Care For People and Planet


Care for people and planet addresses predominantly the social and environmental targets of the UN-SDGs. Improving safety in all its dimensions contributes to decent work (SDG 8) and good health (SDG 3), while focusing on the environmental footprint by reducing emissions and addressing biodiversity contributes to achieving SDG 6 ‘Clean water and sanitation’, SDG 14 ‘Life below water’, and SDG 15 ‘Life on land’. The chemical industry’s voluntary initiative Responsible Care®, and the Safe and Sustainable-by-Design concept put forward by the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability aim to address these social and environmental targets starting already in the design phase. Additional legislation like the European Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals (REACH), Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) are driving the chemical sector to continuously improve on areas such as chemicals safety, occupational health and safety, and environmental pollution. Designing for sustainability focuses on safety for employees and the environment during production, on safety of the production process itself, and on chemical safety of products . It also aims to limit the environmental footprint by reducing emissions and help protect biodiversity.

Note that all graphs below are clickable to enlarge.

Contribution to EU Green Deal

EU Green Deal priorities include the following to improve the well-being and health of citizens and future generations: Protecting our biodiversity and ecosystems; Reducing air, water, and soil pollution; Ensuring the sustainability of our blue economy and fisheries sectors; Future-proof jobs and skills training for the transition.

Employment

The workforce employed in the chemical industry is crucial for the sector’s sustainable functioning in the short and long term. In time of labour shortages, it is important to keep attracting the talents that are necessary for the often specialised and technical vacancies in the chemical sector.

The number of employees in the chemical industry is slightly above 1 million and represents approximately 0.35% of all employees in the EU economy.

Number and share of employees chemical sector vs EU economy

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Operational Safety

Safety is the key factor for the chemical industry to protect and maintain the health of both employees and consumers. The chemical industry strives continuously to prevent accidents by embedding a strong safety culture.

Accidents at work

The chemical industry aims to continuously improve safety conditions in its manufacturing sites for its employees, contractors and visitors who are active in the sector. As a result, the number of non-fatal accidents at work decreased between 2010 and 2014 by almost 25%. The situation plateaued between 2014-2018. While the incidence rate remains very low, the sector continues working on improving safety among its workforce and prevention of accidents remains at the top of its priorities.

Non-fatal accidents* as work chemical and entire manufacturing industry

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*Non-fatal accidents at work (defined as accidents leading to absence from work for at least three days per 100,000 employees), in the EU27 chemical industry and in the entire manufacturing industry (including chemicals)

Fatal accidents* in the chemical industry and in the entire manufacturing industry

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* Fatal accidents are defined as number of accidents leading to the death of a victim within one year per 100,000 employees

Key levers for industry activity & company example

1. Priority by management

2. Safety protocols for every manipulation & operation of installations/(heavy) machines/tools

3. Periodic Process Safety audits

4. Personal protection equipment

5. Incentivise employers after an extended period without accidents


6. Continuous improvement of safety protocols

Associated SDG targets

UN SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 12-ResponsibleConsumptionAndProduction

Use Best available Techniques to minimise emissions to water and air and to retrofit chemical plants

The chemical industry invests continuously in the improvement of their production processes. Best available techniques are implemented to optimise production and to minimise emissions to the environment.

Emission of air pollutants

Between 2007 and 2019, the chemical industry achieved a 40% reduction in its acidifying emissions.The Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions transposed by the Member States in January 2013 was an additional trigger for implementation of measures reducing acidifying emissions in the industry.

Acidifying emissions to air

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Acidifying emissions to air including ammonia (NH3), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur oxides (SOx)”

Methane & NMVOC emissions to air

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Methane and non-methane volatile organic compound emissions to air

The chemical sector has seen a drop of over 58% in non-methane volatile compounds (NMVOC) emissions since 2007. This is the result of a range of measures including process optimisation and improved emissions control during storage and transport. A decreasing trend in methane emission is also observed since 2013.

Emission of water pollutants

The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), an indication of the organic contamination discharge by the chemical sector, decreased significantly until 2012, but increased slightly again until 2017. Revisions of the Common Wastewater BREF were done in 2003 and 2016 to which companies had to comply with by 2007 and 2020. The impact of the 2020 BREF might be visible in the trend once data for 2018-2020 is complete.

Total organic carbon carbon to water

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Total nitrogen and total phosphorus emissions to water

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The chemical sector saw an overall decreasing trend of over 51% in nitrogen (N) and 66% in phosphorous (P) emissions to water between 2007 and 2017.

Key levers for industry activity

1. Enhancing innovative abatement technologies

2. Improving water treatment installations

Associated SDG targets

SDG Good Health and Well-being
UN SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 12-ResponsibleConsumptionAndProduction
SDG14 Life below water

Maximise process safety: avoiding accidental release of chemicals

The chemical industry strives to maximise its process safety to avoid the accidental release of chemicals to the environment. Accidental release might impact human health as well as environmental status but can also create unsafe working conditions. Therefore, reporting on process safety is a mandatory metric within the Responsible Care Leadership Group. A clear definition of process safety events which have to be reported is worked out, but differ from the accidental pollution releases reported in the E-PRTR database of the EEA which are used here.

Accidental pollutant releases

The number of accidental pollutant releases to water and air decreased with around 50% over the period 2007-2019. However, the number of accidental pollutant releases is still between 600 and 1000 for both water and air. The accidental pollutant releases to land did not show a decreasing trend, but the number was always under 10, except for 2007, 2008 and 2018.

Accidental pollutant releases to air, water, and soil

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Key levers for industry activity

  1. Foster the best in class process safety prevention measures & protocols implementation
  2. Continuous assessment  of EH&S  practices at site level through enhanced standardized Operational Excellence measures
  3. Analyse any accidental release of chemicals and share good practices and lessons learnt

Associated SDG targets

UN SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 12-ResponsibleConsumptionAndProduction

Sustainable supply chain management

Sustainability reports and assessments of the industry’s supply chain can be used during procurement, in the selection of new or the reevaluation of current suppliers supporting the due diligence of the chemical companies. The chemical industry has voluntary tools – Safety & Quality Assessment for Sustainability (SQAS) and Together for Sustainability (TfS) – to assess the HSE and sustainability performance of its suppliers which also can be used in the selection process of these suppliers.  

Suppliers in the chemical sector audited for sustainability performance

The number of suppliers’ sites in the chemical supply chain with a valid SQAS assessment or TfS audit is increasing every year. This shows an increasing opportunity for chemical companies to further include sustainability criteria in their procurement.

Number of suppliers’ sites with a valid SQAS assessment or TfS audit per year

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Key levers for industry activity & company example

  1. Build more SQAS capacity through constant promotion of the SQAS site assessments
  2. Including sustainability criteria in the procurement process for suppliers
  3. Create awareness among suppliers by informing them about the assessment tools available for suppliers to the chemical sector
  4. Guide suppliers improving their sustainability performance

Associated SDG targets

SDG 12-ResponsibleConsumptionAndProduction