Nalco Co. is a company rooted in the ethics and principles of safety and environmental stewardship. Company leadership is committed to protecting workers and ensuring products and processes are environmentally friendly – a commitment that visibly extends to Chairman and CEO Erik Fyrwald, who routinely puts safety at the top of the agenda of corporate goal and performance meetings.
“Safety is a core value at Nalco, and key to our safety culture are the efforts we make to help each employee incorporate safety as a personal value as well. Engagement from employees at every level is critical as we constantly strive to improve safety throughout the company,” says Hasana Sisco, senior director of global SHE, compliance and Responsible Care.
Safety is indeed more than a priority at Nalco – it’s integrated into everything the company does. Nalco incorporates safety targets into business goals; creates a culture of openness about its activities; bans all cell phone use while driving; maintains a global medical surveillance program; produced an in-house ergonomics training video; structures its EHS programs on Responsible Care, the chemical industry’s voluntary, global initiative; and boasts a zero tolerance policy with standards that focus on driving safety, incident reporting, environmental releases and more.
Nalco doesn’t shy away from making big changes or safety improvements, either. I n 1 9 8 5 , t h e company i ntroduced the PORTA-FEED delivery system, which simplified chemical handling, improved safety by r edu c i n g handling, reduced the likelihood of spills and leaks and eliminated residual chemicals. This system continues to lead the world in “hands-off” chemical handling, setting the standard for returnable chemical delivery systems.
More recently, safety improvement was adopted as one of the six core elements of Nalco’s business strategy. The company also developed an in-house model, the Nalco Safety Culture Assessment Framework, to gauge and track the internal safety culture. Finally, the Safety, Health and Environment Sustainability Principles define how Nalco conducts its operations worldwide in regards to the health and safety of people and the protection of the environment.
Nalco’s dedication to safety has paid off, resulting in a 40-percent global injury rate improvement from 2006-2010.
“During the past few years, we have seen continuous evolution and maturity in our safety culture. Every day we see evidence of the mindset changes, from our technical sales engineers working in hazardous environments at a refinery to our administrative assistants in office buildings, and even in our employees doing home repairs on the weekends,” Sisco adds. “Safety has been widely embraced as a Responsible Care ethic in the Nalco family.”
Nalco Co. accepting their awards at the American Safest Company awards ceremony at The Ritten House in Philadelphia, PA.
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