MASE

What it is

MASE (Manuel Amélioration Sécurité Santé Environnement Entreprises) is a certification scheme for occupational safety, health and environment management, run under the joint MASE/France Chimie system.

The scheme began in 1991 when Esso created a "Manuel Assurance Sécurité" at Fos-sur-Mer; the MASE name and its current structure date from 1997 in the Étang de Berre region. The most recent full revision of the référentiel is version 7.0, published in 2024.

MASE's own référentiel states it is "une initiative d'entreprises" applying "sans distinction d'activité ou de secteur industriel particulier" — it does not itself scope certification to high-risk industrial sites; that association comes from how ordering companies use it in contracts, particularly through the MASE/France Chimie system in the chemical sector.

Who owns it

MASE France et International (FI) coordinates the national system together with a Comité Stratégique National (CSN) and a network of local/regional MASE associations — 11 are listed, including Atlantique, Méditerranée GIPHISE, Rhône-Alpes and Île-de-France Normandie Centre, plus Côte d'Ivoire and Sénégal outside France.

Who assesses it

Independent audit firms (cabinets d'audits) assess candidate companies against the référentiel; the local MASE association's steering committee (comité de pilotage) then decides on certification.

Who asks for it

Buyer-driven. MASE's own référentiel states it applies "sans distinction d'activité ou de secteur industriel particulier" — the demand for it comes from ordering companies (donneur d'ordre) requiring it in contracts, most visibly in chemical and industrial supply chains through the MASE/France Chimie system, not from a scope MASE itself restricts to high-risk sites.

Ordering companies (donneur d'ordre), most visibly in the chemical and industrial supply chain through the MASE/France Chimie system, require MASE certification of their contractors as a contract condition — this is a market practice, not a statutory requirement.