Celanese is committed to sustainable reductions in global energy use. In today's business climate, such commitment is critical to sustained operations. Significant time and attention is devoted to reducing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency across Celanese. Enhancement engineers, energy coordinators, Research & Development, and site technical and operations personnel, and others form the company-wide Energy Excellence team that drives our progress.

At the beginning of the decade, a corporate goal was set to reduce the energy index by 20 percent by 2005 versus a 2001 baseline. Energy index is a measure of energy used in relation to product produced, (e.g., megajoule used per ton produced). Celanese exceeded that goal with a reduction of 22 percent. Continuing with this commitment, Celanese has set a goal of reducing our energy index by an additional 20 percent as part of our 2010 Goals. Achieving this goal will result in an overall energy index reduction of more than 35 percent by 2010. This will be the most aggressive reduction in our industry as indicated by benchmark data. At present, we are on-track to meet, and possibly exceed, this milestone.

The Acetic Acid process, or AOPlusTM Technology, is one of the key technologies fueling our global energy use reduction. This innovative technology has now been implemented at all Celanese Acetic Acid production sites - Nanjing, China; Clear Lake, Texas; and Jurong Island in Singapore. Continually improving the AOPlusTM process significantly impacts the company's bottom line through annual energy savings. Another energy-savings innovation, VAntage PlusTM, is currently undergoing optimization in our Vinyl Acetate production sites and also contributes significantly to energy savings.

The Energy Excellence team developed and maintains a master project plan to continue reduction of energy use. This living document is revised as new ideas emerge and technology improves. The plan also contains projects supported by our Research & Development organization to guide the pipeline well into the future.