Eastman Chemical Company is an American Fortune 500 company, is a global specialty chemical company that produces a broad range of advanced materials, chemicals and fibers for everyday purposes. Founded in 1920 and based in Kingsport, Tennessee, the company now has more than 40 manufacturing sites worldwide and employs approximately 15,000 people.

Eastman Chemical was spun off from parent Eastman Kodak in 1994 and had 2014 sales revenue of approximately $9.6 billion.

Eastman manufactures and markets chemicals, fibers and plastics. It provides coatings, adhesives and specialty plastics products, is a major supplier of cellulose acetate fibers, and produces copolyesters for packaging.

The company's products and operations are currently managed and reported in four operating segments: Additives & Functional Products, Advanced Materials, Chemical Intermediates and Fibers. Adhesives & Plasticizers, Advanced Materials and Fibers.

In this segment, Eastman manufactures chemicals and adhesive resins for products in the coatings and tires industries in transportation, building and construction, durable goods, health and wellness, and consumables markets.

In this segment, Eastman produces and markets specialty copolyesters, cellulose esters, interlayers, and aftermarket window film products for use in transportation, consumables, building and construction, durable goods, health and wellness, and electronics.

The Chemical Intermediates segment leverages large scale and vertical integration from the acetyl, olefins, and alkylamine streams and proprietary manufacturing technology for specialty fluids to manufacture diversified products that are sold externally for use in markets such as industrial chemicals and processing; building and construction; health and wellness; energy, fuels, and water; consumables; agriculture, as well as used internally by other Eastman segments.

In the Fibers segment, Eastman manufactures and sells Estron™ acetate tow and Estrobond™ triacetin plasticizers for use primarily in the manufacture of cigarette filters; Estron™ natural and Chromspun™ solution-dyed acetate yarns for use in apparel, home furnishings and industrial fabrics; and cellulose acetate flake and acetyl raw materials for other acetate fiber producers.

An effect of World War I was a scarcity in raw materials such as photographic paper, optical glass, gelatin and many chemicals, including methanol, acetic acid and acetone. After the war ended, Eastman Kodak founder George Eastman began working to have an independent supply of chemicals for his photographic processes. His search for suitable quantities of methanol and acetone led him to the southern United States.

In 1920, Tennessee Eastman was founded with two major platforms – organic chemicals and acetyls. Products such as calcium acetate, sodium acetate, acetic acid, and acetic anhydride became the basis for the company’s platforms.

During World War II, RDX, a powerful explosive, was manufactured for the U.S. government at Holston Ordnance Works at Tennessee Eastman sites. At the peak of production near the end of the war, the ordnance plant was producing a million and a half pounds of explosives each day. Tennessee Eastman was responsible for managing the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tennessee which produced enriched uranium for the Manhattan Project, from 1943 to May 1947.

In 1983, Eastman opened the first commercial coal gasification facility in the United States at its Kingsport plant site to produce chemicals from syngas rather than petroleum. Eastman also owns and operates a gasification facility at its Longview, Texas, site to produce syngas from natural gas. Eastman Gasification Services Company, formed in 2003, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastman that supplies gasification facility design and start-up. The "Chemicals from Coal Facility" at the Kingsport plant was recognized as a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society in 1995.

In 1994, Eastman Chemical Company spun off from Eastman Kodak and became an independent corporation. In early 2005 Eastman broke ground on the first world-scale manufacturing facility using IntegRex, a technology that reduces the number of intermediate process steps in producing PET resin. This technology is now owned by DAK Americas.

In July 2012, Eastman Chemical Corporation completed its acquisition of Solutia Inc., a manufacturer of performance materials and specialty chemicals, for $4.8 billion.

On the morning of October 4th, 2017, an explosion occurred at it's Kingsport Plant around the coal gasification building. It occurred shortly after 10 am EDT. The local school system, as well as the surrounding mile, were placed under a shelter in place. No major injuries occurred. The cause is currently unknown.

Eastman Chemical Company operates more than 40 manufacturing sites in 16 countries:

As of 2006 Eastman was ranked twenty-seventh among U.S. corporate producers of air pollution according to a 2010 study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Political Economy Research Institute. Eastman facilities in four U.S. states released 7.02 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air in that year. The Environmental Protection Agency has also linked Eastman to several Superfund toxic waste sites, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Eastman has been a member of Responsible Care®, a global voluntary initiative developed autonomously by the chemical industry to improve health, safety, and environmental performance, for more than 25 years. In 2013, Eastman was named Responsible Care Company of the Year in the large company category by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). Eastman was awarded the 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The award recognizes technologies that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture, and use.

Through 2015, Eastman improved energy intensity by approximately 8% compared to a 2008 baseline. The company established a goal to improve energy intensity 20% by 2020. In 2014 and early 2016, Eastman converted two boilers at its Kingsport, Tennessee, site from coal to natural gas combustion. Three additional boilers will be converted by 2018 for a total of five. The Kingsport boiler conversion project is the most significant air pollution control project in the history of Eastman and will diversify the Kingsport facility’s energy mix from 90% coal to 50% coal and 50% natural gas. Eastman also converted a coal-fired boiler at its Indian Orchard facility in Springfield, Massachusetts, to natural gas in 2015.

As of 2016, Eastman has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year five consecutive years. Eastman has also been recognized three consecutive years by Glassdoor as an Employees’ Choice Best Place to Work and by Ethisphere Institute as a World’s Most Ethical Company.

http://www.eastman.com/Company/News_Center/2015/Documents/4Q_FY14_News_Release.pdf