TAKING ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH AND SAFETY AND SECURITY PERFORMANCE THROUGH RESPONSIBLE CARE ~(~R) TO THE NEXT LEVEL

摘要

Since 1988, the U.S. chemical industry, through the American Chemistry Council, has implemented Responsible Care~(~R) , a voluntary program to achieve improvements in environmental, health and safety performance beyond levels required by the U.S. government The program has resulted in significant reductions in releases to air, land and water, major improvements in workplace and community safety and expanded programs to research and test chemicals for potential health and environmental impacts. This year, a strategic review of Responsible Care~(~R) examined options to further strengthen program commitments and enhance the public credibility of the industry. Program enhancements adopted by the American Chemistry Council as a condition of membership include: I) implementing a modern management system consistent with internationally accepted best practices; 2) independent third party certification of the management system to ensure appropriate actions are taken to improve performance; 3) tracking of performance based on economic, environmental, health and safety, societal and product related metrics; 4) public reporting of performance metrics on both an individual company and industry wide basis; and 5) integration of environmental, health and safety performance with business operations' management. In addition, new performance requirements for site, value chain and cyber security have also been adopted by ACC members.