worker safety
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is committed to helping our members enhance the safety and protection of our employees, neighbors and communities. Our members invest more than $2 billion each year to enhance safety at their facilities. Today, our member companies’ worker safety record is five times better than the average of the U.S. manufacturing sector and have reduced process safety incidents by 51% over the past decade.
ACC helps member companies go above and beyond safety regulations through the Responsible Care® initiative. Responsible Care is the chemistry industry’s global voluntary initiative under which companies work to continuously improve their health, safety and environmental performance and to communicate with stakeholders about their performance, processes and products.
Responsible Care Companies are required to implement a comprehensive management system to improve their environmental, health, safety and security performance. The Responsible Care Management System® framework is based on a plan-do-check-act model that raises the bar for industry-wide performance while allowing flexibility to meet the specific needs of individual companies and facilities.
A key component of Responsible Care is mandatory certification by independent, accredited auditing firms. To remain a member of the ACC, every Responsible Care company must receive certification that it conforms to the management system requirements and to demonstrate progress toward improved performance. The more than 200 companies taking part in the Responsible Care initiative have undergone headquarters and facility audits to assure that they meet the rigorous requirements of Responsible Care in their environment, health, safety, and security programs. Certification must be renewed every three years.
Companies choose one of two certification options:
(1) RCMS® certification, which verifies that a company has implemented the Responsible Care Management System®; or (2) RC14001®, which combines Responsible Care and ISO 14001 certification into a single, cost-effective process.
We require members to communicate with stakeholders and believe that public dialogue is essential to our industry’s performance.
Additionally, companies are required, as part of the Responsible Care Management System , to establish emergency response plans that include appropriate communication with local emergency response teams and other members of the community to help prevent and respond to incidents involving chemicals. Companies are required to establish stakeholder dialogue systems to facilitate public knowledge of their products, including relevant safety and management information.
Responsible Care® companies regularly communicate with people who live near their plants about the safety of their facilities and products. Companies dialogue with stakeholders in a variety of ways, such as community advisory panels, open house events, newsletters and community hotlines. As part of this process, companies provide opportunities for feedback and weigh community input.
We believe in extending the transparent and proven best practices of Responsible Care to our business partners in other industries.
Responsible Care Partners adhere to the same Responsible Care requirements as members of the American Chemistry Council. For example, all Partner companies must apply the Responsible Care Management System® to their chemical operations; obtain independent certification that the system has been implemented and is effective; measure and publicly report performance; and implement the Responsible Care Security Code. Through partnerships like those described above, Responsible Care companies have reduced reportable distribution incidents by 43% since 1995, while the volume of chemical shipments increased 16 percent.
Responsible Care promotes continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement never stops and ACC members believe that periodic target-setting is the best way to fulfill in our commitment to improve safety performance in the future. To build upon our current achievements, ACC has set the following targets:
- A 25% improvement in Recordable Incidence Rate over 5 years for employees and contractors.
- A 20% improvement in Lost Workday Case Rate over 5 years for employees and contractors.
- A commitment to strive for zero fatalities industry-wide.
ACC believes that a sound business plan requires not only making great products, but also taking responsibility for the impact of the business on the world in which we live.
Learn more at: americanchemistry.com/workplacesafety
