Responsible Care® companies are committed to safe operations. The Responsible Care Process Safety Code sets forth this commitment to a culture of process safety throughout chemical facility processing operations, management systems and leadership structures.
ACC established the Process Safety Code in 2012, with the aim of supplementing existing process safety requirements contained within the Responsible Care Management System® (RCMS®) and RC14001® technical specifications, by specifically addressing process safety concepts such as leadership, accountability and culture to help drive overall process safety performance improvement.
In 2021, the ACC Board of Directors updated the Responsible Care Process Safety Code to provide enhanced expectations for ACC members and Responsible Care Partners. The updated Code also differentiates leadership roles and responsibility for company senior leaders and facility management, recognizing that a demonstrated commitment of senior leadership is critical to bringing about and sustaining excellence in process safety performance.
Implementing the Process Safety Code is mandatory for all ACC regular members and Responsible Care Partners.
The Process Safety Code complements existing regulatory requirements, such as OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) standard and EPA’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) standard. However, it differs from regulatory standards that, by necessity, tend to focus on expectations for process safety at an individual facility. The Process Safety Code is designed to be more universal—it addresses issues across a division or corporation and includes a company commitment to set process safety expectations, define accountability for process safety performance and allocate adequate resources to achieve performance expectations.