One of Afton Chemical's core values is a strong commitment to conduct all our operations in a manner that protects our employees, the communities in which we operate, and the environment. Employee health, safety, environmental protection and security are of utmost importance to everyone at Afton Chemical. As part of this commitment, we support the guiding principles of Responsible Care®.
Responsible Care® is the chemical industry's comprehensive health, safety, environmental protection and security (HSES) performance improvement initiative. American Chemistry Council (ACC) member and partner companies implement Responsible Care® to effectively manage their operations and products and respond to stakeholder concerns. Details about ACC's Responsible Care program can be found on their public web site.
Implementation of Responsible Care® is a requirement for ACC member companies. Afton Chemical has been involved in Responsible Care® ever since its inception in 1988 and fully implemented the original six codes of practice in 1992. Afton was fully compliant with the ACC Security code a year ahead of the ACC required timing. We have implemented the Responsible Care® Management System (RCMS) at our Richmond, Virginia headquarters, and RC-14001 at our Sauget, Illinois plant.
Responsible Care® Guiding Principles
The Responsible Care® Guiding Principles serve as the foundation for the RCMS initiative. The Guiding Principles commit ACC member and partner companies to continual performance improvement; responsiveness to public concerns about the industry's operations and products; and the ethical management of their operations. The text of the Responsible Care® Guiding Principles can be found at ACC's website.
Afton's Responsible Care® Management System
Afton Chemical is committed to continual improvement in the management of HSES performance across our entire value chain. Afton's RCMS is structured around the Policy-Plan-Do-Check-Act model, which provides an engine to drive performance and continual improvement.
Afton Chemical's RCMS is implemented throughout the company's organization based on ACC's Technical Specifications. The system consists of the following sections:
- Policy and Leadership (Policy)
- Planning (Plan)
- Implementation, Operation and Accountability (Do)
- Performance Measurement, Corrective Action and Preventive Action (Check)
- Management Review (Act)
Certification
Our Richmond headquarters is certified to the RCMS standard by Underwriters Laboratories, and our Sauget, Illinois facility is certified to the RC-14001 standard by DEKRA Vincotte. Our Feluy, Belgium facility is certified to ISO 14001. We have plans to make our Port Arthur, TX facility RC-certified by 2010.
Responsible Care® Performance Metrics
Afton Chemical reports our HSES performance against a set of uniform industry-wide metrics that measure individual company and industry performance. These metrics enable us to identify areas for continual performance improvement and provide a means for communicating to the public our HSES performance via the ACC Responsible Care public website. These metrics are a subset of those used by Afton Chemical to monitor and manage our performance in health, safety, environment, security, product risk and economics.
More Information
For more information, please visit the Contact Us section of our website.