Responsible Care® Toolkit

This Month in Responsible Care History – May

Happy Trails – ACC would like to thank Lou Wagner, Responsible Care Coordinator for Union Pacific Railroad, for his many years of dedicated service is support of the initiative. Under Lou’s leadership UP was the first Responsible Care Partner company to conduct a MSV in 1996 and first to certify under the current third-party audit process. Lou served with distinction on the ACC Responsible Care Committee for the past seven years and was active within the former Region 1 Responsible Care Coordinators Group becoming the first Partner company representative to lead a mutual assistance region. In addition to his contributions to Responsible Care, Lou was a leader in the national TRANSCAER® initiative for many years. Congratulations on a lifetime of accomplishments. Responsible Care is all the richer because of you! Lou’s big shoes will be filled by Craig R. Johnson, a 34-year UP veteran who has been appointed the company’s General Director – Chemical Transportation Safety and of course, Responsible Care Coordinator. You can reach Craig at crjohnson@up.com.

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2009 Responsible Care® Conference – A Success!

ACC would like to thank all of the members, partners, exhibitors and conference sponsors that attended the 2009 Responsible Care® Conference, in Orlando, Florida, from April 19 – 22. The conference was a huge success. The sessions and information presented, at Responsible Care 2009, was designed to meet the needs of our hands-on-practitioner and our corporate level professionals, in the chemical industry. We hope that you came away with all that you will need to continue the improvement of health, safety, environment, security, and best practices for the chemical industry. All of the conference presentations will be available shortly on the RC Toolkit. A special thanks to ICIS for being a 2009 conference sponsor; without you we would not have been able to have such a successful 2009 conference.

The 2010 Responsible Care® Conference will be held May 2 – 5, at the Loews Hotel, Miami, Florida. We look forward to seeing you again in 2010.

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Welcome To Responsible Care! New Partner Coordinator

We would like to welcome Craig Johnson as the new Responsible Care Coordinator for Partner Union Pacific Railroad. Craig is the General Director for Transportation Safety at Union Pacific. He replaces Lou Wagner who has retired as of April 30 – having served as RC Coordinator for UP since they joined the program in 1995.

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Responsible Care Home Page Now Updated

The Responsible Care® homepage, http://responsiblecare-us.com, has been updated with the 2009 Reporting Year information. There are many changes to the website this year. When visiting the newly refreshed website, take note of the restructured Product Stewardship page that now includes the Product Stewardship Search Portal, view the Transportations data by severity rating and the new Responsible Care Partnership Consideration page.

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Don’t Forget! Metrics Due at the End of the Month – May 31

The ACC had an extremely successful first round of reporting, with almost every company reporting the February 28 metrics on time. This is a reminder that the May 31 metrics are due at the end of the month! For questions about the metrics, or help using the metrics reporting site, http://metrics.responsiblecaretoolkit.com, please contact Bradford_johnson@americanchemisty.com at 703.741.5305.
Metrics due May 31:

  1. Water Consumption
  2. SOx and NOx Emissions
  3. Greenhouse Gas and Energy Efficiency
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Monthly RCMS/RC14001 Implementation Focus Call Summary – Next Call Set for Thursday, June 4th at 11:00 AM EDT

We have now completed four monthly RCMS focus calls. These continue to be extremely popular – averaging more than 60 participants and featuring lively interactions with participants in each month’s episode. Topics discussed in the May 7th call included: specific questions and responses from the RC conference evening session for those currently involved in certification efforts for the 1st time; comments from “RC 101 For New Coordinators” session at the conference as well as current status of planning for RCMS/RC140012 Workshop(s) and internal auditor training sessions anticipated to be held beginning in the 3rd quarter. Summary information from the May 7 call will be posted the week of May 10 in the RC Toolkit website. The next call in the RCMS focus call series will be held at 11:00 AM Thursday, June 4th. If you are planning to participate and have a question or an issue you would like addressed during the call, please email Dave Gleason or Dan Roczniak at any time before the day of the call. If you have not done so already, please log into the metrics website to complete the performance measure that were due to the ACC by February 28, 2009. As the 30 day past due date has already passed, those companies that have not complete the obligation will enter the governance process. Please, contact Bradford Johnson at 703.741.5305 or Bradford_johnson@americanchemisty.com so that he can assist you in completing your company’s metrics.

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Successful “Certification After Dark” Session Held at RC Conference

More than 40 member and partner representatives at the 2009 Responsible Care Conference attended an evening session for those companies/individuals in process of certification for the first time. The session consisted of soliciting questions in two categories – “implementation” and “process” – following by open discussion of each question using inputs’ from experienced practitioners in attendance along with those of RC Special Advisors and RC staff. The questions raised will also be used as subject matter for upcoming monthly focus calls. The enthusiastic response and involvement of conference attendees in this session sets the stage for similar informal approaches in the future for subjects of specific interest.

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ACC and EPA Renew School Chemical Cleanout Agreement

On Friday, May 8, 2009, Cal Dooley, ACC’s President and CEO, and Matt Hale, EPA Director, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, renewed a Partnership Agreement between the two organizations to support the federal Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign (SC3). ACC and its members have been actively supporting EPA and local school district efforts to improve the handling, storage and disposal of chemicals used in the nation’s chemistry classrooms and for other campus-related purposes. “The American Chemistry Council is at the forefront of responsible chemical management,” said Matt Hale. He added, “SC3 partners such as ACC are taking proactive steps to keep our schools safe, so our children can learn and grow into tomorrow’s leaders.” For more information on how your company can take part in the SC3 program, contact Tomaysa Sterling.

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Responsible Care Safety Act Guidance and FAQ Posted on MemberExchange

The designation of the RCSC as a QATT provides ACC member and Responsible Care Partner companies that have implemented the Code and the Responsible Care Management System® a potential reduction in liability associated with terrorist threats. The ACC has posted the guidance and FAQ about the Safety Act on the MemberExchange Responsible Care page here. For additional questions about how the Safety Act can work for your company, please contact Dan Roczniak at 703.741.5306.

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ICCM2 Meeting May 11 – 15, Geneva

The second session of the International Conference Chemicals Management (ICCM2) will meet on May 11 – 15 in Geneva, Switzerland. For more information on the ICCM2 meetings, please see www.saicm.org or contact Debra Phillips.

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Joint Partner Steering Group / Partner RC Committee Representatives Meeting Held at RC Conference April 19

18 individuals participated in a joint meeting of the Partner Steering Group and partner representatives to the RC Committee on April 19. The meeting was an opportunity to review the past year’s partner roster changes in detail as well as other activities near term requiring program leadership support and active involvement. These items included: “refreshing” of partner metrics; update and simplification of certification guidance documentation for partners; and new business value initiatives. C. Johnson, Union Pacific Railroad will join the Steering Group effective immediately and Ed Stec, ACC member Akzo Nobel, will become interim liaison between the Partner Steering Group and the ACC Distribution Committee. Ed takes the reins from Paul Little of Rohm & Haas (current liaison) as Paul moves to another assignment. In addition, a proposal to initiate an “LTL sector Work Group” was discussed and a plan to proceed will be developed in the near future.

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Partnership Program Annual Meeting Held at Responsible Care Conference April 21

The 2009 Partner Annual Meeting was held April 21. Approximately 45 people attended this meeting which was introduced and opened by Steering Group Chairperson Ken Sevcik of Superior Carriers. The agenda included discussion of new and evolving business value opportunities; special support for certification implementation; sector growth opportunities and activities; update and modernization of implementation guidance documents for partner sectors; and highlight of goals of overall 2009 Partnership Program Work Plan. Several suggestions were made regarding extension of the partner program sectors to include such companies as tank wash operators and drayage transporters. All attendees, partners and members, were surveyed regarding interest in scheduling RCMS/RC14001 Workshops and Internal Auditor Training Sessions. Sufficient interest was expressed in these items to warrant planning of at least one workshop in the next quarter followed by others as appropriate. Please contact Dave Gleason or Dan Roczniak for more information – or if your company would be willing to host one or another of these sessions.
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