The Board of Directors of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) has voted to enhance and fundamentally renew its award-winning Responsible Care initiative.
"With these new changes, the chemical industry will be taking performance to a new level," said Michael Campbell, Arch Chemicals Inc chairman and chief executive officer, and chairman of the Responsible Care Strategic Review Task Force. "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 cataloging individual company performance, based on specific tracking metrics, which will be shared across the membership and made publicly available."
Beginning January 2003, members of the ACC will implement changes to Responsible Care that include new performance goals and metrics that would encompass a range of economic, environmental, health and safety, and societal performance indicators.
Other changes will include adoption of a comprehensive, modernized management system that incorporates best practices from around the world on environmental health and safety performance, and mandatory third-party certification. Independent auditors will review the effectiveness of the Responsible Care management system to deliver improved performance.
The changes also include transparency of company performance. Individual member company performance will be made available to all ACC members and to the public on an annual basis.
The new commitments emerged from a Responsible Care Strategic Review Task Force chaired by Michael E Campbell, chairman and chief executive officer of Arch Chemicals Inc. The mission for the strategic review of Responsible Care was four-fold: to increase business value for ACC member companies; enhance performance; achieve strategic alignment with other industry initiatives; and fulfill Responsible Care's potential both internally as the ethic for the industry as well as externally by improving the industry's reputation.
Renewing Responsible Care in the United States is part of a global re-examination of the program, which is currently practiced in 46 countries. Members of the American Chemistry Council began implementing Responsible Care in the United States in 1988.