Linde North America, a member of gases and engineering company The Linde Group, has received a commendation by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) for its role in helping ACC meet industry-wide safety and product stewardship targets through its Responsible Care Performance Award program.

ACC recognized Linde at its 21st annual Responsible Care Conference, which highlights the industry’s world-class environmental, health, safety and security performance initiative.

Since 2008, Linde North America has received certification at 21 of its operations facilities, as well as at its corporate headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey, under ACC's Responsible Care program. Responsible Care is a globally recognized management system aimed at helping companies improve performance in areas such as safety, health, environment and security.

Certification is mandatory for all ACC member companies, which must undergo headquarter and facility audits by an independent, accredited auditor to verify that they have a structure and system in place that manages and measures performance. Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance is Linde's independent auditor.

The Responsible Care management system offers an integrated, structured approach for driving continual improvement in seven key areas: Community awareness and emergency response; security; distribution; employee health and safety; pollution prevention; process safety; and product stewardship.