You may not have heard of Responsible Care, the chemical industry’s global safety framework. But chances are that many of the plastics and other materials you interact with every day – in your car, home and workplace – have been made better and safer because of it.

For more than 20 years, Responsible Care has been the cornerstone of the chemical industry’s commitment to improving the safety, health and environmental impact of its products and operations. An initiative administered through 55 chemical associations worldwide, Responsible Care covers more than 90 percent of global chemical production.

This week, ExxonMobil Chemical Company was pleased to receive the 2012 Responsible Care Company of the Year award given by the American Chemistry Council.

ExxonMobil Chemical achieved this honor by demonstrating sustained excellence in safety, health and environmental performance. For example, over the past 10 years, the company reduced the total recordable incidence rate at its worldwide operations by 60 percent and made significant gains in energy efficiency and emissions reductions. ExxonMobil Chemical also continued to introduce new materials that perform better while reducing environmental impact.

For example: The company’s innovations in polyethylene, a material used in heavy-duty shipping bags, have made these bags 50 percent thinner over the last 20 years, reducing packaging weight, shipping costs, energy usage, emissions and waste.

ExxonMobil and other companies participating in Responsible Care monitor and publicly report their performance in key areas that include: workplace safety, air and water quality, energy efficiency and emergency preparedness.

The goal is to achieve continuous improvements, and data show that the program is driving results. According to the American Chemistry Council, since 1988, Responsible Care companies have reduced hazardous releases to the air, land and water by 75 percent. Member companies also have a worker safety record four times safer than the manufacturing industry as a whole.

For many chemical companies, these improvements are translating to better business and financial performance. You can read more on this at the American Chemistry Council website.

As building blocks for everything from cell phones to clothing, plastics and other chemical products are essential to our modern economy and quality of life. In the United States, for example, America’s chemistry industry spends approximately $50 billion a year to support new innovation, and one in every five U.S. patents is chemistry-related.

Chemical companies will play an integral role in meeting some of the biggest global challenges of the coming decades – challenges that include access to energy, food and clean water for a global population projected to reach 9 billion by 2040.

As one of the companies looking to help solve those challenges, ExxonMobil also is working to expand Responsible Care’s commitment to operations integrity by spreading this message: The same focus and discipline that drives safety success also drives business success.

You can read more about our involvement with Responsible Care at exxonmobil.com.