Responsible Care® | Arkema USA

Arkema Inc. is committed to maintaining a Responsible Care® management system to manage its business that will meet the Responsible Care® guiding principles.

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.

Health, environment, and safety

Arkema Inc.’s Responsible Care^® health, environment, and safety policy

The Arkema Inc. HES policy consists of the following core principles:

Compliance – the Company will manage its business activities to meet the requirements of all applicable governmental laws and regulations and Company policies and procedures including the Arkema HES Corporate Manual and the guiding principles of Responsible Care^®.

Protection – the Company will conduct its activities in a sustainable manner that protects
- the health and well-being of its employees
- its customers
- the public
- the environment
- its assets through loss control and security programs
Continuous improvement – the company will regularly evaluate its HES and Responsible Care performance to ensure the relevance of its actions, to measure improvements, and to define new improvement objectives.

Openness – the Company, in a commitment to openness, will encourage and seek constructive dialog with its stakeholders at all levels.

Every employee and representative of Arkema Inc. in North America and its U.S. majority-owned subsidiaries are required to uphold this policy.

Additionally, the HES policy emphasizes the following product-related objectives:

Product stewardship and product safety
At Arkema, we place safety and the protection of health and the environment at the center of our objectives. Product stewardship is conducted throughout a product's life cycle: development, manufacture, handling, distribution, use, and disposal.
Arkema provides customers with information and assistance for the proper use of its products.
Regulatory compliance
At Arkema, we manage our activities to meet the requirements of all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where activities are conducted.
Product advocacy
In a commitment to openness, Arkema endorses an approach of constructive dialogue with the stakeholders and the communities related to its activities.

Accordingly, to monitor our activities, and assess our progress to meet these objectives, we have implemented an HES management system. Arkema regularly evaluates its internal management systems to ensure the relevance of the actions undertaken, to measure improvements, and to define new improvement objectives.

Product stewardship

Learn more

Responsible Care® performance measures