Consistent with NOVA Chemicals' membership in the Canadian Chemical Producers' Association (CCPA), our Corunna and Sarnia sites are currently undergoing a Round 3 Responsible Care re-verification process.

This process validates that ethics and code of management systems are in place at NOVA Chemicals. In effect, it confirms to our stakeholders and other CCPA companies that we are committed to meeting our social responsibilities.

The re-verification team is scheduled to visit the Corunna and Sarnia sites from Sept. 23-26 to conduct interviews with NOVA Chemicals employees involved in various areas of focus such as security and process safety management. Our other two manufacturing locations in Sarnia-Lambton, the Moore and St. Clair River sites, were verified in past audits to ensure similar management systems are in place. In fact, our St. Clair River Site was the first site to be re-verified through the CCPA process in 1998. This year, all of our Canadian sites in Alberta, Ontario and Montreal are involved in the re-verification process.

It's important to note that members of the public and peer re-verification team are selected to ensure that the process is credible to the community, the public, the company and other CCPA members. The CCPA administers the process under the direction of a multi-stakeholder verification steering committee. They use approved guidelines to select verifiers - other than community representatives, who are chosen by the community around each company site - and coordinate training and experience-exchanging sessions for verifiers and companies.

The re-verification team will review site documentation and ask questions of employees and community members to ensure that we continue to operate within the ethical framework of Responsible Care for the work we do in safety, health, environment, risk and quality management; as well as how we manage community, transportation, customer and supplier relationships and concerns.

Management systems currently in place at our sites are designed to comply with Responsible Care guidelines. Our internal processes include an Incident Learning Program, a Balanced Score Card process, emissions reporting (National Pollutants Release Inventory) and our Memoranda of Understanding for environmental and health improvement via the National Emissions Reduction Masterplan (NERM), as well as other Responsible Care processes.

NOVA Chemicals aims to be a "self-healing" organization by addressing recommendations from previous audits and learnings from past incidents. This is achieved through a commitment to internal processes, continuous improvement, and open and honest dialogue with our employees and our communities.

The final report from the re-verification team will be available approximately 90 days after the visits. The results will be presented to our employees and to the community via our community dialogue processes - the Bluewater Community Advisory Panel, our Neighbour Advisory Panel and our various association memberships.

NOVA Chemicals is committed to being a leader in achieving and maintaining superior Responsible Care performance. We have adopted a set of corporate principles that reflect the ethics of Responsible Care and guide our conduct world-wide.

What is Responsible Care?

Responsible Care is a voluntary initiative within the chemical industry to safely handle products from inception in the research laboratory, through manufacture and distribution, to ultimate disposal. In involves the public in decision-making processes regarding products and plant operations. The Responsible Care ethic originated in Canada with the Canadian Chemical Producers' Association and has spread to more than 40 countries. One of the first companies to join, NOVA Chemicals was initially verified as a Responsible Care member company in 1994.

Senior executives of CCPA members must commit to implement the guiding principles and codes of practice of Responsible Care within three years of joining the association and to be publicly verified as having done so. All companies are re-verified every three years. The expectations of members and partners in Responsible Care go beyond the required implementation of codes of practice. Expectations include CEO networking via leadership groups, public input through a national advisory panel, and mutual assistance through sharing.