Koppers Named Among America's Most Responsible Companies By Newsweek for Fourth Consecutive Year

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Dec 12, 2023, 08:30 ET

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP), an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals and carbon compounds, has been named as one of America's Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek magazine for the fourth consecutive year in 2024. Koppers ranked No. 124 out of 600 finalists and No. 13 out of 51 companies in the Materials & Chemicals category.

"Koppers is proud to again earn a space on this impressive list – a testament to the ongoing strength of our sustainability strategy, guided by our values of People, Planet and Performance," said Leslie Hyde, Koppers Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer. "We have continued to take significant steps to embed sustainability more deeply across all aspects of our business operations and achieve a growing sense of ownership among employees at all levels. We thank our 2,100 global employees whose work drives our accomplishments."

In 2023, Koppers released its annual Corporate Sustainability Report along with its first-ever Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Report. Highlights outline how Koppers:

Improved safety performance, with a 5 percent reduction in total recordable incident rate;
Expanded investment in career growth and continuing education opportunities for employees through Koppers College;
Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 49 percent since the baseline year of 2007, nearly achieving the company's goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2030 well ahead of schedule;
Processed and repurposed nearly 1.7 million end-of-life railroad track ties as the only North American wood tie manufacturer with a complete circularity solution;
Pursued sustainable end-uses for our enhanced carbon products, including a patented process to produce a coal tar pitch with low impurity content that has the potential to serve the emerging electric vehicle (EV) and lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery markets globally; and
Achieved record financial results in 2022, with sales of $1.98 billion.

Newsweek partnered with Statista to compile the list based on a vetting process that included research from publicly available key performance indicators and an independent survey among U.S. citizens. The initial analysis focused on a pool of 2,000 of the largest U.S.-based public companies based on revenue. The 2024 list recognized the 600 most responsible companies in the U.S. from across 14 industries.

The full list can be viewed here. To learn more about Koppers Sustainability efforts, visit the company's most recent Sustainability Report here.

About Koppers

Koppers, with corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds. Our products and services are used in a variety of niche applications in a diverse range of end markets, including the railroad, specialty chemical, utility, residential lumber, agriculture, aluminum, steel, rubber, and construction industries. We serve our customers through a comprehensive global manufacturing and distribution network, with facilities located in North America, South America, Australasia, and Europe. The stock of Koppers Holdings Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KOP."

For more information, visit: www.koppers.com. Inquiries from the media should be directed to Ms. Jessica Franklin Black at [email protected] or 412-227-2025. Inquiries from the investment community should be directed to Ms. Quynh McGuire at [email protected] or 412-227-2049.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may include, but are not limited to, statements about sales levels, acquisitions, restructuring, declines in the value of Koppers assets and the effect of any resulting impairment charges, profitability and anticipated expenses and cash outflows. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.

All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and words such as "outlook," "guidance," "forecast," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "may," "will," "should," "continue," "plan," "potential," "intend," "likely," or other similar words or phrases are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement contained herein, in other press releases, written statements or other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or in Koppers communications and discussions with investors and analysts in the normal course of business through meetings, phone calls and conference calls, regarding future dividends, expectations with respect to sales, earnings, cash flows, operating efficiencies, restructurings, the benefits of acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures or other matters as well as financings and debt reduction, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and contingencies.

Many of these risks, uncertainties and contingencies are beyond our control, and may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance or achievements. Factors that might affect such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the impact of changes in commodity prices, such as oil and copper, on product margins; general economic and business conditions; disruption in the U.S. and global financial markets; potential difficulties in protecting our intellectual property; the ratings on our debt and our ability to repay or refinance our outstanding indebtedness as it matures; our ability to operate within the limitations of our debt covenants; potential impairment of our goodwill and/or long-lived assets; demand for Koppers goods and services; competitive conditions; interest rate and foreign currency rate fluctuations; availability and costs of key raw materials; unfavorable resolution of claims against us, as well as those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Koppers, particularly our latest annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings by Koppers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.