Responsible Care®
In 1988, the American Chemistry Council implemented Responsible Care®, a voluntary program for the U.S. chemical industry designed to achieve improvements in environmental, health, and safety performance. As a longstanding member of the ACC, Arkema Inc. has pledged to manage its business in accordance with the principles of Responsible Care®.
The Responsible Care® initiative began with six codes of management practice:
- Community awareness and emergency response
- Pollution prevention
- Process safety
- Distribution
- Employee health and safety
- Product stewardship
A seventh code, security, was added in 2001 to address the protection of people, products, processes and information, and information systems by enhancing security measures throughout the chemical industry value chain.
Participation in Responsible Care® has brought about significant reductions in releases to air, water and land; major improvements in workplace and community safety; and has expanded programs to research and test chemicals for potential health and environmental impacts.
Basic framework
Responsible Care® management system (RCMS) basic framework
The ACC has decided to move the Responsible Care® program beyond the codes of management practice in order to continue to improve its members' health, environment and safety performance and to provide greater business value to its members.
The codes are now incorporated into RCMS, which is based on the «Plan-Do-Check-Act» process. The RCMS is not designed to be a stand-alone management system; rather, it is intended to build on or enhance a company's existing business, health, environment, and safety processes.
The basic framework of the RCMS covers:
- Commitment to Responsible Care® as demonstrated through policy and leadership
- Planning («PLAN»)
- Define hazards and risks
- Set objectives and targets
- Develop programs
- Communicate actions and progress
- Implementation, operation, and accountability («DO»)
- Training
- Documentation
- Procedures
- Performance measurement and corrective action («CHECK»)
- Self-assessment verified through third-party audits
- Incident investigation
- Records management
- Corrective/preventive action
- Measurements
- Management system review («ACT»)
- Review by senior management
Arkema Inc. continues to remain in good standing meeting ACC’s RCMS certification requirements.
Guiding principles
Responsible Care® guiding principles
Arkema Inc. is committed to maintaining a Responsible Care® management system to manage its business that will meet the Responsible Care® guiding principles.
- To lead our companies in ethical ways that increasingly benefit society, the economy, and the environment.
- To design and develop products that can be manufactured, transported, used, and disposed of, or recycled safely.
- To work with customers, carriers, suppliers, distributors, and contractors to foster the safe and secure use, transport, and disposal of chemicals and provide hazard and risk information that can be accessed and applied in their operations and products.
- To design and operate our facilities in a safe, secure, and environmentally sound manner.
- To instill a culture throughout all levels of our organizations to continually identify, reduce and manage process safety risks.
- To promote pollution prevention, minimization of waste, and conservation of energy and other critical resources at every stage of the life cycle of our products.
- To cooperate with governments at all levels and organizations in the development of effective and efficient safety, health, environmental and security laws, regulations, and standards.
- To support education and research on the health, safety, environmental effects, and security of our products and processes.
- To communicate product, service, and process risks to our stakeholders and listen to and consider their perspectives.
- To make continual progress towards our goal of no accidents, injuries, or harm to human health and the environment from our products and operations and openly report our health, safety, environmental, and security performance.
- To seek continual improvement in our integrated Responsible Care Management System® to address environmental, health, safety, and security performance.
- To promote Responsible Care® by encouraging and assisting others to adhere to these Guiding Principles.
Arkema NA Group – Health, Safety/Security, Environment & Quality (HSEQ) Policy
The Health, Safety/Security, Environment, and Quality (HSEQ) Policy of Arkema NA Group is built on core principles derived from the Global Arkema Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies. These principles guide our actions and define our commitment to responsible operations.
Protection
We conduct our activities in a sustainable manner that protects:
- The health and well‑being of our employees, contractors, and communities
- The environment, including pollution prevention, water management, and improved energy efficiency
Our customers
- The public
- The quality of our products
- Our assets through strong loss control and security programs
- Compliance
- We manage all business activities to meet:
- Applicable laws and regulations
- Company requirements
- Standards to which Arkema subscribes
- We are committed to the guiding principles of Responsible Care®.
Safety
We provide a safe, healthy, and secure workplace by:
- Preventing workplace incidents and undesired process events
- Protecting against ill health
- Eliminating hazards and unreasonable risks wherever feasible
Communication & Openness
We promote transparency by:
- Encouraging open and constructive dialogue with stakeholders
- Consulting with employees and contractors
- Supporting active participation in HSEQ matters
Continual Improvement
We are committed to continually enhancing HSEQ performance by:
- Establishing and reviewing goals, objectives, and targets
- Regularly evaluating performance to ensure relevance, track progress, and set new improvement objectives
Our Commitment
Every employee and representative of Arkema NA Group is required to understand, uphold, and apply this policy in their daily work.
Arkema participates in the global product strategy (GPS) program of the international council of chemical associations (ICCA). This commitment underlines its desire to inform the public about its products in a fully transparent manner. Product Stewardship Safety Summaries are being developed on a global scale within Arkema. The product risk document is made available by each Arkema business to anyone upon request.