SOCMA: Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates

Trade magazine Chemical Week recently featured SOCMA’s ChemStewards® program in its annual cover story on chemical industry performance improvement programs. SOCMA members Fujifilm Imaging Colorants and McGean Corp., discussed the benefits of the program, including the ChemStewards® third party audit and other resources available, such as the new Q&A Page. Chemical Week also covered SOCMA’s efforts to define sustainability topics within the context of the batch, custom and specialty chemical manufacturing industry.

Bryan Shaffer of McGean told the magazine: “’For the size of company we are ChemStewards is a much better fit. The VPP program is so extreme in documentation that it would be a struggle for a smaller firm. But the quality of ChemStewards, which challenges you to ‘get up the ladder,’ was the best choice. We had started with a homegrown EH&S and security program and needed something to stretch us to the next level and ChemStewards came right at the right time.' ChemStewards also helps the firm deal with customer audits because the manual and other program elements help reassure customers that systems are in place to address their concerns. ChemStewards also helped in dealing with regulators when there was a series of routine audits from EPA and OSHA, Shaffer says. ‘We were spitting out answers left and right straight from the ChemStewards program and we didn’t get cited for anything.’"

The tools available from SOCMA are impressive, Shaffer says. ‘I wish I had time to take advantage of all the resource tools. I’m only using some of it.’”

To read the full article, click here (subscription required). To read the recent ChemStewards® 101 webinar slides, click here.