For more than a year, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) has been undertaking a strategic review of the Responsible Care program to identify and recommend tools and processes that will enable the chemical industry to achieve continued performance and increased value through strengthened advocacy, greater brand recognition and bottom-line benefits to companies.

In late 2009, ACC’s Board Committee on Responsible Care (BCRC) appointed an Advisory Panel made up of external stakeholders, tasked with providing their strategic and individual perspectives on ways to strengthen Responsible Care and keep pace with 21^st century performance expectations.

The Advisory Panel met throughout 2010 to develop a comprehensive set of recommendation to enable the Responsible Care program to address challenges and opportunities that can ariseas a result of globalization, performance improvement pressures and a growing sustainability business culture. These recommendations are captured in the Advisory Panel’s report, presented to the BCRC in February 2011.

In the months ahead, the BCRC will consider the Panel’s recommendations through an Executive Taskforce, which has established four workgroups, to address areas identified by the Panel as requiring additional focus: Product Safety, Performance and Sustainability, Communications and Globalization. The work groups will provide strategic feedback on the recommendations in the four focus areas and deliver a preliminary report to the BCRC at its June 2011 meeting, with a final report scheduled for completion by the November 2011 BCRC meeting.