Responsible Care: A Case Study

✍ Scribed by Jean Bélanger (editor); Maria Topalovic (editor); Joanne West (editor); Peter Topalovic (editor); Gail Krantzberg (editor); IUPAC (editor); Bernard West (editor)

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 100
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Responsible Care – A Case Study is the first book of its kind to provide insight into the development and evolution of Responsible Care and its influence of societal outcomes on the basis of case studies. It provides readers in industry, government, and academia with the principles and innovative thinking associated with the Responsible Care ethic as a means to promote and implement such advanced concepts in their own institution. The book is not only a teaching aid for university curriculum, it also serves as a practical tool to industrial management and staff to improve industrial policies. The last chapter illustrates a practical example of a workshop held at McMaster University, Canada, which can be used as a model for readers to use this book as an educational tool.

• Concept, initiation, and development of Responsible Care into a pragmatic code of practice.
• Practical workshop example to learn about and implement the Responsible Care.
• Published in Cooperation with the IUPAC.
  

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
List of contributing authors
1 Responsible Care: History and development
1.1 Responsible Care project
1.2 Key principles underpinning Responsible Care
1.2.1 Doing the right thing
1.2.2 Being open and responsive to public concerns
1.2.3 Caring about products from cradle-to-grave-to-cradle again
1.3 History of Responsible Care
1.4 Basic philosophy
1.4.1 Building trust in Canada: An on-going mission
1.4.2 Integrating the social dimension
1.4.3 Transition at the international level: Global expansion
1.5 Implementation challenges in gaining company support
1.5.1 Reflection on drivers
1.5.2 Securing initial commitment
1.5.2.1 The need for risk communication
1.5.2.2 The business case for Responsible Care
1.5.2.3 Corporate social responsibility
1.5.3 Operational challenges
1.5.3.1 Overcoming a legal mentality
1.5.3.2 Ethical behavior has a societal context, upon which trust will be built through external acceptance
1.5.3.3 Seeking and acquiring full Chief Executive Officer ommitment
1.5.3.4 Acceptance of the need for comprehensiveness
1.5.3.5 Recognizing that the weakest link could defeat the initiative
1.5.3.6 Overcoming fears of Responsible Care as undue competitive burden
1.6 Maintaining commitment to Responsible Care
1.6.1 Guiding principles
1.6.2 Codes of management practices
1.6.3 Advisory process
1.6.4 Chief Executive Officer forum
1.6.5 Results confirmation process
1.6.6 Name protection
1.7 Role of government
1.8 The future of Responsible Care in Canada
1.9 Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References
2 Responsible Care in global supply chains: A case study
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Industrial chemical supply chains and product stewardship
2.3 Overview of the case study
2.3.1 Accountability for poor management of the supply chain and a lack of quality control
2.3.2 Economic and social effects of the incident and the ensuing litigation
2.4 Case study investigation: methods and analysis
2.4.1 Theory 1: The companies involved did not internalize the concepts of product stewardship and the cradle-to-cradle philosophy that Responsible Care advocates
2.4.1.1 The Source: Sinochem in China
2.4.1.2 The intermediary: VOS B.V. (now Helm Chemicals B.V.) in the Netherlands
2.4.1.3 The multinational firm: Helm AG, Germany
2.4.1.4 The destination: Pharval in Haiti
2.4.2 Theory 2: The loss of business, reputation and profits through erosion of trust was not a major consideration in the decision-making process of the companies involved
2.4.2.1 The business case for transparency and accountability in Responsible Care
2.4.2.2 Evidence of transparent and accountable business case success
2.4.2.3 Transparency, accountability as drivers for compliance and voluntary management
2.4.2.4 Risk assessment and management as drivers for compliance
2.4.2.5 Challenges for Responsible Care and sustainable supply-chain management
2.4.3 Theory 3: The companies involved in the case study did not embed the philosophies of Responsible Care ethic or create a corporate culture of stakeholder protection
2.4.3.1 Embeddedness: Responsible Care as ethic
2.4.3.2 Ethics and incentives for over-compliance: Going beyond environmental management
2.4.3.3 Responsible Care as a compliment to legislation
2.4.3.4 Corporate culture and international supply chains
2.5 Conclusion and discussion
References
3 Responsible Care ’ s effectiveness in promoting sustainable industrial performance: A case study in sustainable chemical production and distribution
3.1 Overview and background
3.1.1 Sulco Chemicals case study
3.1.2 Central question and study purpose
3.2 Methods
3.3 Results
3.3.1 Responsible Care and its influence on Sulco plant operations
3.3.2 Responsible Care and its influence on a corporate culture of sustainability at Sulco
3.4 Analysis
3.4.1 Quantifying the impacts of not implementing Responsible Care at Sulco
3.4.2 Benefits of Responsible Care as it relates to industrial ecology, life cycle assessment, and resiliency
3.5 Conclusion
References
4 Responsible Care workshop: Exploring the effectiveness of Responsible Care – workshop overview and toolkit
4.1 Workshop agenda
4.2 Workshop logistics
4.3 Responsible Care overview
4.4 Case study overview
4.4.1 Accountability for poor management of the supply chain and a lack of quality control
4.4.2 Economic and social effects of the incident and the ensuing litigation
4.4.3 Possible roles for Responsible Care
4.5 Workshop breakout sessions
4.6 Pilot workshop analysis
4.6.1 Feedback from the Pilot workshop and breakout sessions
Acknowledgements
Appendix
A Workshop toolkit
B Pilot workshop breakout sessions summary
C Pilot workshop breakout sessions raw data
Index