Samenvatting afstudeeronderzoek
Dialogue between the chemical industry and their stakeholders
Wim Huisman
The growth of environmental problems has reach such a high alarming level, that this situation starts to become increasingly recognized by society. Within the society more often aspects like health, care, safety risks and environmental problems were discussed. As a result companies were challenged on how to introduce sustainable development into their business cases, by introducing new programs. All these programs are most and for all driven by two purposes, i.e. to change the environmental behaviour and to increase public confidence of their commitment to environmental protection. Achieving these objectives, the chemical industry introduced the Responsible Care® program. Years later, several deficiencies were reported about the performance of this program. Big deficiency in this matter was the dialogue between the chemical industry and their external stakeholders. This aspect on how the communication process in the chemical industry was functioning, was studied in more detail. This study was done at the DuPont facility in Dordrecht. The following statements were defined:
- How has DuPont incorporated the Responsible Care® program?
- How is the communication process organised between DuPont and its stakeholders and what is the function of Corporate Responsibility in relation to this process?
- How is the communication process appreciated by DuPont as well as by its stakeholders?
- Through what is this appreciation determined?
The objective and relevance of this study was to find what the efficiency was of the communication process between the chemical industry and their stakeholders. As part of this study several models were discussed in the field of corporate social responsibility and stakeholder management. Limits were identified regarding the scope what companies could do in relation with their social responsibility. A survey combined with interviews inside DuPont was performed to understand how DuPont had organized the external communication process with its stakeholders. As part of the Responsible Care® program, DuPont introduced an advisory panel of local citizens. This panel was seen as an important instrument to set-up a dialogue with its neighbours. To get feedback of the communication process also interviews were performed with different business and non-business related stakeholders.
The Responsible Care® policy of DuPont was classified as a good policy by all interviewed stakeholders. Most stakeholders rated their appreciation from moderate up to a high confidence level. It was found that a good understanding of DuPont’s safety performance, understanding its responsibility for the community and the importance of a liveable surrounding were the most important criteria used as basis for their appreciation. The incorporation of the Responsible Care® program into DuPont’s management system, having an open communication process with its stakeholders and the findings of this study made that DuPont could be ranked in the field of core operator and being a proactive company regarding the implementation of corporate social responsibility.
Based on the results of this study recommendations were made to improve the communication process, with a central role for the members of the advisory panel.