For more than a decade, Responsible Care® companies have made significant progress in reducing emissions to the environment. One way to measure our achievements is to track the emissions data reported each year to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Since 1988, the EPA has kept a database of information about chemical releases, transfers and other waste management activities. This database is called the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Each year, companies report TRI data to the EPA, which reviews the information and makes it available to the public.
HAPs are recognized as a key measure of environmental performance. Tracking HAP emissions over time provides an important look at performance trends. As a means on tracking HAPs, Responsible Care Companies extract this information from the TRI database. A subset of TRI is Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) Releases; Responsible Care companies now track HAPs as a performance metric and began reporting on HAPs in 2008. HAPs focus specifically on air emissions and are the focus of the EPA residual risk regulations under the Clean Air Act, and future risked-based and technology-based standards.
Since 1988, core Responsible Care companies have reduced emissions of core HAPs by 78 percent.
