Responsible Care

Responsible Care® is an initiative of the international chemical industry to improve the health, safety and environmental performance of its operations and to increase community involvement and awareness of the industry.

Member companies manufacturing, importing and distributing chemicals are expected to support the performance measurement, verification and reporting initiatives of the PACIA Responsible Care® program.

Companies who meet their minimum requirements under the program are entitled, and encouraged, to use the PACIA Responsible Care® logo in their marketing programs.

Signatories to the PACIA Responsible Care® Program - PACIA Member companies who commit to the Responsible Care program are demonstrating their leadership in health, safety, environment and product stewardship management to their employees, business and supply chain partners, and external stakeholders. Click here for a list of PACIA Member signatories to the program.

Responsible Care® and its programs are registered under Australian and international copyright laws®

How companies use the Responsible Care® program

Commitment to the Australian program administered by PACIA is evidenced through a PACIA company CEO/MD signing the Responsible Care® Guiding Principles. Key features of the program include:

Self Assessment program - using six Codes of Practice covering all life cycle aspects of the chemical.

Self Assessment 2011/12 timetable 

Code	Assessment due	Code	Assessment due
Employee Health & Safety	30 April 2011	Manufacturing Process Safety	30 April 2012
Storage and Transport Safety	31 August 2011	Product Stewardship	31 August 2012
Community Right  to Know	31 December 2011	Environment Protection	31 December 2012

 

 

External Verification program - independent third party verification of the Codes or use of recognised accreditation programs.

Community engagement - companies establish an effective two-way communication with the community in which they operate. 

Program performance measures:

• Annual PACIA Health and Safety Surveys of companies

Consolidated Member Health and Safety  Performance Reports 

• 2011 (new)   
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008

         [Archive -  2007 Chemicals sector - Health and Safety Member Survey Report]

• Two yearly Responsible Care® Cycle Reports 2002 2003-04 2005-06 2007-08

Benefits of Responsible Care®

The aim of Responsible Care® is to earn public trust and confidence through a demonstrated high level of HSE performance in order to maintain the industry’s licence to continue to operate safely, profitably and with due care for the interests of future generations. Responsible Care® allows the industry to demonstrate continuous HSE improvement to the community, its customers, and to government.

Governments view commitment to Responsible Care® as an important component of the continued licence to operate. The Responsible Care® brand and the commitment by a significant proportion of the Australian chemicals industry, provides the leverage to positively influence regulators and legislators, to reduce the regulatory burden.

Responsible Care® as a global initiative enhances the image of the industry both in the market place and in the wider community.

The International Responsible Care® program

PACIA is a member of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) Responsible Care® program.

• ICCA Responsible Care® website
  • Paper - Responsible Care's contribution to sustainability
  • ICCA Responsible Care brochure
• Responsible Care® Status Reports 
  • ICCA 2008 Responsible Care Report
  • CEFIC 2009 Responsible Care Report 
• Responsible Care® Global Charter  and List of signatories (Jan 2011)

ICCA Global Product Strategy

ICCA Global Product Strategy (ICCA Wepage)

       ICCA GPS Chemicals Portal (over 1000 chemical safety summaries)

Progress Reports - GPS - ICCA Progress Report 2007   GPS - ICCA Progress Report 2008

ICCA country Association GPS Implementation Plans

Australia

ICCA GPS Information and related GPS guidance materials

• GPS Case Studies on Risk Management (Sept 2010) (incl. ExxonMobil, Solvay, Dow Chemical, BASF, Evonik, Shell, and Bayer)
• ICCA Business Case for the Global Product Strategy
• ICCA Guidance on Chemical Risk Assessment
• ICCA Product Stewardship Guidelines 2007
• CEFIC Global Product Strategy brochure
• VCI German Chemical Industry Special Report - Implementing the GPS

International Responsible Care® links

• American Chemistry Council
• European Chemicals Industry Council
• Canadian Chemical Producers Association