The Safe Use of Diisocyanates programme was awarded the European Responsible Care® Award for making safety a shared responsibility across the PU value chain.
The polyurethane industry received an important recognition when the Safe Use of Diisocyanates programme won the European Responsible Care® Award from Cefic (the European Chemical Industry Council). The award was presented in the category “Above and Beyond Boundaries – Spreading Responsible Care® Ethic Across the Chemicals Value and Supply Chain” and comes in a special year that marks 40 years of the global Responsible Care® programme.
The award was won under the leadership of the European associations ISOPA and ALIPA, together with their member companies. It recognises the collective effort behind the Safe Use of Diisocyanates programme (www.safeusediisocyanates.com) and the strong commitment to safety shown across the PU value chain.
The Safe Use of Diisocyanates programme was developed in close collaboration with experts from across the value chain, to improve the safe use and handling of diisocyanates. With no existing blueprint to follow and under a tight timeline, the industry created a new digital training platform covering the full range of exposure risks. The platform is globally available and offers diisocyanate safety training modules in multiple languages, making it accessible to workers across countries, sectors, and company sizes.
The scale of the project highlights its impact. To date, around 900,000 users have registered on the platform. This wide uptake demonstrates the strong engagement of the polyurethane industry and the shared understanding that safety is a responsibility that extends across the entire value chain.
The recognition belongs to the whole polyurethane community. It reflects the industry’s broader commitment to safety, sustainability, and responsible production. Polyurethanes play a key role in energy efficiency, durability, and innovation, but these benefits should go hand in hand with high safety standards.
The award is especially meaningful in 2025, which marked 40 years of the global Responsible Care®. For four decades, Responsible Care® has helped raise standards for safety and environmental performance across the chemical industry.
The 2025 Responsible Care® Award therefore serves not only as recognition of past achievements, but also as encouragement for the future. It underlines that real progress in safety comes from cooperation, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement. For the polyurethane industry, the success of the Safe Use of Diisocyanates programme shows what can be achieved when safety is treated as a shared priority across boundaries, companies, and regions.
