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Our approach
Public interest in the safety of chemicals is increasing each year. We work to identify and responsibly manage the health, safety and environmental aspects of our portfolio and operations.
We work to responsibly manage the chemicals through a number of programmes – we may, for example, exclude certain chemicals or categories of chemicals from specific applications when we consider them unsuitable for health, safety or environmental reasons.
Our scope covers the purchase, manufacture, storage, transport and sale of chemicals used by industry to produce, for example, plastics, textiles, paints, computers, furniture, coatings and detergents. We also manufacture refined oil products including LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), bitumen, fuels and lubricants, and we are a major supplier of biofuels.
Managing risk
Our policies, standards and practices demonstrate our efforts to continuously improve our performance.
Our chemicals business has signed the global Responsible Care® charter, which includes the global product stewardship strategy – a consistent industry framework that gives regulators and the public confidence that industry is responsibly managing product hazards.
We evaluate the health, safety and environmental impact of our products to help decide how to manage risk – this includes working with suppliers to understand the hazards of possible additives, assessing proposed changes in products, and reviewing the implications of entering new markets. We monitor developments to stay up to date with the science involved and support research when appropriate.
Partnerships
We work in industry partnerships to help us assess products, through major associations such as:
- The Conservation of Clean Air and Water in Europe (CONCAWE) - opens in new window
- The American Petroleum Institute (API) - opens in new window
- The International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) - opens in new window
- The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) - opens in new window
- The American Chemistry Council (ACC) - opens in new window
We give our customers and others in the supply chain information to manage our products safely. We provide, for example, a country specific safety data sheet for each product we place on the market – managing over 75,000 different documents in total.
Chemical producers, suppliers and customers share the responsibility for product stewardship. National regulations on the safe management of chemicals can vary between countries and change quickly. We comply with local requirements and when these are not sufficient we apply our own business practices.
