Safety first

Our value 'We do it right,' encapsulates a culture of safety awareness that serves to protect our employees, contractors, customers, communities, and the environment. 

Our Safety Ambition: zero injuries and harm.

Our continuous goal is to enhance our performance with the ultimate ambition of achieving zero injuries and harm. We have set internal objectives aimed at eradicating workplace injuries and have a robust safety management program to consistently improve our safety performance. The program includes numerous initiatives such as LSRs, Risk of the Quarter, and incident investigation and reporting, among others.

As a result of these strategic initiatives, we have seen a significant reduction in incidents from 2019 through 2023. As previously mentioned, our OIR decreased by 3%, and our process safety incident rate saw a reduction of 78% compared to 2019. We remain committed to making further improvements in our safety performance. For example, we are focusing on leading indicators, emphasizing hazard recognition, and enhancing incident learning to preemptively address potential safety issues.

Highlights

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78% Process safety incident rate decrease between 2019 and 2023

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Life-Saving Rules (LSRs) training for each employee and contractor on a regular basis

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Safety-related awards in China, Japan and the US for our safety performance

People and Process Safety and Performance

People safety

It is our belief that safety must be embedded in our culture at every level and has leading management systems in place to drive continuous improvement. As a result of these strategies, from 2019 through 2023, we reduced our OSHA incident rate by 3% and reduced our process safety incident rate by 78%. We continue to pursue improvements in our safety performance, for example, by focusing on leading indicators, emphasizing hazard recognition, and improving incident learning

Nouryon safety statistics 2019-2023

Among other things, we proactively:

  • report and learn from leading parameters such as Near misses (events that had no impact but did have the potential to result in injury, ill health, or damage to assets or the environment) and Hazards (any condition or situation that could potentially harm people, products, or the environment).
  • investigate and analyse each incident that occurs at our sites and develop Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) alerts for alle focus events, outlining root causes as well as key learnings from the incident.
  • use a Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) program at all locations to identify unsafe behaviors, train front-line leaders, and inspire behavioral change among employees and contractors to minimize potential hazards in the workplace.
  • audit each site to ensure that it has informed and involved the communities in which it operates and conducts training and emergency drills on a regular basis and document outcomes and lessons learned.
  • identify chemical hazards at each site location and a list of the chemicals and safety data sheets (SDS) used is mandatory.
  • host an annual company-wide Safety Day to promote employee awareness and strengthen our global safety culture.

Our commitment to safety has resulted in 32 years without incident at our Paulinia site and our Mahad site in India marking 12 years injury free.

Life Saving Rules

"We are proud to be a leader in people safety. Safety sits at the heart of
Nouryon’s success and it is essential for every one of us to take ownership of our own and others’ safety."

Charlie Shaver, Chairman and CEO

Process safety

We constantly strive to achieve leading performance in HSE&S. In 2015, Nouryon established a Process Safety Management (PSM) program for all operations, in line with regulatory requirements, industry standards, and best practices. Our PSM framework is designed to prevent incidents and safeguard our facilities and people. PSM applies a management system and controls at our manufacturing sites to ensure hazards are assessed, understood, and managed.

Between 2019 and 2023, the total number of incidents involving a process safety event (levels 1 and 2) decreased by 78%. Our Global Central Engineering Center of Excellence, a crucial element of process safety and overall safety, supports equipment and application integrity across Nouryon's global operations. A core group of engineering and environmental experts are responsible for global oversight of:
• Rotating equipment, such as pumps and compressors
• Fixed equipment, including pressurized and relief vessels
• Instruments and electrical components
• Turnarounds

In 2023, we continued to raise awareness and improve reporting of process safety indicators. As our performance in process safety has improved, we have shifted our focus to leading indicators. We review all incidents and near misses on a weekly basis.

Transportation Safety

We continue to closely monitor Nouryon logistics in terms of both environmental impact and safety. Transportation, including handling and storage, remain priority focus areas. The Global Logistics team conducts gap analysis in our warehouses, terminals, and depots, as well as our processes and associated technology. As a result, additional investment in resourcing and IT has been allocated for the ongoing evolution of our transportation strategy, while accelerating safety performance in this area.

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Safety Performance Awards and Recognition

In 2023, as in previous years, Nouryon's strong safety performance was recognized by external organizations worldwide. Nouryon was recognized with several safety-related awards in China, Japan and the US.

The awards included 13 from the Texas Chemical Council and Association of Chemical Industry of Texas, acknowledging our US efforts in continuous improvement in safety, emergency response, security, and environmental stewardship in the previous year. We are extremely proud of our teams in Texas for consistently meeting or exceeding safety standards and environmental performance. 

Also in the past couple of years, our safety performance was acknowledged by external organizations around the world:

  • 2023 Responsible Care Company by AICM in China: this recognition is a testament to our consistent efforts in environmental protection, health and safety improvements, product safety, energy conservation, and carbon reduction. 
  • 2023 Association of American Railroads Grand Slam Award for exceptional rail tank car safety performance during 2022. 
  • 13 awards from the Texas Chemical Council and Assocation of Chemical Industry of Texas in 2023 for Nouryon's commitment to leadership, safety, and environment stewardship. The awards were given to our locations in Houston, Fort Worth, Pasadena and La Porte.
  • Safety and Environmental Protection Awards in Ningbo, China: in 2023, Nouryon‘s Ningbo site was recognized by the Administration Committee of Ningbo Petrochemical Economic and Technological Development Zone for stellar performance in safe production and environmental protection for the previous year:
    • Excellent Site of Safe Production
    • Excellent Site of Environmental Protection
    • Excellent Site of Safety Digitalization Reformation
    • Excellent Site of Special Equipment Management
  • 2023 President's Excellence Award by the Yamaguchi Prefectural Labor Standards Association for Kayaku Nouryon Corporation, Japan: the award recognizes Kayaku Nouryon Corporation's persistent efforts to enhance the working environment, industrial safety, and HSE practices. 
  • Canada National (CN) Railway Company Safe Handling Gold Award: Nouryon’s safe rail loadings of hazardous goods and regulated products in the US throughout the year were lauded with CN’s top prize. Launched in 1992, the Safe Handling Award is an integral part of ongoing performance improvement initiative of the Responsible Care ® Program.
  • Environmental Excellence Award, City of Forth Worth/ Pretreatment Services: Pretreatment Associate awarded to Nouryon, Fort Worth, TX (US) for two years of 100% compliance with pretreatment regulations.

Download SR report 2023 for detail information on our People and Process Safety Performance

Cases - Improving safety and environment

Learn more - Nouryon's sustainability pillars

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