Responsible Care performance

See http //www.cefic.org/Responsible-Care/Performance/ and http //responsiblecare.americanchem-istry.com/Responsible-Care-Program-Elements/Management-System-and-Certification... 

ACC. 2013. Responsible Care Performance Results - Safety. Available at http // responsiblecare.americanchemistry.com/Performance-Results/Safety (accessed December 28,2013). 

ACC. 2013. Responsible Care Performance Results - Environment. Available... 

Chemical Manufacturers Association Code. In 1988, the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) adopted an initiative called Responsible Care A PubHc Commitment (33). Members of the CMA commit themselves, as an obligation of membership, to improving performance in response to pubHc concerns about the impact of chemicals on health, safety, and environmental quaUty. 

The American Chemistry Council s Responsible Care Security Code is designed to encourage continuous improvement in security performance by using a risk-based approach to identify, assess, and address vulnerabilities prevent or mitigate incidents enhance training and response capabilities and maintain and improve relationships with key stakeholders. As a condition of membership in the council, each member company must implement the Security Code for facilities, transportation and value chain, and cyber security. 

The Guide to Process Safety is designed to help with implementation of the Responsible Care Process Safety Code (SOCMA, 1999). The guide presents voluntary, proactive initiatives for the continuous improvement of process safety performance. 

Once the areas for improvement have been identified, the details of data collected can be increased according to the requirements of the improvement and measurement effort. In some instances, decisions to track and measure product stewardship information (e.g., supplier performance) may be based on nonbnsiness criteria, such as responsible care compliance. 

Responsible Care is the chemicals industry s global voluntary initiative to improve health, safety, and environmental performance and to communicate with stakeholders about their products and services. Please see www.responsiblecare.org... 

On knowledge/information, RC-GC commits signatories to continuously improve health, safety and environment (HSE) knowledge and performance of technologies, processes and products provide help-assistance across the value chain share best practices through an information network increase dialogue and partnership and help extend Responsible Care across the value chain. GPS recommends measures to periodically re-assess chemicals risk - using new and additional information participate in scientific HSE-related research improve the flow of hazard and safety information across the value chain and ensure public access to product stewardship information. 

Kingdom (UK), the United States (US) and some emerging countries. In the US, for example, the American Chemistry Council has an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make Responsible Care members more easily qualify for membership in EPA s Performance Track Programme, which can reduce the number of environmental inspections for companies that participate because the Responsible Care companies are used to thinking in terms of systems, measurements and performance improvements. 

The chemical industry has had a very bad press for many years and some of this has been earned. To overcome this image it began its Responsible Care initiative to try to encourage the chemical industry to combat the many allegations being made against it. This initiative demonstrates the year on year improvements in health, safety and environmental performance using... 

The American Chemistry Council represents the leading companies engaged in the business of chemistry. Council members apply the science of chemistry to make innovative products and services that make people s lives better, healthier, and safer. The Council is committed to improved environmental, health, and safety performance through Responsible Care , common sense advocacy designed to address major public policy issues, and health and environmental research and chemical testing. The business of chemistry is a 450 billion enterprise in the United States and a key element of the nation s economy. It is the... 

On one hand, Responsible Care is seen as compliance focused and, while considered a component of sustainability, does not currently offer the platform for embracing all of the concepts of sustainability (focus groups above Sustain Ability, 2004). Responsible Care is viewed as a sector-specific collaborative initiative, whereas sustainability broadly encompasses issues of competitive positioning and business growth, which involve full engagement of internal and external stakeholders. Even as Responsible Care expands focus to include more sustainability parameters, it is not (seen as) sufficient to drive an overall sustainability program, performance, and the business value derived from sustainable development (Savitz, Chapter 8, Section 8.2). 

The main objectives of Responsible Care were to regain public trust and demonstrate leadership beyond compliance by improving the environmental performance of the industry as a whole and by improving community relations. 

In the 1980s, Responsible Care s six Codes of Management Practices served as a framework for the chemical companies to use internal processes to improve performance. Overall, environmental performance did improve because of a commitment to the codes and expanding regulatory requirements (Yosie, 2003). Members of the CCPA steadily improved their environmental and workplace health and safety records throughout the 1990s. Their records indicate a steady decline in workplace injuries and a marked reduction in the frequency and severity of transportation incidents (CCPA, 1999). 

BOX 2.2 TAKING PERFORMANCE TO A NEW LEVEL THE RESPONSIBLE CARE GLOBAL CHARTER... 

Evolving legal and regulatory practices and standards are becoming more stringent. Responsible Care embodies elements of preventative law that protects companies from legal liability as their performance improves. 

CMA (Chemical Manufacturers Association), Improving Responsible Care Implementation, Enhancing Performance and Credibility, Washington, DC, 1993. 

The ACC s Responsible Care Management Systems as well as EMAS systems include requirements for the public reporting of performance information. RCMS reportable metrics already include some economic measures for some organizations. Public reporting of performance information can increases transparency and facilitates stakeholder involvement. Organizations that use RCMS or an EMAS system can seek expansion to address sustainability by publicly reporting social and additional economic metrics and information. 

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