Oct 31 2008
Linde North America has received certification of its Kittery, Maine, air separation plant under the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care® program.
Linde North America is a member of The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company. The ACC is an association of producers, manufacturers and suppliers of chemical products.
Earlier this year, Linde’s corporate headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., received certification under the Responsible Care program. The Kittery plant is the first of eight additional locations on track to be certified before the end of the year.
The Kittery plant, in operation since 1984, separates air cryogenically to produce over 400 tons a day of liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon. These products are trucked to hospitals, food processors, biopharmaceutical manufacturers and wastewater treatment facilities throughout New England, as well as Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada. The plant employs 30 people.
Responsible Care is a globally recognized management system aimed at helping companies improve performance in areas such as safety, health, environment and security. Certification is mandatory for all 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.
“All employees here in Kittery are very proud to receive this certification,” said Daryl L. Souzer, Kittery cluster manager. “We take great pride in working for a company that genuinely cares about our environment, our community, our customers and our employees. I believe it’s a key to Linde’s success.”
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.
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 take necessary corrective actions. Communicating with employees and other stakeholders, including neighbors and customers, along the way also is essential.
“While it is very challenging to meet all the criteria for Responsible Care certification, this certification falls right in line with our goals as a high performance organization and our vision to be the leading gases and engineering company,” said Charlie Koehler, vice president of safety, health, environment and quality for Linde North America. “We are committed to sustaining the practices specified in the Responsible Care management system and are very proud of our continued membership in the American Chemistry Council.”