2009 Reference document - Solvay

3 Sustainable
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Responsibilities and Sustainable Development
Development Policy
The Rhodia Group considers its long-term approach to sustainable
development and awareness of the social and environmental
consequences of its activities fundamental. This approach is
described below.
Reference Document Rhodia 2009
The individual activity of the listed company Rhodia S.A. as a financial
holding company (directly or indirectly holding all of the equity
interests forming the Rhodia Group) is not likely to result in any
notable social or environmental consequences. It does not engage
directly in any operational or industrial activities.
3.1 Sustainable Development Policy
The overall performance of a company is the combined result of its
technical, organizational, and commercial successes and its ability to
assume social and environmental responsibility. This understanding
guides the Group’s approach to Sustainable Development.
Undertaken in 2000, as the continuation of the health, safety
and environmental policy initiated more than 20 years earlier and
endowed with a dedicated department since 2003, the Group’s
approach to Sustainable Development is now one of the pillars of
Rhodia’s identity.
This approach is based on the Rhodia Way ® , the framework of
reference for Rhodia’s responsibility, geared toward stakeholders
(customers, employees, suppliers, investors, the environment and
communities). Its implementation, which began in 2007, marks a
major step in the Group’s commitment to Sustainable Development.
This tool allows the managers of the different Departments
and Enterprises to perform their own evaluation of their entity’s
performance in terms of social and environmental responsibility,
identify limitations and define the improvements to be made in a
spirit of continual progress.
Incorporated into the managerial process, the Rhodia Way ®
framework seeks to raise the general level of responsibility for the
Group’s practices through a dialogue involving all personnel to the
greatest extent possible and including the external stakeholders
concerned whenever necessary.
The third self-evaluation cycle conducted in 2009 involved 100% of
the Group’s target entities (industrial sites, business units, research
centers and the departments of Purchasing, Finance, Legal and
Public Affairs), representing 94% of the staff. Each entity determined
its responsibility profile and defined a progress plan. The progress
made with respect to these plans will be analyzed during the next
evaluation scheduled for December 2010.
Furthermore, for 2009, the Group had PricewaterhouseCoopers
review its Responsible Care ® (RC) reporting, as it did in 2008.
Since the Responsible Care ® information reporting system is
well-developed within the Group and its internal control system
is well-structured (DRC 06), the level of verification requested of
PricewaterhouseCoopers by the Group is moderate assurance on
data (see Chapter 3.5 of this Reference Document).
3.1.1 EXTERNAL AGREEMENTS EXPRESSING RHODIA’S COMMITMENT
The commitments made by Rhodia with external partners are
intended to strengthen and focus the Group’s progress objectives.
These voluntary commitments go beyond simple statements of
intent and are accompanied by measurements of the progress made.