WASHINGTON (June 2, 2020) – Today, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) presented its Responsible Care® Company of the Year Award to LyondellBasell, FMC Corporation and Ethyl Corporation, recognizing each for excellence and leadership in environmental, health, safety and security (EHS&S) performance.
“Responsible Care has always been a program based on leadership, safety and continual improvement in our facilities, operations and products. It’s a commitment that helps us to operate with health, safety, security and environmental protection as our top priorities,” said ACC President and CEO Chris Jahn. “Today, we recognize LyondellBasell, FMC and Ethyl Corporation for their outstanding leadership and dedication to the tenets of Responsible Care with ACC’s highest honor, the Responsible Care Company of the Year Award.”
ACC presents the Company of the Year award to one company each in three size categories: large, medium-sized and small companies. To be eligible for the Company of the Year award, ACC members must demonstrate they have met and surpassed Responsible Care performance criteria, including: achieving a safety performance rating in the top 10 percent of companies in their size category, with no significant process events in the previous year; positive performance measures in the areas of transportation safety, process safety and emissions reduction; and demonstrated improvements in EHS&S performance, product stewardship, distribution safety and emergency preparedness.
LyondellBasell applies Responsible Care requirements when making decisions every day. The company’s Operational Excellence and Product Stewardship systems have resulted in continually improving health, safety, security and environmental performance. Since 2017, LyondellBasell has reduced its Total Recordable Injury Rate at ACC member sites by 68 percent, and reduced the number of reportable environmental events by 26 percent.
In 2019, LyondellBasell expanded an initiative that uses mechanical recycling technology to transform post-consumer plastic waste into high-quality polymers to make new products with recycled content in a number of sectors. In addition, LyondellBasell began pilot production of bio-based feedstocks made from renewable resources. Through these initiatives, the company is offering more sustainable solutions and helping customers achieve their environmental targets.
FMC Corporation has enhanced multiple systems to identify and evaluate hazards, and to assess and prioritize corresponding risks. FMC uses its Product Stewardship and Sustainability Assessment Tool to continually improve the safety, sustainability and stewardship of their products to help feed the world and enable a secure food supply.
In 2019, FMC revised and updated its Process Safety and Hazard Screening and Assessment tools to better identify high hazard processes and reduce risk at manufacturing sites worldwide. After exceeding sustainability targets set in 2015, FMC announced new sustainability goals last year for 2025 and 2030, related to innovation, safety, community engagement and environmental impact.
Ethyl Corporation’s operating plant outside Houston has consistently met or exceeded Responsible Care program requirements for more than 30 years. Ethyl’s philosophy is that paying high attention to minor concerns can help prevent significant incidents from occurring.
Ethyl’s “Actively Caring” program encourages employees to look out for the safety and welfare of others with the goal of achieving an injury-free environment. This focus on hazard recognition and reporting and investigating all incidents and hazards has resulted in zero recordable injuries at the Ethyl Houston Plant over the past seven years.
Since 1988, Responsible Care companies have reduced hazardous releases to the air, land and water by 84 percent, improved energy efficiency overall, and have an employee safety record five times better than the U.S. manufacturing sector as a whole, and almost three times better than the business of chemistry overall.