In 1988, the American Chemistry Council or ACC (formerly the Chemical Manufacturers Association) implemented Responsible Care®, a voluntary program for the U.S. chemical industry designed to achieve improvements in environmental, health and safety performance. As a longstanding member of the ACC, Arkema Inc. has pledged to manage its business in accordance with the principles of Responsible Care®. The Responsible Care® initiative began with six codes of management practice - Community Awareness and Emergency Response, Pollution Prevention, Process Safety, Distribution, Employee Health and Safety and

Product Stewardship. A seventh code, Security, was added in 2001 to address the protection of people, products, processes and information and information systems by enhancing security measures throughout the chemical industry value chain.

Participation in Responsible Care^® has brought about significant reductions in releases to air, water and land; major improvements in workplace and community safety; and has expanded programs to research and test chemicals for potential health and environmental impacts.

The ACC has decided to move the Responsible Care^® program beyond the codes of management practice in order to continue to improve its members' health, environment and safety performance and to provide greater business value to its members. The codes are now incorporated into a Responsible Care Management System^® (RCMS), which is based on the "Plan-Do-Check-Act" process. The RCMS is not designed to be a stand-alone management system; rather, it is intended to build on or enhance a company's existing business, health, environment and safety processes.

The basic framework of the RCMS covers:

• Commitment to Responsible Care^® as demonstrated through Policy and Leadership
• Planning ("PLAN")
  • Define hazards and risks
  • Set objectives and targets
  • Develop programs
  • Communicate actions and progress
• Implementation, Operation and Accountability ("DO")
  • Training
  • Documentation
  • Procedures
• Performance Measurement and Corrective Action ("CHECK")
  • Self assessment, verified through third party audits
  • Incident investigation
  • Records management
  • Corrective/preventive action
  • Measurements
• Management System Review ("ACT")
  • Review by Senior Management

Arkema Inc. has met the American Chemistry Council requirements for RCMS headquarters certification.  In November 2005 our headquarters RCMS was audited by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) against the RCMS Technical Specification (RCMS 101.01) and was certified to that standard.  In November 2009, Arkema Inc.’s headquarters is scheduled for re-certification against the RCMS Technical Specification (RCMS 101.03)

Arkema Inc. is committed to maintaining a Responsible Care^® management system to manage its business that will meet the Responsible Care^® guiding principles:

• To lead our companies in ethical ways that increasingly benefits society, the economy and the environment. 
• To design and develop products that can be manufactured, transported, used and disposed of or recycled safely.
• To work with customers, carriers, suppliers, distributors and contractors to foster the safe and secure use, transport and disposal of chemicals and provide hazard and risk information that can be accessed and applied in their operations and products.
• To design and operate our facilities in a safe, secure and environmentally sound manner.
• To instill a culture throughout all levels of our organizations to continually identify, reduce and manage process safety risks.
• To promote pollution prevention, minimization of waste and conservation of energy and other critical resources at every stage of the life cycle of our products.
• To cooperate with governments at all levels and organizations in the development of effective and efficient safety, health, environmental and security laws, regulations and standards.
• To support education and research on the health, safety, environmental effects and security of our products and processes.
• To communicate product, service and process risks to our stakeholders and listen to and consider their perspectives.
• To make continual progress towards our goal of no accidents, injuries or harm to human health and the environment from our products and operations and openly report our health, safety, environmental and security performance.
• To seek continual improvement in our integrated Responsible Care Management System® to address environmental, health, safety and security performance.
• To promote Responsible Care® by encouraging and assisting others to adhere to these Guiding Principles.