LONDON, April 3, 2024 – Orbia’s Fluor & Energy Materials business Koura has been honored as the winner of the U.K. Chemicals Northwest sustainability award during the association’s annual ceremony held on March 21, 2024. The prestigious award program honors excellence in the U.K. chemicals sector in various categories and brought together 300 guests to celebrate 11 winning companies’ contributions.
Orbia Koura was selected as the winner of the sustainability award for its recently-launched Koura Klea 456A refrigerant, which offers a 50% lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) as compared to incumbent refrigerants. The Koura Klea 456A refrigerant is designed to replace refrigerants used in older cars’ air conditioning systems and reduce emissions and environmental impact. With approximately 200 million cars still using higher GWP refrigerants in Europe, the potential environmental benefits associated with replacing them with Koura Klea 456A are significant and would equate to eliminating the emissions of up to 56 million cars in a year.
The Orbia Fluor & Energy Materials team accepts the sustainability award for Koura Klea 456A
“Low-GWP refrigerants are a crucial innovation contributing to decarbonization and the energy transition: areas where we are heavily invested at Orbia. The sustainability award for Koura Klea 456A demonstrates to the industry that it is not only possible to lower the environmental impact of refrigerants significantly without compromising on performance; it’s absolutely vital. In the wake of increasing environmental regulations in the EU for refrigerants, we are proud to be on the leading edge of product innovation with Klea 456A,” said Gregg Smith, President of Orbia Fluor & Energy Materials.
Koura Klea 456A was previously acknowledged at the 2022 Cooling Industry Awards as the Refrigeration Innovation of the Year. Orbia has received broad recognition for its initiatives to advance sustainability, including a five-year listing on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DSJI), an Ecovadis Gold Medal two years consecutively and the title of “ESG Trendsetter” from NASDAQ, among others.
The Koura Klea 456A wins the sustainability award at Chemicals Northwest