Oct 15 2010
Linde North America has received certification of its Sacramento, California, 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 American Chemistry Council (ACC) is an association of producers, manufacturers and suppliers of chemical products.
“All the people at our Sacramento plant worked very hard for this certification, which falls right in line with our goals as a high performance organization,” said Warren Arenz, head of safety, health, environment and quality for Linde North America. “Certification of the Sacramento plant demonstrates the employees’ total involvement in Linde’s commitment to sustaining the practices specified in the Responsible Care management system.”
Earlier this year, Linde’s headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey, re-qualified for Responsible Care Certification. Since 2008, 15 Linde North America plants have been certified under the program. The Sacramento plant is the second of four manufacturing locations scheduled for certification this year. Linde’s air separation plant in Aiken, South Carolina, received the certification in September.
The Sacramento plant has been in operation for 28 years and produces 300 tons-per-day of oxygen, nitrogen and crude argon. From Sacramento, the gases are trucked to a variety of users in the electronics, chemicals manufacturing, food processing, beverage, healthcare and metal fabrication industries in California and Nevada. The plant employs 31 people.
“We are committed to all the concepts that are included in the Responsible Care initiative and are dedicated to implementing the very comprehensive program that Linde has accepted,” said Steve Morgan, Sacramento area supplier manager for Linde North America. “The contributions by everyone involved in this effort cannot be overstated. This achievement underscores our employees’ daily commitment to excellence and continued improvement.”
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.
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.