Responsible Care

Responsible Care Activities

Tosoh Corporation recognized some time ago that protecting the environment and ensuring safety and health are important management issues. It therefore established its Basic Principles Regarding the Environment, Safety, and Health and Action Guidelines and was an early proponent of a system to promote Responsible Care (RC) activities.

What is Responsible Care?

Responsible Care is a voluntary initiative undertaken by the global chemical industry. RC represents the activities in which chemical industry business operators engage to ensure the protection of the environment, health, and safety in all business processes, from chemical development and manufacturing to distribution, use, disposal, and recycling. Communication between business operators and society is also incorporated into RC. In Japan, RC-related activities are overseen by the Japan Chemical Industry Association’s Responsible Care Committee.

The Tosoh Group’s RC activities include all operations related to environmental conservation, disaster prevention, occupational safety and health, logistics safety, chemical and product safety, and quality assurance. They are overseen by our RC Committee.

Revision of the Basic Principles Regarding the Environment, Safety and Health and Action Guidelines

In February 2020, Tosoh Corporation revised its Basic Principles Regarding the Environment, Safety, and Health and Action Guidelines. That revision extends the principles’ scope of coverage to the Tosoh Group as a whole. It also expands their scope from all business activities to every product’s life cycle. And it adds the statement that the Tosoh Group will contribute to the sustainable development of society.

Environment, Safety and Health Basic Principles

The Tosoh Group is committed to providing a wide range of services across the life cycle of each of its products, from research and development, production, and use or consumption through recycling or disposal. We recognize that protecting the environment and ensuring safety and health are crucial. That recognition includes awareness that contributing to the sustainable development of society through continuous chemical innovation involves  voluntary RC activities regarding each of our products and more.

Action Guidelines

The Tosoh Group has established the following action guidelines for its employees, including executives, to diligently practice its environment, safety, and health basic principles.

  1. Environmental Conservation
    • Aim toward a recycling society by maximizing the use of resources through energy and resource conservation and the 3Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle—to minimize the environmental impact of our business activities.
    • Promote community-based environmental conservation activities, recognizing that the conservation of biodiversity will lead to the realization of a sustainable society.
  2. People and Plant Safety and Health
    • Recognize always that “safety takes priority over all else.”
    • Strive to comprehensively and quantitatively identify and reduce risks to eradicate accidents and disasters and ensure stable operations.
    • Strengthen the emergency response system, including for natural disasters.
  3. Chemical and Product Safety
    • Strive to obtain accurate information on all chemical substances handled in research, development, and production and ensure their proper management.
    • Give top priority to environmental protection and to ensuring safety and health in the provision of our products and services.
    • Strive to improve customer satisfaction through thorough quality control and logistics safety.
  4. Communication
    • Engage in communication with stakeholders through disclosure and dialogue.

Tosoh Group RC Activities

  1. Environmental Conservation
  2. Safety and Disaster Prevention
  3. Occupational Safety and Health
  4. Chemical and Product Safety
  5. Quality Assurance
  6. Logistics Safety
  7. Public Dialogue

RC Promotional Structure

Tosoh’s RC Committee is chaired by the director in charge of the Environment, Safety, and Quality Control Division and consists of the heads of each of the administrative division, business division, and business office. The committee formulates RC action policies for the Tosoh Group; deliberates, advises, and approves important RC matters; and devises key measures related to RC activities. The results of the proceedings of its meetings and of its annual action policies are discussed and approved at Board of Directors meetings.

The status, meanwhile, of the RC activities at individual departments is ascertained through RC audits. The results of those audits are then reflected through the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle incorporated in the RC Committee’s improvement plan for the ensuing fiscal year in an attempt to enhance the Tosoh Group’s RC activities. 

The yearly results of the Tosoh Group’s RC activities are provided in the annual, Japanese-language CSR Report and during exchange forums with local communities. 

RC Audit

In fiscal 2020, RC audits were conducted for the Nanyo and Yokkaichi Complexes, the Tokyo Research Center, and the Logistics Division. The activities and issues for the next year and beyond were then discussed by the audit team and the audited party, including the RC Committee chair and its secretariat.

Okayama University Professor Emeritus Kazuhiko Suzuki was the vice chairman of the Committee for the Investigation of the Explosion and Fire Incident at the No. 2 Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) Plant. He has participated in the auditing of the Nanyo and Yokkaichi Complexes every year since fiscal 2013.

Establishment of Safety Technology Office

To raise process safety throughout the Tosoh Group, Tosoh Corporation has established a Safety Technology Office at its Technology Center in Japan.

The Safety Technology Office’s specialization in safety technology focuses on safety engineering. Its main activities include advanced and comprehensive risk assessment, the application of new technologies, and the training of process safety engineers. In establishing this office, the Tosoh Group seeks to become a chemical manufacturing leader in production processes and, more, the safety of its processes.

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