On March 12th 2008, the member companies of the Union of Chemical Industries of Nord-Pas de Calais solemnly approved the Responsible Care Global Charter by signing the newly amended guiding principles so as to take this Charter into account. By doing so, they commit themselves to implementing Sustainable Development in plants, with its three components: economic, social and environmental. In concrete terms, the point is, for example, to improve information on economic, social and environmental performances after having the communicated data checked.

The point is also to ensure the follow-up of products all along their life cycle, to take into account the expectations and questions of the public authorities, neighbouring communities, associations, but also to fight against climate change…

With the close of the signature, the chemical industries and their external service providers which had taken innovating initiatives, the hygiene, safety and environment were handed the "coup de coeur " trophies in accordance with Responsible Care’s principles of continuous improvements in these three fields.

This year, the following prizes were awarded:

• hygiene Trophy: to Rio Tinto (Coudekerque Branch) for its action for its employees in favour of sport and dietetics;

• safety Trophy, ex-aequo: to Agfa Gevaert (Pont à Marcq), for improving the ergonomics of its workspaces, and to Huntsmann Tioxide (Calais), for its awareness campaign for hand injuries;

• environment Trophy, ex-aequo: to Ineos Nova (Wingles) for its campaign against noise and to Minakem (Beuvry la Forêt) for its reduction in energy consumption.

As for external companies, UIC NPC singled out Filo for its illustrated "minute sécurité", Sogema, for its action in favour of waste selection, and Poujaud for improving its hygiene/safety/environment quality management system.