Socma Advances Sustainability Drive

Jordan: Broader ChemStewards forum.

Socma says its sustainability initiative came initially from member firms prodding the association to look for a   way to incorporate sustainability into the ChemStewards program. Socma last year convened a working group to form a set of sustainability metrics. Other recent changes to ChemStewards include expanded overall metrics, new requirements for the association’s “excellence” performance tier, and a database management tool that will help firms coordinate the requirements of ChemStewards with other U.S. and international management systems.

Socma’s ChemSteward’s program was created in 2005 after Socma ended its Responsible Care licensing agreement with ACC because the program was seen as not adequately suited to small- and medium-size custom and batch manufacturers. ChemStewards allows companies to choose among three performance tiers: fundamentals; enhanced performance; and excellence.

ChemStewards initially was not set up to recognize firms’ sustainability programs, but after the issue gained momentum among industry and suppliers, Socma’s board of directors suggested ChemStewards find a way to recognize and incorporate sustainable practices already underway at member firms.

Socma’s first sustainability metric will be for industry-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, building on the requirements by EPA and using the site the agency has set up for calculating GHG emissions. “We have made several changes to the metrics, not only sustainability but we are increasing requirements for metrics throughout the program,” says Socma’s ChemStewards director Holland Jordan.

As part of its sustainability drive, Socma this year held its first national sustainability conference last May in Houston, expanding on its prior years’ series of smaller, regional conferences. “The attendance was really good and exceeded all our expectations,” Jordan says. “We were a bit wary going into it but feedback and attendance exceeded all our expectations. We have decided to a national conference every other year in addition to the smaller regional meetings.

A tool Socma introduced at the sustainability conference is a management database—ChemStewards Integrated Management System (CIMS)—developed by one of its members. The database integrates Socma’s ChemStewards program with other performance improvement programs including ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OSHA’s 18001 standards.

Custom batch manufacturer Gabriel Performance Products (Ashtabula, OH) developed the database for its own use, and decided it could help other companies facing similar issues.

“When we were developing this we decided that it would be in line with our philosophy to share the tool with Socma members. This spring, we gave the template to and have been supporting its roll-out since,” says Tyce Workman, Gabriel’s manager/Environment, Health, Safety and Quality.

CIMS includes an incident switchboard, for tracking, investigating and reviewing accidents; a daily management report, which gathers data to aid in day-to-day planning; a chemical approval switchboard that collects and manages chemical data; and an “employee dashboard” where workers can track actions, investigations, and events under their purview.

“In early 2010, we decided that to properly manage these four programs it made sense to leverage all of the similarities into a single comprehensive business management system,” Workman says. “My team created this Integrated Management System and in parallel created an Access Database template that allowed us to track, measure, and assign accountability as defined by the management systems.” The firm used the ChemStewards framework and philosophy to create its systems, Workman says. “We also included compliance-driven actions, like OSHA’s Process Safety Management and EPA’s Risk Management Program requirements.”

In the end, the system provides us a single place to manage action items, calendar events, change management, projects, and other key business drivers. The tool also allows for easy communication and analysis of data to drive stakeholder satisfaction.