A Global Vision for Responsible Care®
First launched in Canada in 1985, Responsible Care is today practiced in more than 60 countries around the globe. Responsible Care empowers companies to continue to strive for innovative ways to contribute to the vision of the World Summit on Sustainable Development that, by the year 2020, “All chemicals will be produced and used in ways that minimize risks for human health and the environment.”
OUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE
Responsible Care is an essential part of ICCA’s contribution to the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). Through Responsible Care, global chemical manufacturers commit to pursue an ethic of safe chemicals management and performance excellence worldwide. Our commitment helps to enhance public confidence and trust in the industry’s dedication to safely manage chemicals throughout their lifecycle while ensuring that chemistry can continue to contribute to a healthier environment, improved living standards and a better quality of life for all.
Spreading the Ethic of Responsible Care
Through Responsible Care capacity building activities, companies work closely with their national chemicals associations, business partners and ICCA to actively strengthen and spread the ethic of Responsible Care worldwide. In addition, we have secured signatures from hundreds of chemical companies to the revised Global Charter as a way to strengthen the global industry’s commitment to sound chemicals management.
Reporting and Strengthening Our Performance
All signatories to the Responsible Care Global Charter make a commitment to continuously strengthen their performance and update industry on their progress. Companies collect and report data for a core set of environmental, health and safety (EHS) performance measures. ICCA is proud that, for some measures, today, there are more than double the number of reporting associations than we had a decade ago.
Progress On Our Quest For Performance Excellence
ICCA works with companies and associations across the globe to spread and strengthen the Responsible Care ethic.
Today, more than two-thirds of associations and their members are implementing the product stewardship principles embodied by Responsible Care and the Global Product Strategy (GPS).
Our 20 Milestones to 2020 Infographic features some of the highlights along our journey to expand Responsible Care, while the 2015 Responsible Care Progress Report offers a more detailed look at the progress we’ve made since our 2012 update report.
We’re Unifying to Improve Global Health, Safety and Sustainability
The commitment to excellence and continuous improvement under the Responsible Care Global Charter can’t be effective unless it’s embraced broadly by the industry. CEOs from China and nearly 100 of the largest chemical companies in the world have signed the Global Charter as a sign of our industry’s unified commitment to safe chemicals management.
Following Through On Our Commitment To Sustainability
OUR PARTNERS IN PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE
Responsible Care encourages collaborative work between the domestic and international industry, government, and local authorities to help demonstrate best practices in safe chemicals management around the globe. This involves deploying Responsible Care experts to support safer and more sustainable chemical plants and supply chains, which can help contribute to safer workplaces, safer communities and sustainable growth.
Capacity Building Partners
Effective capacity building requires that we pool knowledge and expertise from multiple perspectives — from downstream users of chemicals, national government representatives, local authorities and regulators, and academia.
To date, ICCA and our partners have provided capacity building support for 172 projects in 46 countries, totaling more than US $1.8 million.
The capacity building partnership between ICCA and UNEP continues to be critical to our work to implement sound chemicals management practices, particularly in Africa.
In 2015, our focus was on helping Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania build capacity. We plan to introduce Responsible Care to three new countries in Africa in the coming years.
ICCA and OPCW
ICCA and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) share a common vision: the eradication of chemical weapons worldwide. To that end, ICCA members and the 190 OPCW Member States continue to work together to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the first multilateral treaty to ban an entire category of weapons of mass destruction, including the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.
As ICCA stated in our position paper for the Third Review Conference of the States Parties of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the global chemical industry is fully committed to help implement the Convention at national, regional and international levels so that chemical weapons can be eradicated worldwide. To demonstrate our commitment, ICCA made support of the CWC a condition of membership into Responsible Care. We also have hosted several verification visits from OPCW, and we proudly serve as a resource for the global chemical industry by providing peer-to-peer assistance.
Responsible Care Member Associations
Members of the ICCA Responsible Care Leadership Group include representatives from national associations, chemical manufacturing companies and logistics service providers around the globe that are committed to Responsible Care.
As of 2016, we have grown the Responsible Care family to more than 60 participating economies around the globe. By continuing to strengthen industry partnerships with governments and between nations, ICCA members believe we can bring the values of Responsible Care to the countries that need it most.