FAIRLAWN, OH -- OMNOVA Solutions' Fitchburg, MA, specialty chemicals facility recently received an Environmental Merit Award from the New England Region One Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA merit awards honor individuals and groups who have shown particular ingenuity and commitment in their efforts to preserve the region's environment.

OMNOVA's Fitchburg plant received the award for improvement in all major company sustainability categories, including reducing its consumption of natural gas, electricity and water, as well as decreasing its emissions. Since the establishment of baseline metrics in 2007 through the company's Vision 2014 sustainability commitment, the plant achieved improvements of 33 percent or more in each of these categories. Employees at the Fitchburg facility utilized LEAN SixSigma methodologies to focus on eliminating waste and achieving continuous improvement in all facets of manufacturing to drive these changes.