NewsBrief
Issue No.57 December 2007		TM

While customary to review the events of 2007 at year's end, the advent of 2008 presents an opportunity to preview the new and exciting challenges ahead for the global Responsible Care ® family .

Chemicals are essential for improving living standards and enhancing our quality of life, yet increasing concerns and constraints on the supply and use of chemicals risk jeopardizing research and product development, thereby restricting supplies of vital ingredients to key futuristic industries such as electronics and agriculture. The safe management of chemicals, in the workplace and at home, is a prerequisite for a healthy society enjoying a clean and green environment. Despite our sustained efforts over many years, our industry's leading research, innovation and responsible management of potentially harmful chemicals has yet to earn the unqualified respect and trust of our customers and our regulators. We need to do much better.

The 2006 launch of the Responsible Care ® Global Charter in Dubai heralded a revamped attempt to inspire trust in our industry and subsequently encourage confidence in our performance and our products. The Charter is our response to society demanding evidence of our industry's commitment to sustainable development. Safeguarding public and environmental health by providing comprehensive product information and superior through life product management have become regulatory obligations, not voluntary options.

Our new Global Product Strategy (GPS) seeks to respond by accelerating and expanding the product stewardship initiatives some chemical suppliers are already successfully implementing throughout the supply chain. The GPS charges national chemical associations to require, encourage, and monitor the product stewardship programmes of local and multi-national member companies, to help ensure their success.

Of course, product stewardship is much easier said than done. It begins with product design, extends through manufacture and the management of contractors and distributors, culminates in superior customer service, and concludes with responsible recycling or disposal. The commitment of increasingly scarce resources is even more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which comprise the vast majority of chemical suppliers and users represented by the 53 international Responsible Care ® associations.

This demanding and resource-hungry strategy is capable of achieving a major reduction in the mishandling and misuse of chemicals, demonstrating the success of voluntary industry compliance while forestalling further chemical control regulation.

Product stewardship initiatives appeal to the public and eventually attract the interest of officials who acknowledge Responsible Care ® does indeed address the concerns of the public and the government, and is therefore worthy of recognition and support.

In 2008 we will publish guidelines to enable members to design and successfully implement product stewardship initiatives best suited to their capability to address the hazards and risks associated with their products and services.