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Linde North America's Indiana Plant Receives Responsible Care(R) Certification

Posted on: Monday, 10 November 2008, 15:00 CST

Linde North America has received certification of its South Bend, Indiana, carbon dioxide (CO(2)) plant under the American Chemistry Council's Responsible Care(R) program.

Linde North America is a member of The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company. The ACC is an association of producers, manufacturers and suppliers of chemical products.

The South Bend plant is the second of eight locations on track to be certified before the end of the year. The company's Kittery, Maine, air separation plant was certified in October; Linde's corporate headquarters in Murray Hill, NJ, received certification earlier this year.

The South Bend plant, which has been operating since 1985, produces CO(2) for use in food, beverage, metals and chemical manufacturing. It purifies and liquefies some 500 tons a day of CO(2) captured from ethanol production that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere. Linde trucks the liquid product to food, beverage, steel, welding and water treatment customers in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. The plant employs 25 people.

"This certification demonstrates Linde's commitment to Responsible Care and shows that we truly care about our employees and customers and the communities and environment in which we operate. The South Bend employees take pride in knowing they are associated with a responsible, global company," said Thomas Zolvinski, cluster operations manager.

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 (LRQA) 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.

Implementing the Responsible Care system is a multi-step process. Companies must first plan - identify, assess and evaluate potential hazards and risks associated with their products, processes and operations - and establish goals and objectives to address any significant hazards or risks. Next, they must do what they have planned, checking their progress along the way to measure performance and take necessary corrective actions. Communicating with employees and other stakeholders, including neighbors and customers, along the way also is essential.

"All the people at our South Bend plant worked very hard for this certification, which falls right in line with our goals as a high performance organization and our vision to be the leading gases and engineering company" said Charlie Koehler, vice president of safety, health, environment and quality for Linde North America. "Certification of the South Bend plant demonstrates the employees' total involvement in Linde's commitment to sustaining the practices specified in the Responsible Care management system."

The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with more than 50,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2007 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.3 billion (USD 18.7 billion). The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards earnings-based and sustainable growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.

Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment - in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development. For more information, see The Linde Group web site at www.linde.com

Source: Business Wire

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