Responsible Care® is a global chemical industry performance initiative that is implemented in the United States through the American Chemistry Council. In the U.S., Responsible Care companies have reduced environmental releases by 78 percent and achieved an employee safety record that is more than five times safer than the average of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Responsible Care helps America’s leading chemical companies go above and beyond government requirements and openly communicate their results to the public. Through this website, these companies are making available the most performance information of any private sector industry group.
Responsible Care is more than a set of principles and declarations. It is implementing world-class management systems, verified through independent auditors; tracking performance through established environment, health, safety and security measures; and extending these best practices to business partners through the industry supply chain.
Most recent data demonstrate that Responsible Care companies have:
- Improved safety performance by an additional 4 percent between 2005 and 2006; and achieved a worker safety record that is more than five times better than the average of the U.S. manufacturing sector and more than two and a half times as safe as the business of chemistry overall;
- Between 2003 and 2004, reduced TRI releases by 3.5 percent; and reduced releases to the environment by more than 77 percent, since 1988, while U.S. chemical production increased by 32 percent;
- From 2004 to 2005, reduced distribution incidents by 22 percent, while the volume of shipments fell by only 2.5 percent for the business of chemistry; reduced reportable distribution incidents by 49 percent since 1995, while the volume of chemical shipments increased 10 percent;
- Completed 100 percent of their security vulnerability assessments, third-party verification of security enhancements at chemical facilities, and Security Code commitments; and
- Reduced process safety incidents by 51 percent over the past decade.
- Improved energy efficiency by an outstanding 46 percent since 1974.
- Reduced their greenhouse gas intensity by more than 30 percent since 1992, a tremendous accomplishment for such an energy intensive industry. Between 2003 and 2005, greenhouse gas intensity from ACC members fell by 5.0 percent.
Use this website to track our progress in these key areas:
