to page content
to site navigation
Health, Safety, Environmental & Security Policy
Proyecto Demostrativo de un Sistema Innovador para la Prevención de Emisiones de COV en la Industria
RCMS Certificate
American Chemistry Council
REACH
Lubrizol is a member of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and, as a member, we subscribe to the principles of Responsible Care®. The ACC created the Responsible Care Management System (RCMS), which requires third-party certification of our Health, Safety, Environmental and Security (HSES) management systems across all business activities. With continual improvement as a fundamental tenet, implementing RCMS provides a framework that will take our company above and beyond prior HSES accomplishments to achieve even higher standards of performance and to generate greater value for our businesses.
Our ACC membership requires that we implement RCMS at all of our U.S. sites including Corporate Headquarters. By the end of 2009 we will have implemented and certified RCMS or RC14001 at 18 of our 20 U.S. sites. The final two U.S. sites are scheduled for certification by the end of 2010.
Although the certification is only required for U.S.-based operations, we’ve gone above and beyond by implementing best practices at each of our facilities around the world. Some countries in which our facilities reside require third-party certifications and we either have or will be meeting those requirements. For the other countries where there is no requirement, following the 2009 completion of all U.S. sites, we will begin internal, second-party audits.
Product Safety
As our customers put our products into their final products and eventually on shelves, they need to be tested for safety. Likewise, government regulation and our customers require that our products be checked to make sure they are in compliance with global chemical control laws. We have a product compliance management system, Vision, in place to implement best practices. The Vision system gives us the ability to enhance our global regulatory compliance and hazard communication services for our customers, employees and the communities where we do business.
REACH, the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of CHemicals, is Europe’s newest compliance regulation. It requires manufacturers and importers to generate data for at least 30,000 substances in European commerce. To support REACH, we have completed the pre-registration phase of all eligible substances and have assembled a cross-functional REACH Governance Council to manage all current and future aspects of this far-reaching legislation. Currently we are:
Employee Health and Safety
Lubrizol is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for our employees. Our Standards of Care, which are the best policies, procedures and practices that we uphold at our worldwide operations, outline our requirements for safety procedures and guidelines. Beyond our Standards of Care are our Elements of Excellence, which are superior practices in safety, health, environment and security. Our goal is for these Elements of Excellence to accomplish the following:
Security
At Lubrizol, security is a very serious matter. We take pride in our proactive approach in many areas of security, which include security associated with our: operating sites, travel, personnel, transportation, proprietary information and cyber security. Our affiliation with organizations such as ASIS International (an international security organization) and the American Chemistry Council enhance our commitment to keep Lubrizol safe and secure.
Our security program complies with current U.S.-based legislative requirements. In addition, since we have instituted our security program globally, we exceed the ACC requirements.
Our security practices extend well beyond closed gates, locked doors and security badges. We also have a close working relationship with the law enforcement agencies in many of the communities in which we operate. In addition to the physical security at our locations, we also take into account security of our technologies and our travelers. This allows us to protect all areas of our corporation including some of our most valuable assets, our people, our property and our proprietary data.
Environment
We realize the importance of maintaining a cleaner and healthier environment for future generations by preventing pollution using the three simple Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. By not producing the waste in the first place, we save money. More importantly, the waste does not have to be treated or disposed, which generally requires transporting waste to third-party facilities.
Compliance with environmental laws and regulations is considered the minimum for any Lubrizol facility. As a member of the ACC, we go beyond basic compliance by establishing environmental programs and policies that are robust enough to fulfill the requirements for third-party verification of our Responsible Care Management Systems; a requirement that we uphold at all our worldwide operations.
Process safety
Process safety focuses on preventing catastrophic releases of hazardous materials that could result in serious employee injury or fatality. Our employees successfully handle risks related to raw materials and operating equipment on a daily basis. We work very hard to decrease the number of process safety incidents at our facilities by:
