ExxonMobil elects Larry Kellner and John Harris to Board of Directors

Exxon Mobil Corporation said that Lawrence “Larry” W. Kellner and John D. Harris II have joined its board of directors. Kellner is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Airlines and current chairman of the board for the Boeing Company, said the company.

Harris is the former chief executive officer of Raytheon International Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company, a global engineering and technology company focused on aviation, space and defense.

“During Larry’s tenure as chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines, he led a major turnaround following the industry’s downturn after 9/11 and helped make Continental a leader among major carriers. His experience in the airline industry comes with a focus on safety and will provide useful customer insights into many areas of strategic interest, including the role ExxonMobil can play in providing lower-emission fuel options for commercial transportation,” said Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer for Exxon Mobil Corporation. “Over his 35-year career with Raytheon, John served in a variety of complex, cross-functional roles. He led significant business transformation to unlock value and new markets on an international scale and brings a rare understanding of the role of technology and government policy.”

“We welcome both Larry and John to the ExxonMobil board, as the company executes its strategy to grow shareholder value by leading a thoughtful transition to a lower-emissions future, while providing the reliable energy and products the world needs,” said Joseph Hooley, lead independent director for Exxon Mobil Corporation. “These new directors deepen the diverse expertise of the board with both bringing significant experience as executives of large, complex, capital-intensive global companies that successfully navigated significant industry transitions.”

Kellner is president of Emerald Creek Group, LLC, a private equity firm based in Austin, Texas. From December 2004 to December 2009, he was the chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Airlines, Inc., which had operations around the world with 41,000 employees. He joined Continental in 1995 as chief financial officer and was named chief operating officer in 2003.

Kellner has a distinguished reputation as a board leader who provides meaningful oversight in challenging and changing markets. He currently serves as chair of the board for the Boeing Company. He formerly served as lead director at Marriott International, Inc., as chairman at Sabre Corporation, and as director at Chubb Limited, Belden & Blake Corporation, and ExpressJet Holdings, Inc.

Harris currently serves on the public boards of Kyndryl Holdings, Cisco Systems, and Flex. Harris began his career in 1983 with Raytheon Company and served in various roles of increasing responsibility, including several vice president roles overseeing operations, contracts, supply chain, electronic systems, and intelligence, information and technical services.

We remind, ExxonMobil, PT Indomobil Prima Energi (IPE), and chemical recycling pioneer Plastic Energy, signed a memorandum of understanding to assess the potential for large-scale implementation of chemical recycling technology in Indonesia. Some 100,000 metric tons capacity per year are envisioned, according to the partners. The first phase is projected to be completed in 2025. The companies will also look at improving the plastic waste collection and sorting systems in the country.

ExxonMobil, one of the largest publicly traded international energy and petrochemical companies. The corporation’s primary businesses - Upstream, Product Solutions and Low Carbon Solutions - provide products that enable modern life, including energy, chemicals, lubricants, and lower-emissions technologies. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading portfolio of resources, and is one of the largest integrated fuels, lubricants and chemical companies in the world.

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Saudi chemical company SABIC has partnered with Guangdong Jinming Machinery and Bolsas de los Altos to develop flexible film packaging, said Packaging-gateway.

The partners will work on polyolefin-based solutions for the flexible packaging segment. They will provide an outlet to test and validate the performance of SABIC ‘s polyolefin resin products, including the polyethylene resin from Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (GCGV) and TRUCIRCLE.

Jinming will install its multilayer coextrusion machinery at Bolsas’ facility in Mexico to facilitate this process. Bolsas de los Altos founder and CEO Guillermo Lopez Orozco said: “As a leading provider of plastic packaging, Bolsas de los Altos is excited to expand into the broader flexible packaging market.

“The installation of multilayer coextrusion equipment at our Mexico facility made possible due to our collaborative partnership with Jinming and SABIC will allow us to target several new applications, including long-term sustainability trends in this space.”

SABIC expects the partnership to strengthen its position as a polyethylene resin supplier in the Americas with local production capabilities. The collaboration aims to address the challenges of transforming incumbent film structures to meet the latest circularity requirements.

To achieve this, the companies will combine SABIC’s knowledge of materials with Jinming’s experience in equipment manufacturing and Bolsas’ converting capabilities.

SABIC polymers technology and innovation vice-president Waleed Al-Shalfan said: “We understand that partnerships with the right value chain players have the potential to bring newer, game-changing innovations to the market faster.

“The current partnership with Jinming and Bolsas holds great promise to tap into mutual capabilities and adapt global trends in flexible packaging applications to regional needs.”

Based in Riyadh, SABIC operates in the petrochemical, chemical, industrial polymer, fertiliser and metal segments.

Last month, the company launched a closed-loop recycling initiative for flexible food packaging in partnership with food company Mars and recycling firm Landbell.

We remind, SABIC has announced plans to set up a crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) complex in Ras Al-Khair, Saudi Arabia. The complex is expected to convert 400,000 bbl/day of oil, the company said in a statement to the Tadawul stock exchange. The project, said SABIC, is part of its strategic growth plans, as well as contributing to the realization of the Kingdom’s program to convert oil and its liquids into chemicals.

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Finnish sustainable packaging company Huhtamaki has inaugurated a 12,500m2 expansion of its paper-based packaging manufacturing site in Nules, Spain, said Packaging-gateway.

The expansion involved a EUR20m (USD20.8m) investment, which included a grant of EUR2.2m (USD2.3m) from the Conselleria de Hacienda y Modelo Economico. Huhtamaki said the expansion will begin production this January and double the site’s capacity.

In line with the company’s 2030 Sustainability Ambitions, the extended facility was built to comply with Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method sustainability standards. It also features an advanced heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system to meet high thermal comfort standards for employees.

Huhtamaki Europe-Asia-Oceania fibre foodservice president Eric Le Lay said: “This investment, which will create around 130 new jobs when fully operational, has been aided by the Community of Valencia, which has supported the expansion of Nules with €2.2m of development funding.

“It builds on our existing technological expertise and will further enhance our manufacturing capacity for innovative and sustainable paper-based packaging in Europe, providing our customers with the ability to substitute rigid plastics, which are being driven by consumer demand.

“We continue to urge EU policymakers to support legislation that enables and incentivises innovation and sustainable packaging solutions.” The expansion of Huhtamaki’s Nules factory highlights the increasing demand for renewable and recyclable paper-based packaging as an alternative to rigid plastics. The factory develops sustainable packaging solutions for the company’s European customers.

Earlier this year, Huhtamaki announced that its manufacturing site in Alf, Germany, would start producing smooth moulded-fibre products instead of plastics. The facility will be able to manufacture up to 3.5 billion fibre products a year when fully operational.

Through this, the company aims to address growing demand for plastic-free materials for food packaging. Based in Espoo, Huhtamaki provides packaging for companies in 37 countries and has 114 operating locations worldwide.

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The European Commission is set to announce this week proposals to reduce packaging waste with new targets for recycled content in plastic drinks bottles and for the reuse of take-away cups and of packages used for online deliveries, said Reuters.

The proposed revision will expedite the EU’s goal to make all packaging reusable or recyclable by 2030 and contribute to its aim to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Expected to be presented on 30 November, the proposal includes new targets for recycled content in plastic drinks bottles, as well as for takeaway cups and packages used for online deliveries.

Reuters reported that under the tentative proposal, plastic drink bottles and contact-sensitive packaging such as food wrapping made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) would need to contain 30% recycled content by 2030.

Contact-sensitive packaging that is not made from PET will need 10% recycled content, while other plastic packaging will be required to include 35% recycled content. These requirements would increase to 50% for contact-sensitive packaging and 65% for other packaging, including drinks bottles, by 2040.

In addition, 20% of takeaway cups in the EU should be made reusable by 2030 and 80% by 2040, while 10% of beer and soft drinks containers should be reusable by 2030, with this increasing to 25% by 2040. The draft proposal also stipulates that 10% of non-food online deliveries packaging should be reusable by 2030 and 50% by the following decade.

The proposals have kept their recycling targets unchanged from the directive issued in 2018. Under this, the commission set 65% recycling targets by 2025 and 70% by 2030.

The proposal will be subject to approval from the European Parliament and the European Council. Last July, the EU introduced a ban on certain single-use plastic items under the Single-Use Plastics Directive. The Single-Use Plastics Directive aims to eliminate ten single-use plastic items that represent 70% of all marine litter in the EU.

We remind, Sabic and PepsiCo have signed a memorandum of understanding at the Sabic Center for the Development of Plastic Applications - SPADC - in Riyadh, under which the two companies will collaborate on the implementation of a programme to promote a more circular economy for plastics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA ) has published research on the survival of coronavirus (Covid-19) on food packaging and foods, said Packaging-gateway.

The research was commissioned by the FSA and conducted by the University of Southampton. In the study, researchers deliberately added the Covid-19 virus to most types of food packaging, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) trays and bottles, aluminium cans and composite drinks cartons.

The FSA said these materials were chosen as they are widely used and consumption from them may involve direct mouth contact with the packaging. The study found that the virus’ lifespan depends on the food packaging and foods examined.

All packaging materials examined saw a ‘significant drop’ in virus contamination in the first 24 hours, in all relative humidity conditions and at both 6°C and 21°C. Researchers also studied the virus survival on the surface of foods such as fruits and vegetables, cheese, meats, bread and pastries.

The virus was found to survive for several days on foods like cheese and ham, while it decreased quickly on items such as apples and olives. The study comes after the FSA published a risk assessment in 2020 that determined that the chances of humans receiving the Covid-19 virus from food were very low.

FSA microbiology risk assessment team leader Anthony Wilson said: “In the early stages of the pandemic, we didn’t know much about how the virus would survive on different food surfaces and packaging, so the risk assessment was based on a worst-case assumption.

“This research gives us additional insight into the stability of coronavirus on the surfaces of a variety of foods and confirms that assumptions we made in the early stages of the pandemic were appropriate and that the probability that you can catch Covid via food is very low.”

We remind, EU Commission has published its far-ranging draft revision of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Framework directive which will have major implications for the entirety of the packaging and waste management chain. The draft legislation sets out minimum recycled content targets, minimum reuse and refill targets, mandates packaging recyclability, requires the implementation of deposit return schemes, sets out requirements for biodegradable packaging, reporting and labelling requirements, and appears to allow the use of chemical recycling in recycling targets as long as its end output is not used for fuel or backfilling applications.
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