ACC proposes changes for 'Responsible Care' campaign

06 June 2002 21:06  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (CNI)--The American Chemistry Council's (ACC) board of directors voted Thursday to overhaul the industry's 14-year-old Responsible Care performance improvement program.

Beginning in January 2003, ACC member companies will be required to implement a number of program changes, including:

• New performance goals and metrics that encompass a range of economic, environmental, health and safety, and societal performance indicators.
• Adoption of a comprehensive, modernised management system that incorporates best practices from around the world on environmental health and safety performance.
• Mandatory third-party certification with independent auditors to review effectiveness of the Responsible Care management system.
• Increased transparency with individual member company performance information made available annually to all ACC members and to the public.

The new commitments emerged from a Responsible Care strategic review task force headed by Michael Campbell, chairman and chief executive officer of Arch Chemicals.

Campbell said the mission of the task force was to increase business value for ACC member companies, enhance performance and achieve strategic alignment with other industry initiatives. Through the review, he said the ACC also hoped to fulfil Responsible Care's potential both internally as the ethic for the industry as well as externally by improving the industry's reputation.

"With these changes, the chemical industry will be taking performance to a new level," said Campbell.

He said: "We've consulted with both internal and external stakeholders during the strategic review, and we are confident the outcome of our new efforts will help raise the reputation of our industry by cataloguing individual company performance based on specific tracking metrics, which will be shared across the membership and made publicly available."

ACC companies began implementing Responsible Care in 1988. The performance enhancement program is now practised by the chemical industry in 46 countries.

By: Glenn Hess
+1 713 525 2653

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