Linde North America has received certification of its Buffalo, N.Y., air separation plant under the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care® program.
Responsible Care is a globally recognized management system aimed at helping companies improve performance in areas such as safety, health, environment and security.
Implementing the Responsible Care system is a multi-step process. Companies must establish goals and objectives to address any significant hazards or risks associated with their products, processes and operations. They must then do what they have planned, checking progress along the way and taking corrective actions as needed. Communicating with employees and other stakeholders is also considered part of the program.
Responsible Care certification is mandatory for all American Chemistry Council (ACC) member companies, which must undergo headquarter and facility audits by an independent, accredited auditor to verify that they have a structure and system in place that manages and measures performance.
Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) is Linde’s independent auditor.
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The Responsible Care management system offers an integrated, structured approach for driving continual improvement in seven key areas: community awareness and emergency response; security; distribution; employee health and safety; pollution prevention; process safety; and product stewardship.
“This certification validates that when employees focus on safety, truly operate as a team, perform their jobs professionally and pay attention to detail, they are able to demonstrate to all stakeholders what a world-class organization they are part of,” said Buffalo Cluster Manager Jack Pederson. “All members of the team did a great job in achieving this recognition and should be very proud of their efforts.”
Implementing the Responsible Care system is a multi-step process. Companies must first plan—identify, assess and evaluate potential hazards and risks associated with their products, processes and operations—and establish goals and objectives to address any significant hazards or risks. Next, they must do what they have planned, checking their progress along the way to measure performance and taking corrective actions as needed. Communicating with employees and other stakeholders along the way, including neighbors and customers, also is essential.
“Congratulations to the management team and its staff at our Buffalo plant for the great effort they’ve given to meet the rigorous requirements for this award,” said R. J. Frame, Linde’s Head of Risk, Process Safety and Product Stewardship. “This accomplishment—combined with those of the other locations that have received certification—confirms that we have best-in-class processes in safety, health, environment and security which are being well executed at the plant level.”
Linde North America’s Buffalo plant joins six other Linde production locations certified in 2008 under the Responsible Care program. The others are: Cartersville, Ga.; South Bend, Ind.; Kittery, Maine; Toledo, Ohio; Nashville, Tenn.; and Vancouver, Wash. Linde’s corporate headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., also was certified.
Linde North America is a member of The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company with more than 50,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2007 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.3 billion (USD 18.7 billion). The Linde Group’s strategy is geared toward earnings-based and sustainable growth, focusing on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.
Linde North America’s Buffalo plant, in operation since 1989, separates air cryogenically to produce 220 tons per day of oxygen, 550 tons of nitrogen and 20 tons of argon. These products are liquefied and trucked to hospitals, food processors, metal fabricators, industrial gas distributors, and military installations, as well as to steel, glass and glass fiber manufacturers in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, Canada. The plant employs 40 people.