Grade summary

Last year’s bottom ranked company receives two points less this year, scoring an underwhelming total of two points. Still, Sinopec Shanghai Petroleum isn’t the lowest scoring company of ChemScore 2022. That dubious honour belongs to DuPont, scoring a total of zero points, due to the company’s appalling lack of chemical transparency. This doesn’t change the fact that Sinopec Shanghai Petroleum’s chemical management leaves much to be desired, seemingly going backwards in many aspects. The company still produces or uses ten hazardous chemicals – and that number only concerns the five percent of the revenue coming from EU and US markets, where information is available in public records. Sinopec is one of 12 ChemScore companies that do not appear to perform a hazard assessment of its products. The company’s hazardous waste has increased from last year, and information about the sustainability of Sinopec’s chemical management is scarce – to say the least – resulting in a measly one point each in the second and third categories.

How did we come to this score?

Opportunities for improvement

1. Hazardous portfolio
   Scientists agree that chemical pollution has crossed a planetary boundary and become an urgent global problem. This threatens the stability of global ecosystems upon which humanity depends, by damaging the biological and physical processes that underpin all life. Since Sinopec has ten hazardous chemicals in its production portfolio – the same number as last year – a paramount improvement point for the company is to reduce this number. Sinopec should therefore make sure to identify all uses, and publish volumes and percentage of total revenue of its hazardous substances. It should also publish a reduction road map of each hazardous chemical and an annual progression report. If the company continues to produce any hazardous substances, it needs to present a rationale for its essential use, motivate the production volume, and state how much money it spends on research and development to find a safer alternative.
2. Increase transparency
   Not much is known about Sinopec’s production of hazardous chemicals. We have requested that the company disclose information about its chemicals management, but it has not responded to that request. In order to be more transparent, Sinopec should disclose the full list of hazardous chemicals that it produces, including the volume of each of these chemicals as well as its percentage of the total revenue. It would also be wise to specify which chemicals are intended for end products and for intermediate use. Generally speaking, information about chemicals and chemical products sold in EU and US markets is available through public records, which is not the case in other parts of the world. For that reason, Sinopec should make the details of its revenue generated outside of the EU and the US public, in order to ensure chemical transparency and allow a comprehensive, global evaluation.
3. Develop and market sustainable products
   Sinopec either does not have or does not market any sustainable products. These products are not restricted to the use of safer chemicals, but include a wide spectrum of environmental sustainability aspects such as water and energy efficiency. Sustainable products are important not only for environmental reasons, but also in light of future regulation and a growing consumer demand. Sinopec should therefore start producing sustainable products, or market existing ones.

Category breakdown