Guidelines CEFIC

Though each has merit for a specific audience, virtually all have been developed in isolation rather than through any form of coordinated process - for instance, the CEFIC guidelines for the chemicals industry. The result has been rapid growth in the volume of information, but little consistency in format and content, leaving many stakeholders, including companies themselves, unable to take full advantage of their reported information. 

Emissions to water in line with CEFIC guidelines Ciba s contribution to the load discharged from shared treatment facilities has been calculated. Efficiency factors are not provided and increases in heavy metal concentrations are not discussed. 

CEFIC Guidelines in Environmental Reporting for the European Chemical Industry, European Chemical Industry Council Brussels, Belgium (1993). 

Figure 1.1 CEFIC guidelines for the protection of the environment (adopted June 1987).

G. Paini, C. Tane, EuroChlor, Guidelines, Recommendations, Positions Papers, Ave. E. van Nieuwenhuyse 4, Box 2, B-l 160 Brussels, eurochlor cefic.be, www.eurochlor.org, 2003. 

The subject of health and safety is reported in all under five parameters - fatalities (43%), lost time accidents (86%), occupational illnesses (51%), transport incidents (49%) and emergency preparedness (63%). This suggests a fair coverage of health and safety is building in chemicals CERs, which no doubt has been assisted by the inclusion of this aspect in the CEFIC environmental reporting guidelines. 

The move by the CEFIC to issue environmental reporting guidelines should help address many of these shortcomings. At the same time, attention should be given to the universal standard for sustainable reporting issued by the CERES in June 2000 and the work of the ISO in the area of environmental performance standards. Such moves could lead to a number of benefits, in particular ... 

CEFIC issues new sets of health, safety and environmental reporting guidelines... 

In 1993, the CEFIC published the first issue of Guidelines on Environmental Reporting for the European Chemical Industries in order to promote the publication of annual environmental reports by its members. The guidehnes were well received and a number of member companies proceeded to publish environmental reports, albeit at different levels - local, national, European and international. 

Now that there is an agreed framework, through the CEFIC, the European chemicals industry has committed itself to reporting on all of the 16 core parameters specified in these guidelines by the year 2002. If this objective is achieved, it could set an example for other industries. 

As far as the chemicals sector is concerned, environmental reporting has been much assisted by the introduction of the Responsible Care Programme and the issue of appropriate guidelines through the CEFIC. 

However, it is now felt by the CEFIC and its members that there is a need to communicate the achievements of the whole of the chemicals industry at national and European level. As a result, in November 1998, new sets of health, safety and environmental reporting guidelines were issued. These offer a common reporting framework for both national chemical industry federations and individual chemicals companies, bringing in health and safety for the first time. 

The key to evaluating the quality of environmental reporting lies in the selection of the appropriate EPIs. Those utilised in the analysis framework are mainly derived from the indicators most in use in existing CERs and leading guidelines, in particular those of the ACC A, the CEFIC and the UNEP. 

CEFIC, Health, Safety and Environmental Reporting Guidelines, Brussels, 1998. 

The perception that the industry has not been working hard to improve, is not borne out by the facts. An initiative named Responsible Care which is the chemical industry s commitment to continuous improvement in all aspects of health, safety and environmental protection was launched in Canada in 1984. It was adopted by the USA in 1988 and has been spreading around the world since then. Apart from North America and Europe which are discussed below, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, India, Zimbabwe and other countries have adopted it [5]. The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) has drawn up guidelines which are given in Figure 1.1 [5]. In the UK, where the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) makes participation in the Responsible Care initiative a condition of membership, discharges of red list substances (compounds of mercury and cadmium, DDT, malathion, triphenyl and tributyl tin, etc.) fell by 40% between 1990 and 1992 whilst special wastes (compounds of arsenic, antimony, barium, mercury, nickel, vanadium, etc.) disposed of off site fell by 9% [6]. The Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) in the USA also makes participation a condition of membership and one of its Pollution Prevention Code requirements is very relevant to this book ... 

In order to assist in translating these principles into management practices, CEFIC in the framework of the Environmental Guidelines for World Industry established by the International Chamber of Commerce, has prepared the following guidelines for chemical companies ... 

In order to provide competent assistance, responders in the national ICE center or in a company must meet a number of minimum requirements, either through training or experience. These requirements have been agreed upon within the chemical industry and are outlined in a CEFIC publication entitled Distribution Emergency Response—Guidelines for Use by the Chemical Industry, published in 1993. 

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