With a Responsible Care® Management System you have a management structure in place by which specific Environment, Health, Safety, Security, Transport Safety, Product Stewardship, Outreach and Emergency Response activities can be effectively implemented.

Responsible Care® is the American Chemistry Council’s (ACCs) comprehensive environmental, health, safety and security (EHS&S) performance improvement initiative. ACC member and partner companies implement Responsible Care® to effectively manage their operations and products and respond to stakeholder concerns. Implementation of Responsible Care® is an obligation of membership for ACC member and partner companies. The obligations of ACC member companies to implement Responsible Care® occur within their U.S. asset base as defined by the Council’s dues formula.

Member and partner companies of the ACC are committed to support a continuing effort to improve the industry’s responsible management of chemicals. They pledge to manage their businesses according to the Guiding Principles of Responsible Care®, placing a high priority on the protection of the environment, their employees and the public. To do so effectively, their Responsible Care® program must be conducted within a structured system that is integrated with their overall management system and culture.

Putting environment, health and safety first

The Responsible Care® initiative and the Codes of Management Practices have been helpful in improving the Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) performance of the chemical industry over the last 14 years. The Codes have helped ACC members and partner companies improve their performance levels, and they have underpinned the development of the Responsible Care® ethic as embodied in the Guiding Principles. The Codes also provided a common framework for all members and partners to improve performance collectively.

In recent years, leading companies have learned that a more systematic approach to managing this effort has yielded performance improvement benefits and is consistent with how they manage other aspects of their businesses. These "management systems" are typically structured around the Plan-Do-Check-Act model thus providing an "engine" to drive performance improvement.

By developing a Responsible Care Management System® (RCMS®), ACC and its members provide a structure by which specific environmental, health and safety activities can be effectively carried out.

Key components of RC14001 and RCMS® include:

• Policy
• Planning and goal setting
• Definition of roles and responsibilities
• Monitoring and measurement
• Corrective and preventive actions (root cause analysis)
• Management review 
• Performance improvement

What standards can you be certified to?
To get on the road to certification, you should begin by reading about RC 14001 and RCMS®:

RC14001 and RCMS® are applicable for all dues paying ACC members and partners, including Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA) members.