A "global charter" for Responsible Care was introduced last week at the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) annual conference on the international health, safety, and environmental management initiative.

Terry F. Yosie, ACC's vice president for Responsible Care, said the charter, developed by an international group of CEOs over the past year, defines a set of "core elements" for implementing Responsible Care in the 52 countries in which the chemical industry has committed to the program.

According to Yosie, even though Responsible Care has been a global industry initiative for more than a decade, there were still widespread regional inconsistencies. "There were 52 versions" of Responsible Care, he said at a press conference at the event, held in Las Vegas. "Now there is one integrated and global version."

Yosie acknowledged that variances persist for third-party verification of corporate Responsible Care compliance. He said that some countries are considering adopting the RC 14001 standard, which is employed in the U.S. to verify compliance. RC 14001 is a combination of Responsible Care and the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 14001 environmental management code.

Commenting on the initiative's progress over the past year, Fran Keeth, CEO of Shell Chemical LP and chairman of the ACC board committee on Responsible Care, noted that its new security code has been recognized by federal and state government agencies as a model for industry security management. In particular, she said, it has been cited by former secretary of homeland security Tom Ridge and the states of Maryland and New Jersey.