An effective communication process is an important element of any Product Stewardship Program. Comprehensive SHE information should be available and targeted to those who are involved in the product life cycle. Measures should be in place to ensure that this SHE information is understood and implemented by those who are involved.
EFMA will communicate the positive messages the fertilizer industry has to give such as the joint EFMA/TFI testing program on products, EFMA's Best Available Techniques Booklets, EFMA's SHE report , members' SHE reports, and EFMA's message that "Fertilizers are Safe and Feed the World".

There are no legal requirements related to communication in Product Stewardship

EFMA member companies pledge to up-hold the following EFMA's core values:

EFMA members have signed their commitment to EFMA's core values.

EFMA has developed a Product Stewardship Compliance System for EFMA members. The compliance system consists of three phases:

Auditing by an independent third party

Based on the Product Stewardship Program EFMA has developed together with an independent third-party (DNV) an audit questionnaire. The questionnaire is designed to assist EFMA members in identifying gaps and possible improvements to be made in their current Product Stewardship activity. A weighting is introduced to facilitate a simple progress reporting and for establishing improvement targets. The audit questionnaire together with some predefined areas of focus (e.g. inspection of storage's, inspection of loading and transport, contractor management) form a good basis for an audit this to be performed by an independent third party. However, for preparation of such an audit the company would normally carry out a self assessment by responding to the questions in the audit questionnaire.

Ranking and judgment on compliance

The result of the auditing of each member company will be displayed for assessment by the EFMA Steering Committee (SC). Those companies that do not meet the requirements of the SC are required to develop an improvement plan.

An outline of EFMA's product stewardship is given in the general brochure EFMA Product Stewardship.
The detailed version of EFMA's Product Stewardship Program is available on CD-Rom and at EFMA's web site. The information contains all references and links to documentation and sources of the information that appears in the program. EFMA will ensure that the program is understood and implemented by EFMA member companies (see chapter 5.3). EFMA's Product Stewardship Program is not a "One-Go" exercise. It will continuously be updated. EFMA will assist new members, especially those from the accession countries, to get familiar with this program in special for this purpose organised training sessions.

EFMA's guidance documents, recommendations, brochures, codes of practices, etc. are widely distributed to target groups and interested parties: EFMA members; national and international fertilizer associations; farmer associations; distributors; etc. EFMA will ensure that the SHE information is understood and implemented.
EFMA has developed Questions and Answers (Q&A) which will help to understand EFMA's Product Stewardship program and issues related to Fertilizers.

EFMA members should include relevant issues regarding Product Stewardship (minimum requirements) in contracts with their customers.

An important part of EFMA's work is to share information on their Product Stewardship activities internally between the member companies as well as with our business partners , the regulators and with the community at large. In October 2005 EFMA issued her first Safety, Health & Environment Report. This report covers the SHE activities of EFMA over the last years and is the first SHE report issued by the association. EFMA aims to issue a SHE report every year. In November 2006 the SHE Report 2006 and in November 2007 the SHE Report 2007 were issued as a continuation of this initiative.|The latest SHE report is over the year 2008 and was issued in April, 2009.

EFMA's SHE Report October 2005	EFMA's SHE Report November 2006	EFMA's SHE Report November 2007	EFMA's SHE Report November 2008

EFMA organizes training programs to introduce the Product Stewardship Program to member companies. EFMA member companies have to educate and train employees, based on their job functions on safe handling, use and disposal of products.