A Year in Review: Top Stepan Company News from 2020

Skin care is becoming increasingly important among men in Asia, and demand for natural and organic products is also increasing exponentially. Utilizing our broad portfolio, Stepan has curated four inspirational formulations to help personal care and beauty formulators meet these consumer demands. 

Stepan Personal Care’s latest novel hair conditioning agent is featured in the August 2020 Issue of Personal Care Magazine for its comparable performance to the personal care industry’s leading hair conditioning agent, behentrimonium chloride (BTAC).

Stepan Company is highlighted in Happi’s September 2020 feature article for the surfactant market on the immediate and long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and how key surfactant suppliers, like Stepan, have adapted to continue to support customers. 

Stepan’s rhamnolipid biosurfactants provide an important new technology across markets as customers' sustainability expectations continue to increase. Chemical & Engineering News interviews Stepan Company's Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer Jason Keiper on Stepan's acquisition of Logos Technologies LLC’s NatSurFact® business in this article.

Stepan Company has recently developed the STEPSPERSE® Kit, a new class of nonionic, high performance polymeric dispersants that has found significant utility in the preparation of suspension concentrates of hydrophobic active ingredients. Formulations prepared using this novel, patent-pending technology exhibit superior particle dispersion and demonstrate crystal growth inhibition.

Stepan Company is ranked 45 in The Wall Street Journal’s most sustainably managed companies in the world — third among chemical manufacturers included in the ranking. 

Stepan Company achieved an overall score of 60 in the 2020 EcoVadis corporate social responsibility report, placing Stepan among the top 12 percent of manufacturers for other chemical products.

In early 2020, Stepan Company began construction on its new Agricultural Innovation Center in Barrow County, Georgia — strategically located near its Winder, Georgia, manufacturing site. The Agricultural Innovation Center will be the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design facility in the county. It will feature a greenhouse, training center for Stepan employees, distribution partners and customers across the globe along with a lab for spray application testing and a separate lab for formulation design.

As we look to the opportunities of the coming decade, we are determined to leverage Stepan’s science and engineering capabilities to drive progress toward our sustainability goals, and we welcome the opportunity to share our approach for bringing ccience to sustainability with our stakeholders.

Stepan Company closed on an agreement with Clariant (Mexico) S.A. de C.V. to acquire Clariant’s anionic surfactant business and associated sulfation equipment located in Santa Clara, Mexico.

Stepan Company acquired Logos Technologies LLC’s NatSurFact® business, a rhamnolipid-based line of bio-surfactants derived from renewable sources. NatSurFact’s rhamnolipid technology provides an important new option as customers across markets seek new sustainability targets for their products.

Stepan Company is committed to promoting health and hygiene; and is proud to support the Clean the World Foundation with a donation to help Clean the World in its mission to improve the quality of life for some of the most vulnerable communities around the world by providing access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene products.

Stepan Company donated hand sanitizer and spray disinfectants to Chicagoland first responders on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis. Other Stepan facilities across the globe have also donated to their local communities to support those most in need during the pandemic. 

Stepan Company’s manufacturing site in Winder, Georgia, has been recertified for the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Authority. The VPP recognizes employers and employees for developing and implementing continuous improvement workplace safety and health management programs that result in injury and illness rates below the national averages for their respective industry.