Continuously improve health, safety, environmental and security performance.

Overview

Responsible Care® 14001 (or RC 14001) is the chemical industry's global initiative, practiced in 52 countries, under which chemical companies work together to continuously improve their health, safety, environmental and security performance.

What is RC 14001?

Responsible Care 14001 (RC 14001: 2015) combines the elements of the ACC Responsible Care initiative with those of ISO 14001, the internationally-recognised environmental management system standard.

It enables a company to obtain, through an application and audit process, a certification that its management system conforms to both the ISO 14001 and RC14001 requirements.
The Responsible Care initiative is implemented in more than 50 nations and is led by members of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA).
The United States’ ICCA representative, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), requires member companies and partners to achieve third-party certification of the standard for continued ACC membership. In order to meet these requirements ACC member companies can choose to obtain third-party assurance to either RC 14001:2015 and Responsible Care Management Systems (RCMS®):2019.

What are the benefits?

Encourages excellence

The standard creates a rigorous and broad set of requirements that drive a company to achieve performance excellence in areas of environment, health, safety and security.
Increased efficiency – RC 14001 provides a method to integrate safety, environmental, security and health performance thereby improving efficiencies of the separate processes and systems.

Competitive advantage 

Certification can lead to competitive advantage, signifying greater performance across involved areas, combined with a strong social responsibility, expanding the value beyond ISO 14001 certification alone.

Encourages teamwork

Certification process encourages teamwork by defining how the different management groups in a company interact

Stakeholder involvement

Allows companies to involve the local area, residents, government departments etc. to improve community relations, to generate positive feedback and reinforce credibility.

Why choose LRQA?

Experience

LRQA has been at the forefront of standards development and involved in EMS and Sustainability assessment and certification for a number of years.

Proven track record

As one of the first cert bodies recognised to offer RC 14001 certification, we understand system requirements and so tailor our approach to help meet your exact objectives.

Specialists

With over two-thirds of the world’s Top 10 chemical companies choosing us for certification, we are the market leader for assessment, certification and training services in the chemical industry.