Winners of the CIA Awards Company of the Year

Croda International Plc, who create, make and sell high performance ingredients that are relied on by industries and consumers everywhere, are delighted to have been named the Chemical Industry Association (CIA) Company of the Year, as well as winning the CIA Environmental Leadership Award.

The CIA Awards highlight the excellent performance of companies and individual manufacturing sites within the UK chemical industry. In presenting the Company of the Year Award to Croda, the CIA acknowledged the significant investments that the business has made in the UK over the past two years, their continuing growth in exporting products around the world, and their commitment to innovation through their Smart Partnering and Open Innovation Programme.

Croda’s focus on identifying and investing in sustainability initiatives to minimise their environmental impact was also recognised, with their Hull manufacturing site winning the Environmental Leadership Award. The judges were particularly impressed by the sites recent work on cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessments to fully understand the carbon impact of its operations. With key inputs including the sites high use of renewable raw materials from bio-based sources, and their onsite wind turbine to provide green energy, these assessments identified products that leave the site carbon negative.

Tom Brophy, Company Secretary, Croda said: “For our hard work and commitment to innovation and sustainability to be acknowledged in this way is fantastic. Winning these awards demonstrates our commitment to sustainable growth through our investments in our operations and targeted acquisitions, and our strong ties with academia and small enterprises who focus on providing innovative solutions to meet the challenges our world is facing.”

Dr Julia Creasey, Group Sustainability Manager, Croda added: "We believe in using ‘Smart Science to Improve Lives™, and contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through the actions we take to operate more sustainably and to provide ingredients that have a sustainable benefit as they are used by consumers. All our research centres and manufacturing sites across the world are implementing initiatives to reduce our environmental impact and offer more sustainable solutions. It is particularly pleasing to see the great steps taken by our Hull site being recognised by the CIA.”