The new collaboration will support improvement of sustainability within the entire supply chain, from sourcing until delivery of products at customers’ premises, including transport safety and waste disposal.
“We welcome this partnership to help make chemicals supply chains more sustainable,” says Cefic Director General Hubert Mandery.
Initiative
The TfS initiative was founded in 2011 by the Chief Procurement Officers of six multinational chemical companies to develop and implement a global programme to assess, audit and improve sustainability practices within the supply chains of the chemical industry.
It now has 13 member companies worldwide: AkzoNobel, Arkema, BASF, Bayer, Clariant, DSM, Eastman, Evonik, Henkel, Lanxess, Merck, Solvay, and Wacker.
The aim is to continue to grow globally and the partnership with Cefic is hopefully a further step in that direction, it says.
“We are joining forces with Cefic to establish benchmarks for sustainable supply chains and implement the Responsible Care programme in the global chemical industry,” says Rüdiger Eberhard, President of TfS and Chief Procurement Officer of Evonik Industries AG.
“We have already begun to engage with other partners to achieve mutual recognition with comparable protocols, further reducing the number of audits for suppliers.”
Responsible Care programme
The International Council of Chemicals Association’s (ICCA) Responsible Care programme that Eberhard mentions is the chemical industry’s unique global initiative that drives continuous improvement in health, safety and environmental (HSE) performance, together with open and transparent communication with stakeholders.
Launched in 1985 by the Canadian Chemical Producers’ Association, the initiative embraces the development and application of sustainable chemistry, helping the industry contribute to sustainable development while allowing it to meet the world’s growing need for essential chemicals and the products those chemicals make possible.
“We are committed to the implementation of Responsible Care as broadly as possible within the chemical and allied industries,” says the International Council of Chemicals Association’s (ICCA).
“The network continues to expand to new regions, countries and companies, fostering capacity building, the sharing of health, safety and environmental information and employing an increasingly rigorous system of checklists, performance indicators and verification procedures.”