its emissions by 2030 (taking 2018 as a baseline). ICL is also investing heavily in climate tech innovations and green energy technologies.
ICL Green Sdom Project
ICL has operated in Israel’s harsh Negev Desert for over a hundred years and is now integrating the very latest industrial decarbonization protocols into its Negev operations. The flagship innovation is the Green Sdom project where ICL is adapting 9 industrial plants to run on a unique green energy industrial microgrid. Much of the power will be generated by immense beds of photovoltaic panels that convert the intense desert sunshine into usable electricity.
The Green Sdom project has a broad mandate to explore alternative energy solutions – as well as energy saving measures – and integrate them into a next generation circular economy. This includes the optimization of the plants with smart factory technologies and automation, an expansion of the company’s electric vehicle fleet and even experimentation with green hydrogen as a clean fuel source. The holistic approach to the decarbonization process continually identifies new opportunities for innovation and cost savings.
Clean Energy Grids and Decarbonization
One of the fundamental energy trends at the heart of industry decarbonization is the transition from obsolete fossil fuel burning power stations to sources of renewable energy. Industrial processes demand a huge amount of (absolutely reliable) energy and have traditionally relied upon centralized grids to deliver their requirements. The main stumbling block towards the adoption of sustainable energy has been inadequate energy storage solutions.
ICL is drawing upon its specialty minerals expertise to manufacture advanced battery materials that enable large scale energy storage in hybrid microgrids. The moment that it’s possible to safely store electricity on an industrial scale, grids can begin to exploit intermittent sources of power like wind, tidal, and solar energy. ICL is developing advanced phosphate solutions that function as high capacity battery materials, both for the energy sector and the electric vehicle industry.
Developing a Culture of Decarbonization Innovation
One of the biggest challenges of developing and implementing a comprehensive roadmap for industrial decarbonization is bringing employees and other stakeholders on board. Industry decarbonization inevitably involves changes – sometimes very significant changes – in the workplace. Effective employee education and engagement is paramount for a smooth transition to clean energy operations and the introduction of new circular economies.
ICL utilizes a variety of employee education and training programs to promote an understanding of decarbonization and a commitment to environmental responsibility. Where the company takes employee engagement to the next level is through the BIG (Business Innovation for Growth) internal accelerator. The program promotes employee ideation and provides an open structure for submitting ideas. Each idea is evaluated on its own merits and viable projects are assigned to business units for development.
BIG encourages employee innovation relating to every aspect of ICL operations, including the challenges of decarbonization and the development of next generation products and processes such as controlled release fertilizers that create a substantially reduced carbon footprint. This extraordinarily high level of employee engagement and involvement supercharges ICL’s own decarbonization process and its strategic push towards carbon Net Zero by 2050.
Take Away Points
ICL is committed to decarbonization and is successfully decarbonizing its own plants and transforming them to run on sustainable lines – without significant disruption to daily operations. As part of this process, ICL is investing in its own green energy microgrids and creating model circular economies that other companies can replicate and adapt to their own specific requirements.
ICL is utilizing its massive phosphate reserves to establish itself as a major materials producer for high capacity batteries. This places ICL at the heart of the US EV vehicle manufacturing supply chain and the development of storage solutions for clean energy microgrids.
ICL is continually investing in advanced fertilizers and agtech solutions that reduce the carbon footprint across the global agricultural industry. The company has a holistic approach to the challenge of decarbonizing industry that looks beyond the traditional stereotype of factory chimneys releasing greenhouse gasses. ICL considers every aspect of the production and supply chain – in every sector – and innovates to eliminate carbon emissions. If you share ICL’s commitment to industrial decarbonization, we’d love to hear from you.
