Responsible Care has seen an enthusiastic take off from Middle Eastern petrochemical companies. RPME meets the leading firms
Increasing pressure from environmental agencies has led downstream companies to adopt initiatives to manage the risks associated with the industry. This has led to the soaring popularity of the Responsible Care initiative.
Responsible Care is the chemical industry’s set of principals that drives operational performance, and embraces the development and application of sustainable chemistry, helping the industry contribute to sustainable development while allowing it to meet the world’s growing need for essential chemicals products.
Launched by the Canadian Chemical Producers’ Association, this dynamic initiative is constantly evolving to meet the challenges facing chemical manufacturers and all those in the value chain.
“Responsible Care was launched in 1985 as the chemical industry’s global voluntary plan under which companies, through national associations, work collectively to continuously improve health, safety and environmental performance across the value chain,” says Alan Izzard, vice president corporate HSE at Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge).
At global level, that evolution of the scheme was demonstrated with the launch of the Responsible Care Global Charter in 2006 at the UN-led International Conference on Chemicals Management in Dubai.
“Responsible Care is an ethic and a commitment that seeks to build confidence and trust in an industry that is essential to improving living standards and the quality of life,” adds Bernhard Thier, manager Responsible Care and ICCA communications.
Responsible Care focuses on new and important challenges facing the petrochemical and chemicals industries, including the growing public dialogue over sustainable development, public health issues related to the use of chemical products, the need for greater industry transparency, and the opportunity to achieve greater harmonisation and consistency among the national Responsible Care programmes currently implemented.
“Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) adopted the Responsible Care initiative in 2009 thereby bringing this important initiative to the Gulf and Middle East region,” says Tahir Jamal Qadir, director Responsible Care at the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA).
Responsible Care outlines several codes of good management practices for chemical manufacturers including community awareness and emergency response, pollution prevention, process safety in addition to distribution and many other codes.
“We view Responsible Care as the best way to ensure safe manufacturing, distribution, and utilisation of our products from inception in the research laboratory to ultimate reuse, recycle and disposal,” says Todd Kenny, director, safety expertise centers at The Dow Chemical Company.
Local downstream companies are implementing the proposals as part of their commitment towards their community. Kuwait’s EQUATE Petrochemical Company attained the Responsible Care (RC) 14001 certification and accreditation in March 2011.
“As it is a voluntary initiative, EQUATE is implementing RC as part of its unwavering commitment to the care of the Kuwaiti community and beyond including each and every individual by manufacturing safe products, ensuring environmental protection in industrial operations and guaranteeing the overall wellbeing of all our surroundings,” says Hamad Al-Terkait, president and CEO of EQUATE.
Other companies like MEGlobal, aim to decrease their environmental footprint using the Responsible Care initiative.
“Our dedication to the environment is apparent from our FOCUS 2012 goals which push us to our limits by maintaining a focus on those areas where we can make the most improvements and therefore the most difference,” says Ramesh Ramachandran, president and CEO of MEGlobal and Equiploymers.
“MEGlobal’s FOCUS 2012 goals aim at reducing energy and water consumption, as well as emissions at their sites,” Ramachandran explains.
MEGlobal also features an aggressive improvement programme to reduce energy usage in product manufacture, including reduction of consumption of electrical power and fossil fuels.
“Since 2004, overall energy use has been trimmed by over 12% – a significant reduction in the size of the company’s environmental footprint, while at the same time lowering manufacturing costs,” the CEO of MEGlobal and Equiploymers notes.
To be certified as a Responsible Care company, companies need to complete certain criteria before being eligible to use the Responsible Care logo in their products.
“These criteria included the need for signed CEO declaration to adopt the principles of Responsible Care, completion of a gap analysis against a Responsible Care Management System and preparation of an improvement plan to address the identified gaps,” says Izzard.
Borouge was one of the first companies to have successfully completed all requirments.
After being certified as a Responsible Care company, and in order to keep the status, companies need to be verified and re-verified by industry experts.
“Verification is a rigorous process. Member companies must comply with more than 150 requirements to retain Responsible Care status,” says Ramachandran.
“Every three years, a team of industry experts, public advocates and local citizens form a verification team to review company operations, interview employees and identify any areas for improvement the company could implement. MEGlobal was first verified as a Responsible Care company in 2007,” he adds.
The re-verification take place every three years. “Every three years, our corporate headquarters and senior company leaders and our internal management system, as well as eight of our manufacturing sites, are audited by an accredited external auditing firm to ensure that we meet or exceed all expectations of a Responsible Care company,” says Kenny.
MEGlobal has recently been re-verified. “We received our Responsible Care in-Place re-verification from the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada in 2011,” says Bob Brandt, vice president of manufacturing for MEGlobal.
“Our staff, policies, systems and actions ensure our products are managed responsibly from manufacture through disposal,” says Brandt.
While leading international companies in North America have reached advanced stages in the Responsible Care initiative, regional petrochemical companies are still in their early stages.
“Our current focus within the context of GPCA’s Responsible Care Committee is to finalise the set of Codes of Management Practice, in addition to establishing and embedding a common set of EHS&S metrics for all member companies,” says Izzard.
“We do however, have a plan to progress to third party verification and certification, following a path from self assessment, through peer review and finally full accreditation. Systems and resources will have to be established in the GCC region to support this plan. We should not be in a rush to achieve certification, the focus should be in sustaining process that support continual improvement in EHS&S.”
Being a RC company provides companies with many benefits. “This includes stronger relationships with governmental authorities, reduced emissions and waste from our manufacturing processes, customer recognition that our products are transported and handled safely and in an environmentally responsible manner, and improved safety and health of our employees and the communities in which operate,” explains Kenny.
For many companies, Responsible Care has became a way of doing business. “We are proud of our performance in safety, environmental stewardship and community engagement,” says Rejeanne Cool, global environment health and safety leader at MEGlobal. ”It’s how we do business,” Cool concludes.
MEGlobal’s FOCUS 2012
The goals of MEGlobal’s FOCUS 2012 are driving for a decreased environmental footprint by reducing energy and water consumption, as well as emissions at their sites. Using 2005 as the baseline year, MEGlobal wanted to achieve by 2012:
• 70% reduction in priority chemical emissions.
• 80% reduction in chemical emissions.
• 40% reduction in CO2 emissions intensity.
• A 15% reduction in fresh water usage.
