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The Responsible Care® principles of the chemical industry constitute an important external guideline for our sector of industry. The Responsible Care Global Charter was adopted by the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) in 2006 and was used as a basis for the principles of the German Responsible Care program. The charter and the Responsible Care program both aim to continually improve performance by the chemical industry with regard to product safety, environmental protection, health, plant safety, and security. Responsible Care® focuses on voluntary cooperation with government bodies and other stakeholders that goes far beyond complying with statutory regulations.
All of our Responsible Care® activities are founded on internal guidelines such as the "Corporate EHS Policy" and our EHS, Security and Quality Manual. In implementing the Responsible Care Global Charter, we are currently focusing in particular on the topics of product safety, environmental protection and occupational safety.
Our activities in the area of product safety cover a range of measures, including the implementation of regulatory requirements such as REACH and GHS, voluntary initiatives such as our Global Product Strategy , and sustainable product development. One example of this is the Green3 concept for liquid crystal products.
Within the scope of our broad-based company environmental protection activities, we are currently focusing on climate protection. We want to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, measured against the 2006 baseline. Other core topics are water and wastewater, material consumption and recycling as well as biodiversity. Process safety has traditionally had high priority at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany – both in economic and ecological terms as well as to protect our employees. It comprises the planning, construction, normal operation, modification, and shutdown of production facilities and warehouses.
Integrated occupational safety encompasses the prevention of workplace accidents, workplace-related illnesses and workplace-related health hazards. Our goal, redefined in 2010, is to reduce the Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR – the number of workplace accidents resulting in lost time per one million working hours) to 2.5 by 2015.
Corporate Security is an integral element of our daily work that serves to protect intellectual and material assets as well as our reputation with respect to external threats. In addition to handling security-related incidents, Corporate Security also works to establish preventive mechanisms in relevant units. The “Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany Corporate Security Policy” defines the responsibilities and objectives of Corporate Security for the company. Corporate Security audits our legal entities regularly in order to identify optimization potential. Corporate Security focuses on areas such as product-related crime, cyber crime, and intellectual property protection.
