Product Stewardship Principle

Products and/or services of the organization 

Background

Company XXX is a global manufacturer of polymeric medical grade components and systems for injectable drug delivery, including stoppers and seals for vials, and closures for the healthcare industry.

In view of Company XXX product manufacturing requirements, substantial amount of flammables and hazardous substances were employed in Company XXX operations where this emergency response plan is developed to mitigate the consequences and severity of the foreseeable emergency situations applicable to Company XXX  

Identification of relevant principle of product stewardship in accordance with Company XXX Organizational Procedures

The International Council of Chemical Associations define Product Stewardship as the practice of making health, safety and environmental protection an integral part of the life cycle of chemicals

It is an integral component of the global chemical industry’s Responsible Care® initiative and includes evaluations of risks and the development of actions to protect human health and the environment commensurate with those risks

Product stewardship is a shared responsibility between chemical producers, their suppliers and their customers. It requires the development of close working relationships with suppliers, customers, and others in relevant value chains

The close relationships enabled these parties to share information up and down the value chain to ensure that chemicals are used and managed safely throughout their life-cycle. 

And by doing so, they will also help companies and their partners meet the increasing demand for safe and environmentally-sustainable uses of chemicals.

The benefits of Product stewardship are; it can provides the platform for companies to identify risks at an early stage and manage those risks along the value chain, thereby enabling adequate protection of human health and the environment.  This can result in increased customer loyalty as well as expand the positive impact of product stewardship down the value chain.

Evaluation and avoidance of risk reduces the potential for harm and potential liabilities, making product stewardship a “value added” business proposition

The relevant principles of product stewardship applicable to Company XXX include:

• Responsible and pro-active management of the environmental ,health and safety aspects of products throughout their entire life cycle;
• Compare and contrast relations with sustainable development, and corporate social responsibility;
• Life-cycle considerations for products;
• An integrated business process involving all, not just a team of specialists;
• Systematic management of risk at the earliest opportunity in an alert, pro-active, interested and open fashion;
• A commitment to continually improve EHS performance of its operations;
• Open communications with interested parties;
• A means of competitive advantage;
• Strategic differentiation, leading to enhanced reputation with the authorities, customers, employers and the community at large;
• Minimize product liability and likelihood of severe adverse issues or publicity

However, in this post, i will briefly explained the principles associated with responsible and pro-active management of the environmental ,health and safety aspects of products throughout their entire life cycle and a commitment to continually improve EHS performance of its operations

Responsible and pro-active management of the environmental, health and safety aspects of products throughout their entire life cycle

This principle require the top management commitment in the reduction of the environmental, health and safety impacts of products throughout their entire life cycle, which would requires a thorough life cycle assessment from manufacture of parts and products to transport, use by customers (e.g. reduced power consumption) and final disposal.

A system has to be established to clarify the environmental, health and safety impact of products throughout their life cycles. This include tracking the total life cycle costs such as the costs of purchasing, transporting, storing, treating and disposing of materials, the loss of man hours and loss workdays due to recordable injury recorded as well as the compensation to employees for their occupational diseases arising from work and the insurance premiums paid by the organizations under the Work Injury Compensation

Collection of information relating to number of occupational diseases as well as the number of recordable injuries rate reported in the manufacturing site as well as the CO2 emissions and energy and resource consumption at each stage of the life cycle

With the availability of these information, it would enables Company XXX to identify products and stages with high environmental, health and safety impacts, clarify improvement priorities and prepare the HSE goals, objectives and targets. And this would in turn assist Company XXX  to monitor the environmental, health and safety impact of all its products.

A commitment to continually improve EHS performance of its operations

This principle would require the top management leadership and accountability to ensure it’s business units commitment and involvements to continually improve EHS performance of it’s operations which include:

• Management demonstrates that EHS issues rank amongst the highest priorities and maintains a commitment to continuous improvement.
• Business units to defines its Product Stewardship plan with appropriate targets and performance measures which are reviewed at least annually to maintain continuous improvement. Performance measures are broken down to annual employee target setting.
• Establishment of appropriate systems and procedures to manage EHS risks throughout the product life cycle, collecting information on the product's EHS hazards, assessment of employee and Customer EHS exposure
• Provision of training to employees and customers where the training scope may include the job function, with the objective of safe development, manufacture. storage, handling, transport, use and disposal of products.
• Communicate openly and honestly with employees and the public and be anticipative and responsive to their concerns about the potential hazards and impacts of products.
• Enforce the application of the Product Stewardship principles to all organization activities and to comply with all local EHS legislation and participate proactively in the development of local laws and regulations in all countries in which the Company has business activities