2009 Responsible Care Conference – Save the Date!
Planning for the 2009 Responsible Care Conference has begun. The 2009 Responsible Care Conference will be held at the Gaylord Palms Hotel, Orlando, Florida April 19-22. We will explore topics such as Process Safety, Product Stewardship, Value-added initiatives and Sustainability. You will be receiving information on registration shortly. Don’t forget to mark your calendars!
New Member & Partner Responsible Care Coordinators
We would like to welcome the following Member and Partner coordinators the Responsible Care program: Juan Alvarado/Champion Technologies; Steve Miefert/Aristech Acrylics; Nolan Everitt/Enterprise Transportation Company; and James Sundys/Premium Environmental Services. Welcome to Responsible Care!
December Monthly Partner Coordinator Call Cancelled Due to Holidays
The December monthly Partner Responsible Care Coordinators’ call has been cancelled due to the Christmas holidays. Plan to participate in the first monthly call for 2009 which will be held on Thursday, January 22 at 10:00 am EST.
2009 Responsible Care Coordinator Manuals – Released
The updated 2009 Responsible Care Coordinator Manual and the updated 2009 Performance Metrics Guidance Documents went out to all RC Coordinators on Monday, December 8th. The RC Coordinator Manual received the annual update as well as the addition of the latest fact sheets on our industry. The 2009 Performance Metrics Guidance document received updates reflecting the changes going into 2009 regarding optional to mandatory metrics as well as major changes to the Product Stewardship and Process Safety metric. Also, included in the December 8th email was the Bridge Document highlighting the major changes to the 2009 Performance Metrics Guidance Document. Please, review both manuals and the Bridge Document! If you a Responsible Care Coordinator and did not receive your materials, please contact Bradford Johnson at bradford_johnson@americanchemistry.com and he will get a copies over to you immediately.
Update on Establishing Responsible Care Targets
In early November, the Board Committee on Responsible Care (BCRC) met and considered the final recommendations of the Targets Workgroup. The workgroup recommended based on 10 months of analysis and a member-wide survey completed in September that ACC move forward on setting ACC-wide targets for five performance measures: Fatalities, Lost Workday Case Rate, Recordable Incidence Rate, Product Stewardship Summaries, and Greenhouse Gas Intensity. The recommendations are provided here. The BCRC endorsed these recommendations and will recommend that the ACC Board adopt these targets at the February 25th meeting. For more information, contact debra_phillips@americanchemistry.com.
2009 Performance Metrics Data Entry Site to Open January 1, 2009
The Performance Metrics data entry site is scheduled to open January 1, 2009 and can be viewed at http://metrics.responsiblecaretoolkit.com. Don’t forget, the site closes on February 28, 2009. Currently, the BETA site is open until December 12, 2008 at 5:00 PM EST. The BETA site is a working, non-active mirror of the live site. It contains the latest changes to the live site in BETA form; allowing RC Coordinators to familiarize themselves with the changes to ensure a smooth transition to the live site. The link to the beta site is http://metricsbeta.responsiblecaretoolkit.com. Use the same login information as the live site.
Greenhouse Gas and Energy Efficiency Data
The latest Greenhouse Gas and Energy Efficiency update to the public facing website is due out this month. The final numbers are coming together and the RC Staff will have the website updated with 2007 Calendar year data. Look for the update email in your inbox!
ACC Shares Information with the Department of Transportation
Responsible Care has been making end roads in forming a relationship with the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT) to improve communications and seek areas of mutual benefit for DOT and the chemical industry to improve safety and handling of hazardous materials. ACC recently shared it’s methodology to categorize DOT 5800 data with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the information was well received. It is anticipated that a DOT will continue to work with ACC in this area to improve data collection and reporting of transportation incidents. ACC is hopeful that we will continue to work with DOT in this and other areas that are key to ACC members and Responsible Care Partners. For additional information please contact Tomaysa Sterling.
Summary of Partner Steering Group Teleconference Held November 18, 2008
The Partner Steering Group held a joint conference call with the partner representatives to the Responsible Care Committee on November 18. This was the first meeting of the group attended by Ms. Cindy Emmons/Saia Motor Freight and representing the LTL (packaged) truck sector- who has joined the group effective October 2008. Paul Little, from ACC member Rohm & Haas and representing the ACC Distribution Committee as liaison to the group, also actively participated. Issues discussed included: overall roster changes in the past year; review of 2008 Partnership Program Work Plan status; current status of governance activity involving partner companies; initiation of effort to refresh performance metrics for each partner sector; summary of currently active business value initiatives; and what lies ahead for the partnership program for 2009 – including development of a new and refreshed work plan for 2009. If you would like more details of these individual discussion items, have suggestions for new initiatives for 2009, and or have interest in becoming an active participant in the Steering Group going forward, please contact Dave Gleason.
Partnership Program “Business Value Anecdotes”
At the request of the Partner Steering Group, an evergreen list of “partnership program business value anecdotes” has been maintained throughout the year. If you would like to see what partners and members are saying about the value of the RCMS/RC14001 certification within their companies and their respective supply chains – please contact Dave Gleason for a copy of this listing at any time.
Partner Performance Metrics Update Initiated
The current individual partner sector metrics have been in place since 2005. At the time these were developed, the individual sector companies agreed to re-look at the metrics once the program had been in place for some time. Similarly, the ACC members have now completed review and upgrade of their metrics requirements – including a number of enhancements to improve the meaningfulness of the data and streamline the reporting process. With these changes now in place for the members, the Partner Steering Group has agreed to initiate and lead a review and update of the partner sector metrics – proposing changes within each sector where such changes are justified. Once sector leaders on the Steering Group have completed initial review – any proposed changes will be ‘sounded’ within their respective sectors before any firm proposals are made to the Responsible Care Committee for changes. If you have any questions or suggestions you would like to have included or considered in this process, please contact either Partner Steering Group Chairman Ken Sevcik, Dave Gleason, your respective sector representative on the Partner Steering Committee or one of our four partnership program representatives on the Responsible Care Committee.
Partnership Program 2009 Work Plan Now Being Developed
Concurrent with development of the overall Responsible Care Work Plan for 2009, those elements of the plan specific to the partnership program are being refined and detailed. The four partner representatives to the Responsible Care Committee – Sam George/American Commercial Lines; Gary Hall/WTS; George Peirce/Transport Service; and Lou Wagner/Union Pacific Rail - have been actively involved in this process for the past 2 months representing partner interests. At this point, the four specific highlight activity areas identified are: 1.Expand Member and Partner Joint Value; 2. Increase Partner Support for the Program; 3. Grow the Partner Program Membership; and 4. Assist partners in assuring meeting their certification, metrics, and security reporting goals and deadlines. All partners are encouraged to submit any comments or suggestions regarding the work plan to insure that the activities in the coming year are consistent with your company’s expectations and goals. For Further information, contact either Partner Steering Group Chairman Ken Sevcik or Dave Gleason.
Update – Meeting Partnership Program Commitments
Approaching year-end 2009 there are open ‘approved extension requests’ regarding certification that are committed for resolution by year end. As a reminder of the criticality of meeting these commitments – letters are being sent to all partner Executive Contacts currently involved in the governance process by BCRC Chairman Chuck Anderson of ACC member Oxychem. The BCRC and ACC Board have strongly reaffirmed the need to carry-out the governance process to maintain both the integrity and value of the RC program. In addition, letters have been sent to all ACC member sponsors of partners currently involved in the process to insure their full understanding and encourage their efforts to support affected partner companies where possible. If you have need for further understanding of your company’s status in the process – or have recent information as an update of your progress towards meeting your commitments – please let us know promptly.
