Olin Chlor Alkali Products

Responsible Care

What is it? | The Goal is Zero | What are we doing?
Six Layers of Protection | What is RC14001?
Why are we doing RC14001? | Community Advisory Panels
Material Safety Data Sheets

The chlor alkali industry is one of the safest in the world. How did we, as an industry, achieve this goal? In part, through Responsible Care^®, an initiative launched in 1988 by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). As part of the ongoing drive for continuous improvement, the ACC now requires its members to conduct third-party audits using approved auditors to certify that their management system conforms to ACC's requirements. Responsible Care companies have the option of being audited against ACC's Responsible Care Management System (RCMS®) Technical Specification or the RC14001 Technical Specification, which contains all of ISO 14001's requirements as well as additional Responsible Care elements.

What is Responsible Care^®?

Webster's defines responsible as "answerable or accountable" and care as "a cause or object of concern." But the term "Responsible Care^®" means much more than the sum of its parts. It's a way of life.

Responsible Care^® is following rules and regulations set by both the company and government safety, health and environmental organizations and, when appropriate, going beyond these to ensure public and environmental health and safety. It's looking at every task for risk factors and then taking the necessary steps to prevent incidents before they happen. It's coming to grips with the concerns of our neighbors, communities and the public and then doing what we can to inform or change how we do business. Responsible Care^® is keeping safety, health and the environment at the top of our minds every minute of every day - both on and off the job.

At Olin Chlor Alkali Products, it's the most important thing we do.

The Goal is Zero.

It may seem hard to believe, but the goals of Responsible Care^® can actually be summed up with one word. Zero.

The goal of Responsible Care^® is quite simply, zero incidents. We subscribe to the idea that every incident is preventable, including near misses. We don't accept incidents, mishaps, or accidents as simply part of doing business. We won't accept them. Our goal is zero. Always.

What Are We Doing?

We —

Conduct ongoing employee training, education and communication
Involve all of our employees and empower them with the authority they need
Maintain active Community Advisory Panels at each of our facilities
Dedicate a team at each of our facilities to the development, implementation and continuous improvement of a Responsible Care^® plan
Developed a Risk Management Plan for each facility
Conduct joint training programs with local emergency responders

Six Layers of Protection

Olin Chlor Alkali Products has focused our Risk Management Planning on Six Layers of Protection to help ensure that an emergency situation with off-site implications will never arise.

The six layers include:

Well-trained Employees - dedicated and knowledgable, our most important resource in operating our facilities and in protecting the community
Mechanical Integrity - comprehensive inspection and testing of equipment to achieve reliability through predictive and preventative maintenance
Process Reviews - sequential assessments from design through startup which are routinely updated to identify and avoid potential problems before they occur
Process Controls and Back-up Systems - real-time information on operating parameters and equipment allowing prompt adjustments if needed
Monitoring Systems - highly sensitive detectors which identify problems at the earliest stage enabling operators quicker and more effective response
Emergency Response - well-trained, well-equipped and fully integrated with on and off-site emergency responders for quick response

What is RC14001?

RC14001 is a combination of the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care® Management System and the International Standards Organization’s ISO 14001 standard. It is a Management System that identifies, establishes, and maintains processes and their interactions to support an overarching policy while remaining consistent with “The Goal Is Zero”. It also provides a catalyst for improvement towards that vision.

For the Chemical Industry, RC14001 is a refocused and re-energized Responsible Care® Plan for the future. For Olin Chlor Alkali, it is a refocusing and realignment of existing systems through consolidation and standardization of all of Olin's Responsible Care elements, including Environmental, Health and Safety, Security and Distribution. It will integrate with Olin Chlor Alkali’s existing Quality Management System and will utilize the strong quality foundation we have already established with our ISO 9000 certified quality processes.

For more information on RC14001, visit the American Chemistry Council web site at www.americanchemistry.com

Why are we doing RC14001?

The consolidation and standardization of policies and procedures brought about by implementing RC14001 will make possible the selection of the “best of the best” of our practices and allow us to carry these procedures throughout the Chlor Alkali Division while maintaining a consistently high level of performance and flexibility.

The employment of RC14001 will foster ownership, conformance, consistent understanding, and relationships with key stakeholders, as well as providing measurement systems and metrics by which continual improvement can be achieved.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has recognized the RC14001 certification as being beneficial enough to its members that it is now part of their membership requirements. Other chemical companies with established systems have already derived efficiency and improved performance in terms of lower frequency of incidents, lower costs, and focused energies.

Community Advisory Panels

Mutual understanding creates mutual trust.

At Olin Chlor Alkali Products, we believe the only way to build trust and understanding between neighbors is through openness. So we want to give you the chance to get to know us and to share your concerns. Through our CAPs, we want you to meet our employees, ask them questions and get honest answers. Olin employees are committed to protecting and improving their communities for themselves and their families. They take their responsibility of being good neighbors very seriously. And that is why we support our Community Advisory Panels.

Visit your local CAP webpage.

What is a CAP?

In the 1980s, we began forming partnerships in our communities by creating Community Advisory Panels or CAPs. Each CAP is comprised of 12 or more everyday citizens representing a wide range of people. Some are teachers. Some are homemakers. Some are business people, local emergency responders, and environmentalists. They all share a concern for our community and want to make sure we are acting responsibly. Several times a year, the CAP members meet to hear the latest information on our safety and environmental programs, tour facilities, review plans for future development, and ask questions or offer opinions on virtually any issue. The panel members, in turn, keep us abreast of what's going on in the community-whether it's a concern they want us to address or just a local block party they'd like us to attend. The end result of these open discussions is that we better understand the community that we live and work in. And the community better understands Olin's point of view. That mutual understanding is the foundation for mutual trust and partnership.

Our commitment to the community and the environment.

Our pledge to create open dialog with the community is just one small part of our overall Responsible Care^® efforts to ensure the safety of the surrounding area and our employees. The American Chemistry Council (ACC), with Olin's support and participation, launched Responsible Care^® in 1988 in response to public concern over the manufacture and use of chemicals. Through our commitment to Responsible Care^®, we are focused on measurable success and continuous improvement in six key areas:

Community Awareness and Emergency Response (CAER) - to assure emergency preparedness and to foster community right-to-know by committing to openness and community dialoque
Product Stewardship - to make health, safety and environmental protection an integral part of designing, manufacturing, marketing, distributing, using, recycling and disposing of our products
Pollution Prevention - to achieve ongoing reductions in the amount of all contaminants and pollutants released to the air, water, and land from our facilities.
Process Safety - based on the principle that facilities will be safe and that they are designed according to sound engineering practices, built, operated and maintained properly and periodically reviewed for performance
Employee Health and Safety - to protect and promote the health and safety of people working at or visiting our sites
Distribution Safety - to reduce the risk of harm posed by the distribution of chemicals to the general public; to carrier, distributor, contractor and our employees; and to the environment

We welcome your questions and opinions.

For more information about the CAP in your community or about our facilities in general, please call 1-800-295-6141. If you'd like, we can put you in contact with a CAP member in your neighborhood who will give you his or her viewpoint on the success of the CAP panel and tell you how you can be involved. We're sure they'll tell you that the success of the CAPs is not solely due to Olin's efforts. And it's not solely due to the community's efforts. The CAPs have succeeded because Olin and the community have worked together toward a common good. After all, that's what being good neighbors is all about.

To send a message to the CAP leader in your area, click here.