Nov 30 2012
Linde North America has received certification of its El Segundo, California, carbon dioxide (CO2) plant under the American Chemistry Council's Responsible Care® program.
Linde North America is a member of The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company. The ACC is an association of producers, manufacturers and suppliers of chemical products. Linde has been a member of the ACC since 1951.
Roberto Diaz, Southern California CO2 production coordinator, said, "Receiving Responsible Care Certification means a great deal to all of us at the El Segundo plant, particularly our operators. This certification recognizes the effectiveness of the day-to-day operations our operators perform and the responsibility and care we take to accomplish those tasks safely every day."
Responsible Care is a globally recognized management system aimed at helping companies improve performance in areas such as safety, health, environment and security. Certification is mandatory for all ACC member companies, which must undergo headquarter and facility audits by an independent, accredited auditor to verify that they have a structure and system in place that manages and measures performance. Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) is Linde's independent auditor. Since 2008, 25 Linde plants in North America have been certified under the program.
The El Segundo plant, which has been in operation for 12 years, produces 600 tons per day of CO2. Linde ships the CO2 by truck to customers in the beverage, food processing and food packaging industries in California, Arizona and Nevada.
Tim Wren, head of safety, health, environment and quality for Linde North America, said, "I congratulate the team at our El Segundo plant, who worked very hard for this certification. Recognition of the El Segundo plant demonstrates the employees' total involvement in Linde's commitment to sustaining the practices specified in the Responsible Care management system."
The Responsible Care management system offers an integrated, structured approach for driving continual improvement in seven key areas: community awareness and emergency response; security; distribution; employee health and safety; pollution prevention; process safety; and product stewardship.
Implementing the Responsible Care system is a multi-step process. Companies must first plan – identify, assess and evaluate potential hazards and risks associated with their products, processes and operations – and establish goals and objectives to address any significant hazards or risks. Next, they must do what they have planned, checking their progress along the way to measure performance and take necessary corrective actions. Communicating with employees and other stakeholders, including neighbors and customers, along the way also is essential.
Source: http://www.linde.com