Ciba: Attempting to live up to a vision in a crisis situation (A)

Traces the response of Ciba to the loss of 7.7 tons of its crop protection products off a cargo vessel in the North Sea en route to Nigeria one stormy night in December 1993. After being informed of the incident by the French national emergency organization, a representative from Ciba France takes the initiative to travel to the affected beaches to offer assistance in the clean-up efforts and handle media questions. By the end of December, the major part of four sea containers are recovered. The remaining fifth container is spotted floating in the sea but cannot be salvaged because of continuing bad weather. Then in mid-January 1994, thousands of the 10-gram plastic sachets wash up on Dutch beaches. The Dutch authorities clean-up the beaches and Ciba Netherlands provides assistance in transporting, counting, and storing the sachets on its premises. The Dutch media and environmental pressure groups become quite active, linking the accident to broader marine transport issues, and there is the first evidence that this issue will begin to develop rapidly in Germany.

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