The winners of the 2011 Chemical Industry Awards were announced on 23 June at the University of Birmingham.

Steve Elliott, Chief Executive of the Chemical Industries Association, paid tribute the members of the chemical industry and its key partners, "This year's quality of entries reflects the outstanding contribution made by the chemical industry to a better quality of life for us all and a flourishing, growing industry. The CIA awards are about recognising that excellence. This offers tremendous encouragement and visibility to an industry which is largely unsung, all of the entrants should be proud of their success."

BASF Young Ambassador Award
Winner: Richard Davies, Shell Oils UK
Richard is an inspector with Shell at Stanlow, he has come up through the advanced engineering apprentice route, during which time he played an active role in promoting apprenticeships locally. Richard’s acting career has also taken off, having been involved as ‘Young Champion’ in a video to promote the dangers of asbestos in the workplace, a topic which he has also spoken about on several occasions. Currently Richard is training to become a competence assessor so he can assess apprentices for NVQ and QCF qualifications.

Environmental Leadership Award, Sponsored by Johnson Matthey
Winner: Innovia Films Ltd, Wigton
Innovia Films is a leading global manufacturer of two ‘families’ of speciality products supplied into the packaging, labels, and securities markets - Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) and Cellulose based films. Their films are sold cross the globe and become part of the packaging, labelling or overwrap solution for some of the world’s best known brands across a wide variety of everyday consumer goods. These include chocolates, perfume, cheese, teabags, shampoo, soft drinks and biscuits.

Cellophane™ manufacture has a long history in Wigton. Major investment in recent years has led to the full capture and recovery of carbon disulphide gas. The company has also developed a new family of cellophane films, Natureflex™. These bio-films are made from over 90% renewable resources and are biodegradable. Since 2008 Innovia have offset the Global Warming Potential of coated NatureFlex™ by working with carbon service companies and have invested in several projects including reforestation in Cumbria, solar ovens in Africa and energy efficient stoves in Kenya.

GSK Innovation Award
Winner: University of Manchester CCaLC Team, Manchester
Carbon footprints are being increasingly demanded, but obtaining robust data in a simple manner is not easy. The CCaLC team have developed an innovative piece of software based on life-cycle methodology which brings carbon footprinting closer to industry enabling them to better understand their impacts. CCaLC has been designed for the non-specialist and is also freely available. Since its launch in August 2010 it is thought to have been used by 1,500 organisations. Following the recommendation by Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Growth Team the UK Government has recommended CCaLC as a tool of choice for the biotechnology sector.

Special Responsible Care Award for Process Safety Leadership, Sponsored by Shell UK
Winner: INEOS ChlorVinyls, Runcorn
Avoidance of a major incident is business critical to this large chlorine producing site. Process safety culture has developed through strong management leadership coupled with frequent communication and training sessions to embed in the culture. The link between the root cause of major incidents and a range of “near-misses” occurring on site is a key topic for communications sessions. Basis of Safety training has given the front line staff a much clearer picture of what is critical within their roles and a clear mechanism for them to test their understanding.

EDF Energy Low Carbon Award
Winner: Huntsman Pigments, Billingham
Huntsman Pigments Division specialises in the manufacture and marketing of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigments that add brightness, whiteness and opacity to thousands of consumer products; from household decorative paints and industrial coatings on ocean liners, cars and steel-framed buildings, to computer housing, sporting equipment, printing inks and cosmetics.

Huntsman’s Pigments business is a leading global producer of TiO2 pigments and has been manufacturing for seventy five years.

Tittanium dioxide production is an energy intensive process. A key driver for a decade long reduction programme was the European Union Best Available Technology targets which showed the energy use to be above best practice. By 2010 Energy consumption was well below the guidance figure, achieved through a variety of targeted projects. Huntsman has also gone beyond requirements in assessing the carbon footprint along the supply chain, making reductions where practical.

Gold Standard Skills Award sponsored by Cogent and National Skills Academy Process Industries
Winner: Bayer CropScience, Norwich
Bayer CropScience is the UK’s leading provider of innovative crop protection solutions from seed to harvest and beyond. They are committed to helping UK farmers provide safe, high quality, affordable food, produced in a sustainable way using less water and energy, whilst promoting biodiversity.

The site won the award because a key method of driving continuous improvement is the company’s ‘towards excellence’ programme is the up-skilling and training of staff – ‘MOVE beyond excellence’.

The company demonstrates that a holistic approach to personal development moving towards the Gold Standard is an essential part of a company’s sustainable development. The programme covers many areas but developing transferable skills is a theme throughout topics such as business improvement techniques, cross skilling in engineering competence and skills for life.

ABB Manufacturing and Resource Efficiency Award
Winner: Syngenta, Grangemouth
The Syngenta chemical site in Grangemouth was established in 1919 but it has more than kept pace innovation in manufacturing and today employs 300 people to make active ingredients for global selling fungicide products.

Syngenta won this award for manufacturing and resource efficiency because of its programme of improvements when faced with production capacity constraint and a product coming off patent. This meant Syngenta needed to both increase its production volume and reduce its costs. An ambitious target of increasing existing plant capacity by half within 3 years was set. This target has now been exceeded through a combination of engagement with staff at all levels in LEAN programmes, detailed analysis of plant performance data, thorough root cause analysis to improve process robustness and plant availability. Delivering early success was key to getting investment in a new plant, which is now coming on stream.

Dow Reputation Award
Winner: Novartis Grimsby Limited
Novartis Grimsby Limited is part of Novartis UK who employ over 3,500 people across 8 sites. The UK is a major centre for research, development, sales, marketing and manufacturing. Novartis has invested over £450 million in the Grimsby manufacturing site over the last 10 years.

Novartis Grimsby won the Reputation Award because it has strong community links and the company has been active in providing support to local schools and colleges for over 18 years. They have worked with the Education Business Partnership (EBP) since it was established in 1992.

The company recognises that working with education partners provides excellent personal development for members of the company’s Education Team as well as enthusing children about science and technology. Barely a week goes by without either a school college or university visiting the site.

BIS Excellence in Engineering Award
Winner: Robinson Brothers Ltd, West Bromwich
Established in 1869, Robinson Brothers is today one of the UK's largest independent manufacturers of speciality organic chemicals.

They won the Award because Robinson Brothers has developed in house, unique, engineering solutions to a complex commercial and environmental task - the gas odourisation (GO) of odourless UK natural gas for leak detection. This business covers all aspects of supply, from sourcing, through delivery to waste disposal and plant decontamination.

Innovative engineering solutions have been put in place both on plant and on delivery vehicles which have resulted in almost 100% complaint free delivery to over 120 UK sites, of one of the world’s most odorous chemicals.

INEOS Responsible Care Award
Winner: Shell UK Ltd, Fife
The site embarked on a behavioral programme "Mind Safety" which explained why humans have lapses in concentration and only have the ability to hold limited information in the conscious memory. Staff have been trained in tools and techniques to overcome these traits, and have learned ways of scanning situations for potential hazards. Also, the Management are scored by the workforce on their safety behaviours during daily walkabouts. The site has seen a marked downward trend on EHS incidents since the introduction of these techniques.

The CIA Company of the Year Awards Sponsored by Newton Europe
Winner: Kemira Bradford – Award for Small Site
Kemira was established in the United Kingdom in 1982 – the total UK workforce now stands at approximately 170 people. Kemira operates from four main sites, the principle one being the dry polyacrylamide plant in Bradford.

Kemira at Bradford has experienced phenomenal growth in demand for product in the last 2 years. This demand has been met with minimal capital investment but a huge investment in engaging with employees and getting them involved in improvement projects as well as a culture change within the organisation. A range of new communication systems to help ensure operators can multi-task safely as well improving business knowledge of all employees have been initiated. Manufacturing improvements have gone hand in hand with reduced environmental emissions and reduced energy consumption, testament to all employees being fully engaged.

Winner: SABIC UK Petrochemicals Ltd, Wilton – Award for large site
SABIC have remained one of the largest employers on Teesside throughout the economic downturn. They continued their commitment to the apprenticeship programme, as well as their extensive work through Education Liaison promoting industry as a challenging and worthwhile career choice. This has been the first full year of operation of world-leading LDPE plant with its planned capacity expected to be achieved soon. The site has also made significant investment in asset rejuvenation and has achieved excellent health, safety and environmental performance resulting in widespread recognition (e.g. Chemical Industries Association Diamond Standard and taking Gold, Silver and Bronze in the internal European Contractor Safety Awards).