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A Guide to the American Chemistry Council’s RCMS Certification

October 15, 2024December 17th, 2025
By Jay Finegan, J.D.
Jay Finegan, J.D.
Compliance Services Leader

Jay Finegan is a member of Dakota's Compliance Services team, where he is responsible for assisting clients with the implementation…

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Table of Contents

    Responsible Care Guiding Principles

    Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) managers are tasked with a variety of compliance and cultural responsibilities to help their companies succeed, and these obligations can be particularly complex when chemicals are involved. It is crucial to provide hazard and risk information to stakeholders to ensure safe handling, transportation, and compliance with regulations.

    Numerous challenges are the everyday norm for businesses that work with chemicals, and that’s why EHS leaders in these fields must enact detailed, comprehensive management systems to mitigate the risk and conduct their responsibilities in ethical ways.

    To help drive chemical safety and sustainability alongside organizational performance, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) created its Responsible Care® program and accompanying Responsible Care Management System (RCMS) certification programs. As part of responsible care practices, organizations must provide hazard information and communicate hazard and risk information to all relevant stakeholders.

    Effective management systems should also consider the entire life cycle of chemicals, from design and manufacturing to disposal or recycling, to promote sustainability and pollution prevention. Ensuring the safe and secure use of chemicals throughout their handling, transportation, and disposal is essential for protecting people and the environment.

    Here we’ll take a look at the challenges that necessitate such a unique system, how you can get certified, and how software can enhance the entire process.

    A Unique Industry Needs Unique Management Systems

    The challenges facing chemical safety are immense, and considerations for EHS leaders include the proper labeling, transportation, handling, use, and disposal of hundreds of substances that may range from the mostly harmless to the extremely hazardous. It is essential to address environmental considerations as part of comprehensive management systems to ensure sustainable and responsible operations.

    While the primary legislation governing chemicals in the workplace is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), businesses may be subject to one or more of the following additional regulations depending on their operations:

    It is also important to communicate risk information effectively to employees and customers, ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of hazards and safe handling procedures.

    The PSM standard has particular importance to EHS professionals in chemical industries, laying out clear and specific guidance and processes to keep workers and the surrounding community as safe as possible from accidental release of hazardous chemicals. Identification and management of process risks are key components of compliance, helping to prevent incidents and ensure responsible care and operational safety.

    In addition to the physical risks, there are also the financial and reputational risks of noncompliance, from citations and security laws and fines to decreased customer and public trust. Effective systems of management also play a crucial role in reducing environmental impacts by minimizing pollution and emissions throughout the product lifecycle.

    With so much at stake from a safety perspective, it’s always wise to ensure EHS regulatory compliance with a management system that delineates clear goals and core values, elaborates on the steps to achieve and maintain them, and checks progress toward those goals with frequent auditing.

    This is where the ACC’s Responsible Care program comes in. Meeting customer expectations and protecting employees are fundamental aspects of responsible care, supporting a culture of safety and trust.

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    What Is Responsible Care?

    Responsible Care is a framework for advancing safety and sustainability in the chemical industry, and the ACC mandates it for all of its members and Responsible Care Partner organizations. These companies track and report to the ACC a variety of EHS metrics to assess performance against key benchmark data.

    This information is then made public to promote transparency and accountability. It is important to openly report security performance and promote pollution prevention efforts to demonstrate transparency and build trust with stakeholders.

    Now in its 35th year, Responsible Care requires the following C-suite level commitments from member organizations:

    • Signing onto the Responsible Care Guiding Principles
    • Tracking and transparently reporting company performance on EHS as well as security metrics
    • Undergoing third-party audits and certifying to the Responsible Care Management System (RCMS) or RC14001 (a combination of Responsible Care and ISO 14001 certification in a single process)
    • Implementing the Product Safety, Process Safety, and Security Codes

    In addition, organizations are expected to demonstrate a strong commitment to continual improvement and product stewardship, ensuring responsible management throughout the product lifecycle. There is also a requirement to seek continual improvement in security performance to enhance risk reduction and compliance.

    The ACC reports numerous benefits of RCMS for Responsible Care companies, including:

    • A 20% reduction in recordable injury and illness rates since 2010;
    • Reductions in emissions since 2017, including a 12% decrease in greenhouse gas intensity, an 18% reduction in sulfur oxide (Sox) emissions, and a 39% reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions; and
    • A three times better worker safety rate than chemistry businesses overall—and a five times better worker safety rate than the U.S. manufacturing sector as a whole.

    RCMS also drives continual progress in product stewardship and pollution prevention, supporting ongoing improvements in safety, environmental performance, and sustainability.

    With such distinct advantages, EHS leaders in the chemical industry should take notice—here’s how you can get certified.

    Getting RCMS Certified

    Companies are certified in RCMS by demonstrating their compliance with RCMS Technical Specifications and the three codes of practice mentioned above (Product Safety, Process Safety, and Security).

    The technical specifications identify a framework of required elements for management systems to which organizations must adhere. This framework consists of:

    • Policy: Policies and expectations must be established and set at the leadership level.
    • Plan: Identify and set objectives that address potential hazards and risks facing operations.
    • Do: Document, communicate, and perform the actions necessary to meet the set objectives.
    • Check: Measure and assess performance—and take corrective action when necessary.
    • Act: Enact changes that are needed to improve performance and publicly share results.

    Responsible Care organizations must also continually identify and manage safety risks as part of their ongoing commitment to safety and compliance.

    If this sounds familiar, it should—it’s essentially the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) methodology that forms a major cornerstone of all systems and is the framework of Dakota Software’s Enterprise EHS Software.

    The next step in RCMS certification is compliance with the three codes of practice:

    • The Product Safety Code consists of 11 management practices for chemical manufacturers to continuously improve product safety performance while making product safety information readily available. It emphasizes the importance of developing products that can be recycled safely and integrating safety throughout the product lifecycle. Research and development play a key role in improving product safety and sustainability. Companies are also required to communicate product safety information efficiently to stakeholders.
    • The Process Safety Code complements the PSM standard and EPA’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) standard with a more universal outlook meant to address process safety expectations and accountability across a division or corporation rather than an individual facility. It highlights the need to manage process safety risks proactively and ensure efficient safety practices are integrated into all operations.
    • The Security Code consists of 10 management practices that address facility, cyber, and supply chain security as well as crisis and emergency planning. It requires companies to conduct security vulnerability assessments (SVAs) and make security enhancements under methods and timelines approved by national experts. The code also underscores the importance of effective and efficient safety in all aspects of security management.

    To demonstrate compliance with all of these requirements and achieve RCMS certification, an organization must undergo headquarters and facility-level audits performed by an independent, accredited auditor. Companies must renew certification every three years and continually improve their systems as part of the certification renewal process.

    Enhance the Responsible Care Experience with Software

    Achieving RCMS certification is impossible without effective EHS management systems, and software is essential to success. Software solutions also help organizations manage critical resources and other critical resources, such as energy, water, and raw materials, efficiently throughout the product lifecycle.

    To enhance ease of compliance with RCMS requirements, this software should support PDCA methodology—and that’s exactly what the unique tools of Dakota Software’s ProActivity Suite are designed to do:

    In addition to the foundational tools for managing PDCA processes, Dakota provides a management system module tailored specifically to RCMS and ISO14001. It includes the full text of the consensus standards, checklists, and frameworks so you can enjoy a smoother implementation and certification on your path to responsible excellence.

    Support education and research is also vital to improving human health and reducing environmental effects for responsible care companies, and these health and safety software tools can facilitate ongoing learning and knowledge sharing. The involvement of international council and chemical associations plays a key role in promoting responsible care and ensuring that operations are conducted in an environmentally sound manner.

    To learn more about ProActivity and how it supports RC 14001 certification, request a demo here. These efforts increasingly benefit society by advancing safety, sustainability, and responsible chemical management.