Sustainability considerations in management of petrochemicalindustries: with regards to cleaner production and corporatesocial responsibility concepts

Importance of petrochemical industry in economic and developmentalissues, scarcity of resources, adverse impact of this industry on almostall environmental aspects make sustainability a crucial issue forpetrochemical industries. Sustainability encompasses CleanerProduction (CP) aspects and Social Corporate Responsibility (SCR) inits modern definition. This study was conducted to propose componentsof sustainability considerations in management of petrochemicalindustries, which incorporate CP and CSR concepts and approaches.The method used in this study was a combination of explorative study,to prepare a preliminary list of components of sustainable business inpetrochemical industries based on review of literature and Delphi toobtain experts view on this preliminary list and provide acomprehensive list of components and sub-components that should beaddressed to bring sustainability to petrochemical industry.The results of this study provided two sets of components, first set ismade of general components which include stakeholders (staffs, societyand environment) with 4 sub-components, financial resources with 11sub-components, improvement of design and processes with 9 subcomponents, policy and strategy of cleaner production with 7 subcomponents and leadership with 7 sub-components. The second setinclude 6 technical components of raw material supply and preparationwith five sub-components, synthesis with 10 sub-components, productseparation and refinement with nine sub-components product handlingand storage with 5 sub-components, emission abatement with eight subcomponents and improvement of technology and equipment with 16sub-components

Keywords:

Management of petrochemical industry , Sustainability , Cleaner production , Corporate social responsibility