University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

Table 1. The overall aims of Responsible Care© program
The aims of Responsible Care© (ICCA 2006)
Continuous improvement of the environmental, health and safety knowledge and
performance
Efficient use resources and minimizing waste
Report openly performance, achievements and shortcomings
Listen, engage and work with people to understand and address their concerns and
expectations
Cooperate with governments and organizations in the development and
implementation of effective regulations and standards
Provide help and advice to foster the responsible management of chemicals by all
those who management and use them along the product chain
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As shown in the table RC concentrates on perhaps the more traditional site of the
environmental issues in chemicals industry. Members of RC and industry
associations claim substantial improvements in safety and environmental
management in companies that are members of the RC program. However RC
program does not explicitly require actions or provide guidelines in particular social
issues among such as globalization and poverty, which have perhaps become the new
focus of CR research. Critics of RC also claim that it this program has not been
successful and lacks real leverage because the program lacks sanctions against
participating companies that fail to meet the aims of it (ENDS 2005). Last of the
aims comes close to the BASF’s Success and the chemicals management services
concept which is opened in the following chapter.
Chemical Management Services as CR-Innovative Business
Solutions
The Business Models of Chemical Managements Services
Chemical management services (CMS) are defined as services that aim to reduce
chemical usage by offering chemical solutions instead of chemical products (Bierma
& Waterstraat 2000, Stoughton & Votta 2003). Resource management is a similar
service concept, with the idea to shift from waste management and hauling towards
waste prevention and the more efficient use of materials in the customers’ production
processes (USEPA, 2002, Ligon and Votta, 2001; Ligon, Mishra and Votta, 2000).
As a concept, chemical management services are still forming. Alongside it,
especially in Europe, concepts such as chemical product services (Kortman et al.,
2007) and chemicals leasing (Jakl et al., 2004) are used in a similar fashion. All these
concepts share the idea of aligning the relationship between the service provider and
the customer in a way that they share incentives to move towards more efficient use
of materials and increased waste avoidance. Thus, they serve to decouple the service
providers’ income from the quantity of chemicals sold or waste processed.