ASD Member Profile: Innospec: ‘A collective approach is much faster than any one company acting alone’
Darcy Kelly, LCA Engineer, Innospec
Understanding and improving the sustainability of palm-derived ingredients is a major challenge facing the chemical and personal care industries today. Collaboration, transparency and data are all critical to making progress.
In this member profile, we speak with Darcy Kelly, Life Cycle Assessment Engineer at Innospec, a global specialty chemicals company, about her role, the realities of sustainable sourcing, and why collective action through ASD is essential to driving change across the palm supply chain.
Why did you want to get into the field of sustainability in the first place?
My role at Innospec primarily focuses on life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting, but also on our sustainable source and palm oil activities. I was drawn to sustainability in general because it connects science to real world impact. It allows me to use analytical thinking within the purpose-driven work that we’re doing to make progress on environmental and ethical sourcing challenges. It’s really important to assess and address climate impact, and the social issues found within supply chains. It’s part of my personal values.
Scaling sustainable commodity sourcing is a real challenge. What are the biggest blockers to achieving sustainable palm derivative sourcing right now?
I’d say the biggest blocker is the complexity of the palm supply chain, particularly for derivatives, which is what we purchase. This makes traceability even more difficult. Plus, organisations often have to balance multiple objectives. Sustainability teams are focused on improving sourcing practices, while procurement teams are tasked with managing costs and ensuring supply continuity. Aligning these priorities can be challenging, especially where more sustainable options currently come with cost or availability implications.
Why can’t these challenges be solved by individual organisations alone? Was there a moment when you realized the industry needed more collaboration in this area?
The collective approach that ASD takes is much faster than any one company acting alone because you’re able to share the data that you gather or insights that you generate. If you share the effort, it reduces the duplication of work, and creates a clear, more consistent set of expectations for suppliers. More importantly, a collective voice carries more weight than individual requests which helps to drive change more efficiently while also avoiding suppliers being overwhelmed by requests from multiple companies.
So, what are you currently focused on in the sustainable derivatives space right now?
For the last couple of years, our main focus has been on responding to the evolving requirements of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which at times seemed to be coming in, and then delayed, and then reintroduced again. These shifting timelines over the past couple of years have highlighted how important it is to stay adaptable as regulatory expectations evolve. Alongside that, we’re working to improve traceability and data quality for palm derivatives, by working with our suppliers. Overall, it’s about balancing regulatory readiness with real‑world supply chain complexity.
Why did Innospec join ASD in the first place?
ASD offers a practical approach to transparency within the palm supply chain. One of the main things Innospec was interested in was being able to trace our palm volumes back to mills and plantations which is increasingly important not only for our own sustainability commitments but also in response to growing customer expectations. ASD enables smaller companies, or companies with a smaller sustainability team, to assess their transparency levels in ways they simply wouldn’t have the internal capacity to do so.
So, has ASD collaboration changed the way you approach your work?
ASD’s collective approach to grievance management has changed the way we assess and address grievances. It has enabled us to communicate with our suppliers more effectively. So, instead of trying to manage grievances as they come in on an ad hoc basis, we’re able to take that collective approach with ASD and manage them more efficiently.
What would success for sustainable palm derivatives look like five years from now?
Continued improvement to our transparency levels. We have already made great progress toward 100% transparency to mill level and we would like to see similar advances to refinery and plantation level, at least. We want to maintain really successful collaboration with our suppliers, engaging with them as much as possible on these topics, making sure that we're at least always on track with, or ahead of, any regulatory requirements, while continuing to meet or exceed customer expectations.
What role should ASD play in helping achieve that?
ASD is doing a really great job in continuing to bring more members into the initiative; the more organizations that are involved at the various points in the supply chain, the better. When we reach out to our suppliers, they are much more likely to understand and engage in our requests if they are also part of ASD.
A harmonised collective approach to supplier engagement is the key to progressing in this area and ASD member companies benefit from shared resources and a really well-structured, aligned approach to transforming the palm supply chain.
Finally, what keeps you motivated to do this work?
Well, I can't see a future where this kind of work isn’t central to our operations. We need to look at things more sustainably if we want to leave a better future for ourselves and future generations. This means we have to keep trying every single day. The best time to start is yesterday, so we have to be doing it as soon as we can and keep going at it even when it isn’t easy.
