Brussels, 22 June 2010 – Cefic launches a toolkit designated to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small and medium-sized enterprises through Responsible Care®, the voluntary initiative to continuously improve the environmental, health and safety performance in the chemical industry. This toolkit brings together for the first time validated tools on occupational health, process safety, transport safety, energy efficiency, chemicals management and others areas, making them freely available for SMEs. “Responsible Care is the path to sustainable business success. SMEs are not less responsible than large companies, but they do appreciate help and guidance on these issues”, says Hubert Mandery, Director General of Cefic.

With the support of the European Commission and in close cooperation with trade unions and national associations, Cefic has involved SMEs in a series of workshops in five European countries – Czech and Slovak Republics, Germany, Greece and Spain. Says Apostolides Apostolos, mechanical engineer at Hatziloucas A.E., one of the participating SMEs in Greece: “The workshop I have attended was excellent and the tools very useful and of value to me and my company. All materials will be used as a guide for the improvement of Responsible care in our company.”

Workshops and toolkit have been developed in the context of ‘prisme2’, an EU project Cefic started in 2008 with the support from the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation, and other partners. ‘prisme2’ stands for ‘Promoting Responsibility in SMEs’. The squared symbol implies the redoubled effort coming from industry and trade unions. Nearly 30 partners and sponsors including large companies, associations, trade unions, institutions and agencies have teamed up for this initiative.

Says European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, in charge of Industry and Entrepreneurship: “Corporate social responsibility has never been more important than in the context of economic crisis. We welcome the efforts of the chemical industry and its stakeholders to support CSR amongst smaller businesses. CSR helps gaining customer confidence and hence opens up opportunities for SMEs to grow and create news jobs.”

The ‘Responsible Care toolbox for SMEs’ offers a large number of instruments that can help SMEs to manage issues related to occupational health, process safety, transport safety as well as energy efficiency, chemicals management and others areas. The toolbox will be regularly revised and extended. The instruments have been developed by various organisations within as well as outside the chemical industry.

To access the toolbox:                     Please click here

Contact for media inquiries:            Franco Bisegna – +32 2 676 7394 – fbi@cefic.be

Contact for members:                       Bernhard Thier – +32 2 676 7378 – bth@cefic.be

Note to the editor:

Cefic is the Brussels-based organisation representing the European chemical industry. It represents 29,000 companies that produce 29% of the world’s chemicals and employ about 1.2 million people.