Continually Improving Our People and Process Safety
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
78% Process safety incident rate decrease between 2019 and 2023
Life-Saving Rules (LSRs) training for each employee and contractor on a regular basis
Safety-related awards in China, Japan and the US for our safety performance
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
Among other things, we proactively:
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.
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.
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:
Download SR report 2023 for detail information on our People and Process Safety Performance
Learn more - Nouryon's sustainability pillars
