Dr. Stan Higgins' Column : Responsible Care: Outreach Efforts of Icc Members

Members of Indian Chemical Council were requested to highlight the activities they have conducted during the last 1 year focussing the following areas:

  • Community outreach program under Responsible Care
  • Best practices under any code of Responsible Care
  • Efforts made for creating awareness about Responsible Care with customers, suppliers under Product Stewardship Code.

Many of the ICC member-signatories of Responsible Care have responded overwhelmingly of their activities and it was decided to publish the same in CHEMICAL NEWS which will act as stimuli for other members.

Here is the write up received from BRENNTAG INGREDIENTS (INDIA) PVT. LTD. Hope this will be very informative to all logo holders and to Responsible Care committed companies.

SMALL ACTIONS AT BRENNTAG CREATES BIG IMPACT IN COMMUNITY AWARENESS….
Accelerating Towards Excellence

In Brenntag, they started implementing the practices and standards of 9K, 14K& 18K during the 1st quarter of 2013. Through this, we successfully received the certificates too, before the end of 2nd Quarter of 2013. These good practices, which are benefitting both our Organization & community, really kindled us to move towards the Responsible Care. Also with the utmost co-operation by the Management and the support of ICC, by conducting the audit at their warehouses, the company received the Authorization to use the Responsible Care Logo for the next one year. Brenntag will be surely ready for the audit & certification of Responsible Care within the stipulated time. Brenntag is the first Chemical distribution Company in India to be awarded by ICC with Responsible Care Certification. While, the company is grateful to ICC for honoring them, they pledge to work to improve their process and focus on sustainability.


DURING THE PRESENTATION OF RC LOGO BY INDIAN CHEMICAL COUNCIL.


BLOOD DONATION DRIVE AT BRENNTAG

Continuous improvements and practices which they were enjoying and implementing for the past one year are also given below:

  1. Successful interaction of QHSE Team in India as well as with Asia Pacific Region, which instincts for the continuous improvements and implementations.
  2. Implementation of Near Miss Recognition Programme wherein they are encouraging the employees and contractors to identify the Near Misses which will avoid future incidents & Accidents. Apart from this, Brenntag also recognizes the employees who practice SAFETY in their day-to-day activities.
  3. Brenntag's Regional QHSE Team along with the every Country QHSE Team, made a QHSE online training tool, which provides each and every employee of the Organization to get trained on QHSE with many training materials in it viz. Near Miss Training, Incident & Accident Reporting, Fire Awareness, Safety in Chemical Handling etc. Many employees appreciated this, as apart from the regular classroom training, they are given the opportunity to get trained through online too.
  4. Last year, the company made a share point access regionally, to access the MSDS of all countries products easily at any point of time and also created a storage classification number for all the products. Based on this, they store the products in their warehouse which will avoid any serious incidents and accidents. This project on Product Stewardship is ongoing as a part of the day-to-day tasks.
  5. While the company is in the process of getting the Responsible Care Certification, they also initiated and encouraged the 3PL warehouses to be a member of ICC and move towards the process of certification of Responsible care. Based on the suggestion and recommendation, the dedicated 3PL major warehouses are already certified on 9K, 14K & 18K.
  6. On Community Awareness, Brenntag conducted a blood donation camp for the whole premises wherein all the employees from other offices also actively participated and well appreciated by them, as this improves the awareness on Blood Donation. Even the blood bank conducted the awareness to all employees on the working and facilities of blood banks.
  7. Brenntag has also a contract to RECYCLE the papers with an authorized agency and get back Non-chlorinated notepads and paper bags etc.
  8. The company does conduct HEALTH TALKS like Cancer Awareness; Health & Nutrition etc & ENVIRONMENTAL TALKS like Recycling of Papers to all their employees during any celebration time and create awareness on Employees Health.
  9. They conducted training on Defensive and Behavioral driving training to all their office drivers and contract bus drivers to increase the awareness on driving to them.
  10. During the Annual online feedback from all employees on the Good Areas & Area of Improvement of Brenntag, SAFETY Awareness took the top place and won the appreciation by the top management.
  11. This year, the company's Regional Team has initiated a system of conducting the QHSE Standard Audit performance format and audit the warehouses and QHSE practices to provide the Star Grade, viz. 5 facility, 4 star etc. Brenntag will be first conducting the self-assessment & then the audit will be done by their Regional Team during the year end.