Celanese Corporation
Averting an Environmental Disaster
in Southern California
Chemical giant Celanese faced an environmental problem not of its own making after it purchased a small plastics plant in Southern California. The facility had a poor environmental record and picketing residents wanted it out of the neighborhood. Local newspapers were asking whether it was "another Love Canal." The crisis threatened to take on national proportions. Celanese sent David Fluhrer to conduct a thorough communications audit. He recommended that plant management be replaced, new management be media-trained, and the facility cleaned up so it could be opened up to the press and public. Neighborhood opposition disappeared so the facility could move peacefully to a more appropriate industrial site. The company later sold this plastics division for a handsome profit.