It was Godfrey Lowell Cabot who started the business in 1882. This happened when he filed for a patent for his carbon black making apparatus. It was in 1960 that the company got incorporated in the state of Delaware. The most useful product the business manufactures is the activated carbon which is beneficial to the environment. This material is used to purify water, air, food and beverage, other liquids and gases as well as pharmaceutical products.
It was in 1993 that a group of Cabot researchers made scientific breakthrough in modifying the surface of carbon. This developed process led to various technological advancements like the manufacturing of aqueous inkjet colorants for printer ink. This technological breakthrough became the foundation of the company’s Inkjet Colorants business started in 1996. Almost 7 years after, their Aerogel business was launched after the venture developed a commercialized process of producing aerogels under ambient conditions.
In their 2012 fiscal year, the company only reported a total of 17 instances of Environmental Non-Conformance events. This is a huge improvement compared to the more than 80 instances in 2008. Their non-conformance events refers to reportable spill or release of hazardous chemicals, permit deviations and public complaint and as well as a Notice of Violation. The business highly attributed this success rate to the investment of $35 million on environmentally-related capital projects. These projects didn’t just maintain regulatory compliance but also improved their production efficiency.
The business received various laudations from award giving bodies. In 2012 alone, they were selected as one of the “100 Best Corporate Citizens” by CR Magazine, the American Chemistry Council awarded them the Responsible Care Performance Award and was named the Maplecroft Climate Innovation Indexes (CII) Cycle Leader.