Worrying headline on this months ENDS Report: apparently chemical companies are backing off their former approach of publishing annual environmental and sustainability reports. Only a minority of UK companies in the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) Responsible Care programme now do so, preferring to present reports as an industry as a whole. The stats are:

- 60% have no report since 2005
- 60% of those that do report do so at their parent company level
- 17% do not have an environmental policy on their website

I was quite shocked by this. When I got into this game over a decade ago, Responsible Care was held up as the great eco-saviour of the chemicals industry. Transparency and stakeholder engagement were the watchwords of the day but now that seems to have fallen by the wayside. I can only assume that the companies are now a little red-faced about what progress they have or haven't made.

Labels: chemicals, corporate social responsibility, reporting