The Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) congratulated eight more member facilities for surpassing key ChemStewards benchmarks and qualifying for the program’s highest ranking, known as the Excellence Tier. To date, 15 facilities have already received this distinction in only the program’s first year with fully certified facilities.

The latest certified facilities to achieve this advanced level are:
* Baker Petrolite Corp. (Houston, TX plant)
* Baker Petrolite Corp. (Pasadena, TX plant)
* Baker Petrolite Corp. (Rayne, LA plant)
* McGean Inc. (Livonia, MI plant)
* Strem Chemicals, Inc. (Newburyport, MA plant)
* Sun Chemical Corporation (Bushy Park - Goose Creek, SC plant)
* Sun Chemical Corporation (Color Intermediates - Cincinnati, OH plant)
* Synthetech, Inc. (Albany, OR plant)

“These member facilities are paving the path to a higher industry standard for EHS&S and we commend them on their success,” said Joseph Acker, SOCMA president and CEO. “The fact that the ChemStewards program is celebrating its first year with fully certified facilities makes their achievement all the more significant.”

Acker added that approximately 95 percent of the first cycle audit class, including the facilities above, are already certified with the remainder expected to achieve certification by the end of the year.

ChemStewards is an industry-developed Environmental, Health, Safety and Security (EHS&S) program designed for the batch, custom, and specialty chemicals industry. It is based on a three-tier system with key performance requirements per tier with increasingly levels of difficulty. Tier one is known as Fundamental and tier two is Enhanced Performance – the standard tier for ChemStewards participants. To qualify for Excellence, or tier three, facilities must sign core principles, complete security requirements, meet specific metrics obligations and requirements, have one documented management review meeting, and complete a third-party verification of management systems at the Enhanced Performance level.

To maintain their ranking, facilities must sustain EHS&S performance metrics at or above the Excellence criteria.
 
For more information, visit www.chemstewards.com.