C&EN talks with Paul Kirsch, Chemours’s corporate responsibility champion

Abstract

In early December, Paul Kirsch, president of Chemours’s $2.7 billion-per-year fluorochemical operation, walked into C&EN’s New York City office to talk about his firm’s effort to improve its standing in the chemical industry. Head of a business carrying much environmental baggage, he probably wasn’t looking forward to the encounter. A list of questions that C&EN sent to Kirsch before the interview included queries such as “Why should anyone take Chemours’s social and environmental responsibility pledges seriously?” and “Why is it that the company often seems uninterested in answering reporters’ inquiries touching on the environmental responsibility commitments Chemours claims to embrace?” A few months before the interview, Chemours formally launched its corporate responsibility program, which, in addition to Chemours’s fluorochemical business, also covers its operations in the white pigment titanium dioxide and the gold-refining chemical sodium cyanide. The program includes a number of goals targeted for ...