Corporate Goals: An Infinite Variety -- Counting Down to Zero.

CMA says nearly all its members met the September 1 deadline for submitting company-specific Responsible Care goals, but there is much variation among companies' chosen targets. Observers say this will make it more difficult for CMA to achieve its promise to search for common themes and patterns that might justify establishing association-wide goals.

Each company was under a CMA mandate to specify goals that it would measure and publicly report. Those who have been studying the goals say they concentrate on environmental and safety metrics and reflect CMA's revised Responsible Care statement: "We will make continuous progress toward the vision of no accidents, injuries, or harm to the environment,"

"It's going to be a challenge to find areas of agreement among companies given the wide range of goals," says Thomas Grumbles, manager/product safety and occupational health at Condea Vista. Many submissions focus on …