ACC honors top global chemical safety initiatives

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) today recognized chemical industry leaders for high accomplishments in chemical management, including environmental, health, safety and security (EHS&S) performance.

The ACC gave the awards at the 2015 Responsible Care Conference & Expo in Miami, with winners qualifying based on exemplary performance. The winners were selected by a committee made up of internal and external experts.

“Responsible Care is our industry’s commitment to continuous improvement in all aspects of our operations—from employee safety to facility security to protection of the health of the communities in which we operate and the environment as a whole,” said Paul Carrico, chair of ACC’s board committee on Responsible Care and CEO of Axiall. “The companies we are recognizing today represent the best of the best and are leaders to their industry peers.”

The following awards were presented at the 2015 Responsible Care Conference & Expo:

The Responsible Care Employee of the Year Award recognized one member for outstanding leadership in Responsible Care this year. This year’s winner was Jeff Wooster, an internationally recognized value chain sustainability expert at Dow. Wooster is responsible for market-focused sustainable packaging initiatives within Dow’s Performance Plastics business and has led education initiatives on limiting food waste, benefits of flexible packaging and recycling waste for energy recovery. He has published numerous technical papers, spoken at national and international sustainability conferences and engages on important topics in social media.

The Responsible Care Partner Award recognizes the superb performance and safety record of companies involved in the distribution, transportation, storage, use, treatment-disposal and/or sales and marketing of chemicals. This year’s winners were: Miller Transporters, based in Jackson, Mississippi; WTS in Lewiston, New York, and Union Tank Car Company in Chicago, Illinois.

The Responsible Care New Company of the Year Award recognizes member companies who have joined during the most recent certification cycle and fulfilled their Responsible Care obligations ahead of schedule. That award went to Sentinel Transportation, based in Wilmington, Delaware.

The Product Safety Award is new this year. The award recognizes those member companies who have excelled at driving continuous improvement in chemical product safety, according to the ACC. This year’s winners were AkzoNobel, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Dow, in Midland, Michigan; and LyondellBasell, in Houston.