Responsible Care Activity

Responsible Care refers to voluntary activities conducted by chemical companies to manage their products throughout their life cycles, from development through to manufacture, distribution, use, final consumption and disposal, with a view to protecting “safety, health and the environment” and promoting dialogue and communication with society by the public announcement of the activity results. We promote activities based on the Responsible Care Action Guidelines to fulfill our responsibility as a chemical manufacturer and contribute to a sustainable global society.

Responsible Care Action Guidelines

The Resonac established the Responsible Care Action Guidelines in March 1995. Since then, we have been promoting Responsible Care activities based on the action guidelines.
In addition, we signed the Responsible Care Global Charter in 2005, pledging our support for and implementation of the charter. When the RC Charter was amended in 2014, we re-signed, making clear our willingness to promote RC activities through global collaboration.

Responsible Care Global Charter
Signatory Certificate

Responsible Care Action Guidelines (The Resonac Group Action Guidelines)

  1. 1. Throughout the entire life cycle of products, we shall make our best efforts to review and improve business activities continuously from the view points of ensuring safety & health and protecting the environment.
  2. 2. We shall make our best efforts towards sustainable development by harmonizing our production activities with the global environment, not only through conventional approaches to environmental preservation, but also through promotion of changing raw materials, energy conservation, waste reduction and recycling, reductions in the release of chemical substances, etc.
  3. 3. In the development of new products and businesses and in the establishment, enlargement, and renovation of facilities, we shall undertake our best efforts to ensure safety and health and to protect the environment.
  4. 4. We shall promote R&D and develop technologies that will contribute to the improvement of safety and health and to the protection of the environment. We shall also promote the marketing of alternative or new products.
  5. 5. We shall enrich risk assessments and risk management concerning the effects of the products and materials we handle on safety, health, and the environment, and we shall provide information on the safe use and handling of our products to our stakeholders as well.
  6. 6. In overseas business activities, technology transfer, and international trading of chemical products, we shall give full consideration to ensuring safety and health, and protecting the environment.
  7. 7. We shall comply with international rules, domestic laws and regulations, and make our best efforts to cooperate with the relevant international organizations, domestic and foreign administrative bodies, etc.
  8. 8. We shall participate proactively in various activities related to the ensuring of safety & health and environmental protection, and make our best efforts to communicate with society to achieve better understanding and trust.

Promotion framework

Resonac’s Sustainability Promotion Committee (chaired by the CEO and comprising the CXO and BU heads) discusses matters related to Responsible Care, including environmental management, global warming, industrial waste, chemical emissions, equipment safety, occupational health and safety, health management, chemical safety, and quality assurance. Matters of particular significance among these are submitted to the Management Committee and the Board of Directors for further deliberation.
We are pursuing Responsible Care activities at Group companies and other major business locations in Japan as well as expanding the scope of Responsible Care activities at overseas Group (manufacturing) companies by monitoring their Responsible Care performance and providing on-site guidance. Responsible Care Action

Responsible Care Action Plan

The Resonac Group has established a Responsible Care Action Plan under which it is carrying out initiatives in this area. Each of our plants has also developed its own specific action plan to promote Responsible Care.

The Resonac Group works to achieve continuous improvement in its Responsible Care activities through the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle of formulating Responsible Care activity plans (plan), implementing these (do), auditing and evaluating the results (check), and reflecting these via management review in the next round of objectives and activity plans (act).We will continue to promote active engagement in these efforts to meet our targets.

The PDCA cycle

Education system

We provide Responsible Care training for newly-hired and newly-promoted employees, focusing on occupational health and safety, environmental protection, and compliance. 
Internal auditors for environmental management systems and occupational safety and health management systems are also provided with annual training.

Auditing structure

Resonac and its major Group companies conduct audits as described below for their worksites to assess and improve their Responsible Care activities.

Self-audit

Workplaces of the Resonac and its major Group companies evaluate their own Responsible Care systems and implementation statuses based on a checklist, so as to reflect the results in the following year's targets and action plans in order to move forward with continuous improvement.

Worksite auditing

We evaluate the performance of our company and major Group companies with respect to Responsible Care activities, compliance with various requirements and efforts to address issues, upgrades to management systems, and outcomes of horizontal deployment of these systems in the event of accidents or disasters, and we encourage improvements in all regards. The results of these audits are reported to the Management Committee and reflected in the policies, targets, and plans of our entire company and Group companies.

In 2022, we audited 82 sites (including our overseas affiliates) focusing on occupational health and safety and environmental protection. 

Management system

The Resonac Group continues improving its management system through receiving and maintaining certification of conformity to management system standards including those for environment, quality, and industrial safety and hygiene.