Health, safety and environment

Responsible Care^®

Solvay has adhered to the global chemistry industry’s  Responsible Care^® programme since its inception in 1992. As part of our commitment to people’s Safety and Health and to the Environment in which we all have to live, we are pledged to abide by the programme’s principles.

Our actions take many forms. We not only ensure that our plants operate to the highest safety and environmental standards, we are also engaged in research into methods and products which serve society and help to preserve the environment, like for instance our NEUTREC^® smoke scrubbing process.

Product Stewardship

Product Stewardship means seeking to address environmental and health risks throughout all stages of a product’s life, and concerns all parties who design, develop, manufacture, handle or use chemicals down the supply chain. We are active in Product Stewardship with a view of giving our customers and partners the necessary assistance to help them ensure their safety, as well as the safety of the environment, when handling products and disposing of wastes.

Product Stewardship notably implies :

. managing the production process :

we have committed ourselves to a programme of continuous improvement in environmental performance which includes investing in research aimed at finding ways to improve our processes and technologies.

. managing the product lifecycle:

the industry-wide Responsible Care^® programme requires us to ensure that any adverse effects that our end-products and their distribution may have on the environment are kept to an absolute minimum. We are also committed to take into consideration what happens to our products when they reach the end of their working lives. These concerns all form part of our commitment to managing our products’ lifecycles, 'from cradle to grave'.