DuPont Sustainable Solutions Announces 2017 Safety and Sustainability Award Recipients
SINGAPORE (PRWEB) September 06, 2017 -- DuPont Sustainable Solutions has announced the winners of the 12th Edition of the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards. The awards recognize outstanding initiatives aimed at enhancing workplace safety, sustainability and operational effectiveness.
Selected by an independent jury comprised of leading experts in occupational safety and sustainability, the 2017 recipients of the global awards include:
• British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. for the Global Safety Award
• Firmenich for the Global Sustainability Award
• Reliance Industries Limited for the Global Operational Excellence Award
The jury also recognized the excellence of the following initiatives by allocating regional awards to:
• Gas Natural Fenosa for the Regional Safety Award, Europe, Middle East and Africa
• Monsanto for the Regional Safety Award, Asia Pacific
• Jacobs for the Regional Sustainability Award, EMEA
• City Developments for the Regional Sustainability Award, Asia Pacific
The jury also extended a special mention of two companies for their unique, innovative approaches to sustainability:
• Resolute Forest Products (Canada)
• Indonesia Medika (Indonesia)
The award ceremony took place in Singapore within the context of the XXI World Congress on Safety and Health at Work 2017.
“We are very pleased to recognize these companies for their achievements and commitment to safety and sustainability excellence,” said Davide Vassallo, managing director, DuPont Sustainable Solutions. “Like DuPont, they believe that progress in these areas allows companies to not only become better corporate citizens, but more competitive and effective.”
Jury President Mieke Jacobs, leading author and executive leadership coach, said that jury members were particularly impressed by both the quality and quantity of the projects submitted for consideration this year. “The level of dedication and ingenuity displayed in the applications was impressive. We in the jury are pleased to recognize not only the winners, but all applicants who made positive contributions toward workplace safety and corporate sustainability. I encourage all companies to promote and pursue improvements; in doing so, they will not only generate immediate value for their company, but also create a better future for all.”
About DuPont Sustainable Solutions
DuPont Sustainable Solutions (DSS), a business unit of DowDuPont Specialty Products, is a leading provider of world-class operations consulting services to help organizations transform and optimize their processes, technologies and capabilities. DSS is committed to improving the safety, productivity and environmental sustainability of organizations around the world. Additional information is available at: http://www.sustainablesolutions.dupont.com.
About DowDuPont Specialty Products
DowDuPont Specialty Products, a division of DowDuPont (NYSE: DWDP), is a global innovation leader with highly differentiated materials, ingredients and capabilities that help transform industries and everyday life. DowDuPont Specialty Products includes five technology-driven businesses: Electronic Technologies, Industrial Biosciences, Nutrition & Health, Protective Solutions and Sustainable Solutions. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver real-world products and smart solutions across multiple high-value markets. DowDuPont intends to separate the Specialty Products division into an independent, publicly traded company. More information can be found http://www.dow-dupont.com.
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DuPont Safety Award Winners 2017
► British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. for the Global Safety Award
British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. (BC Ferries), one of the largest year-round ferry systems in the world, has been recognized as a global winner in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards due to the company’s achievements in transforming its safety culture through the ‘SailSafe’ program.
Since its founding in 1960, BC Ferries has grown from a two vessel, two terminal operation, into a 24 route vehicle and passenger service that performs a vital role in connecting communities and facilitating commercial activity along the Pacific coastline of British Columbia. The company now moves over 21 million people and 8 million vehicles annually, on more than 186,000 sailings. With 4,500 employees, a fleet of 35 vessels, 47 terminals, multiple retail, food and beverage facilities, and a complex maintenance, supply and distribution network, BC Ferries recorded revenues in 2016 of $834 million.
Despite a long-term commitment to safety, a high profile and tragic incident in 2006 led the senior management of BC Ferries to embark upon a major renewal of the company’s safety culture. Developed in partnership with the BC Ferry & Marine Workers’ Union, the employee-driven initiative has guided continual improvements to the Safety Management System over the last 10 years. It is based on the premise that all levels of the organization can participate by identifying areas for improvement. As a result, more than 4,500 recommendations, gathered from approximately 3,000 employees, have been incorporated into a series of 90 action plans organized under the four pillars of people, assets, procedures and communication.
Following the conclusion of Phase III, ‘SailSafe’ has formally shifted from a defined safety implementation program into an ongoing, embedded commitment to safety excellence integrated into the full sweep of daily operations. To date, the initiative has not only resulted in fewer safety critical incidents, as well as improved training and reporting, but more importantly an almost 90 percent decrease in the employee injury rate and a close to 60 percent drop in passenger injuries.
► Firmenich for the Global Sustainability Award
Firmenich, the largest privately owned company in the flavor and fragrance industry, has been recognized as a global winner in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards. This distinction celebrates its innovative approach to sustainability demonstrated by its Firmenich Ingredients Sustainability Index.
Headquartered in Geneva for more than 120 years, Firmenich is a leading developer of a range of natural and synthetic solutions across its three business divisions: ingredients, fragrances and flavors. Operating across 63 facilities and touching more than 100 markets, Firmenich is a supplier to many of the world’s leading consumer goods companies. With 30 manufacturing plants and over 7,000 employees, the organization recorded a turnover in 2016 of 3.2 billion Swiss Francs. Consistent with longstanding policy, 10 percent of revenue continues to be reinvested in R&D activities.
An original signatory of the Business Charter for Sustainable Development in 1991, Firmenich aspires to become a carbon neutral company. Recognizing that ambitious environmental targets could not be met by operational efficiencies and innovations alone, the organization launched the Firmenich Ingredients Sustainability Index in 2010 as a multi-stakeholder project to conduct a full life cycle analysis of its 400 most used ingredients.
Relying as much as possible on primary data, the index employs a replicable methodology to model, measure and report on a range of sustainability indicators associated with the sourcing, manufacturing, use and disposal of ingredients.
Firmenich’s intent was to create a tool that would assist in improving the environmental performance of the products and processes by identifying where critical impacts occurred in the lifecycle of each ingredient. The company has now evaluated 413 index values for 400 unique ingredients, representing approximately 93 percent (by volume) of a typical perfumery compound.
► Reliance Industries Limited for the Global Operational Excellence Award
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the largest private sector corporation in India, has been recognized as a global winner in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards on account of the company’s achievements in driving improvements in operational excellence.
Founded in 1957 as a yarn trading enterprise in Mumbai, RIL has since diversified into an owner operated conglomerate with an international reach. Its activities span the energy, petrochemicals, retail, digital services and media sectors, generating a combined annual turnover in excess of $50 billion. Integrated across the energy value chain through a unique portfolio of upstream, refining and petrochemicals businesses, RIL is now the second largest producer of polyester fiber and yarn globally, and the sixth largest producer of polypropylene.
Recognizing that the company’s rapid, organic growth necessitated an updated approach to organizational processes and governance, RIL decided to codify a unified and structured framework across the group, which would allow more systematic management of existing businesses, and more seamless integration of new businesses. The resulting ‘STAR’ project, which involved the entire organization — including more than 20,000 employees — embedded a new ‘Reliance Management System’ (RMS) to guide operational, people and financial management, and provide a scalable base for future growth.
Together, the STAR project and the RMS drove the transition to a more holistic set of management systems and processes. These innovations helped the senior leadership at RIL to enhance effectiveness, maximize efficiency, increase visibility, maintain consistency, replicate wins and clarify accountability companywide. Specific elements included establishing a framework of integrated operations management (employing omPro as an enabling tool), rolling out reliability driven asset performance management systems and implementing new leadership development and learning programs to support the next generation of leaders.
► Gas Natural Fenosa for the Regional Safety Award, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Gas Natural Fenosa, the largest integrated gas and electricity company in Spain and Latin America, has been recognized as a regional winner in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards as a result of the organization’s safety performance improvement achieved through its ‘Commitment to Health and Safety’ plan.
Servicing more than 22 million clients in 30 countries worldwide, Gas Natural Fenosa has grown during its 175-year history from one of the original providers of street lighting in Barcelona, to a diversified, multinational energy business with more than 17,000 employees. The company is the third largest gas and electricity distributor in Spain, the main supplier of liquid natural gas in the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins, and one of the largest combined cycle operators in the world. In 2016, Gas Natural Fenosa recorded a net profit of more than 1.3 billion euros, and managed an asset portfolio worth in excess of 47 billion euros.
In 2011, Gas Natural Fenosa launched an initiative focused on Health & Safety, aimed at driving a cultural transformation in the organization’s health and safety practices. Starting from the premise that all accidents are avoidable, the plan focuses on the proactive identification and anticipation of hazardous situations by employees, and is based on four lines of preventive action, involving leadership, employees, partner companies, and facilities and processes. As such, it not only addresses in-house systems and behavior, but also expects these standards to be matched by contractors.
After initial diagnostic work, senior managers at Gas Natural Fenosa established design and deployment networks to embed and monitor the new strategy. One of the key activities during the subsequent consolidation phase was a cascading safety leadership training program to boost individual commitment to the plan. The impacts since 2013 have been clear, most notably a 72 percent reduction in the frequency and number of accidents involving time off work, as well as a 50 percent drop in the severity rate.
► Monsanto for the Regional Safety Award, Asia Pacific
With a history stretching back six decades, Monsanto India Ltd (MIL) — a publicly listed subsidiary of the multinational agriculture company Monsanto — has been recognized as a regional winner in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards on the basis of the organization’s achievements in driving a cultural shift in safety practices.
Monsanto is one of the world’s leading producers of seeds and crop protection technology, with facilities in 69 countries and more than 20,000 employees globally. Headquartered in Mumbai, MIL provides farm advisory services to more than 4 million registered farmers in India, in addition to seeds and crop protection solutions that benefit more than 1.5 million farmers. The company specializes in 27 variants of hybrid maize seeds, and supports crop productivity through extensive agronomic activities and on-farm technology development.
Road safety is a major challenge in India, with 1.4 million traffic accidents reported every year and around 300 people dying on the roads each day nationwide. Because of this high risk, and the fact MIL has approximately 500 passenger vehicles on the road at any one time for business purposes, the company has invested significant resources in improving its road safety program. In particular, since 2006 the Monsanto India Vehicle Safety Team (IVST) has led efforts to transform the organization’s safety culture. The strategy has been implemented in three stages, focusing first on raising awareness, then instilling a sense of individual ownership, and finally fostering team accountability.
Comprised of a diverse set of activities and tools, including structured training sessions, the development of new policies and procedures, ongoing data analysis through in-vehicle technology, and the appointment of team-based ‘Driving Safety Champions’, the road safety program has achieved impressive impacts. In 10 years, collisions per million miles have been reduced by more than 85 percent. MIL has also extended its efforts beyond employees and contractors, implementing a formal off-the-job safety program that has benefited almost 1.5 million people in the last four years.
► Jacobs for the Regional Sustainability Award, EMEA
One of the world’s largest and most diverse providers of technical, professional and construction services, Jacobs has been recognized as a regional winner in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards due to the company’s efforts in advancing sustainability performance, including through the ‘Sustainability+’ tool.
Founded in Pasadena as a one-man engineering consultancy in 1947, Jacobs has evolved into a publicly traded company that generated $10.9 billion in revenues in 2016, with more than 90 percent of its work coming from repeat business. Now headquartered in Dallas, Jacobs has 54,000 employees in more than 230 locations around the world. The company serves a broad range of industrial, commercial, and government clients, offering expertise in architecture, engineering and construction, operations and maintenance, as well as scientific and specialty consulting.
Jacobs’ commitment to integrating sustainability considerations across the full breadth of its operations is embodied in the company’s ‘Seven Principles of Sustainability’, which provide a visible value framework to guide best practices. Aside from its work with clients to achieve sustainability objectives, Jacobs also has developed tools to help record, quantify and report these value-adding activities. Launched in 2010, ‘Sustainability+’ was a first of its kind data capture tool that tracks practices and ideas that when implemented, create value through monetary savings, reductions in carbon footprint, or energy or water usage. Accessible to project teams worldwide, the tool also provides a legacy for future projects.
As ‘Sustainability+’ has developed, Jacobs has expanded the range of metrics the tool can track beyond its initial focus on carbon emissions, capturing a more varied picture of sustainability performance (including social value initiatives). Savings can be identified at any stage in a project, though tend to be captured during the feasibility and preliminary design phases, incentivizing the early integration of sustainability thinking. Alongside regular growth in business performance since ‘Sustainability+’ has been operating, Jacobs also can point to the saving of 54.2 million metric tons of CO2 for clients in 2016, up from 21.1 in 2015.
► City Developments Ltd. for the Regional Sustainability Award, Asia Pacific
City Developments Ltd. (CDL), a global real estate operating company, has been recognized as a regional winner in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards on the basis of the organization’s innovative approach to sustainability capacity building through the ‘Singapore Sustainability Academy’.
One of Singapore’s largest companies by market capitalization, CDL has a track record of over 50 years in real estate development, investment and management. Beginning with a single housing project in Singapore, the company now has a diversified portfolio spanning 97 locations in 26 countries, comprising residences, offices, hotels, serviced apartments, integrated developments and shopping malls, which add up to over 18 million square feet of floor space. With more than $3.5 billion in funds under management, CDL also is leveraging its physical assets to grow its real estate funds management business.
Since 1995, CDL has sought to integrate sustainability across its entire value chain. Building on this longstanding commitment, the company’s new sustainability blueprint, ‘CDL Future Value 2030’, contains a set of clear targets, including doubling its resources devoted to sustainability advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building. Leveraging its expertise in stakeholder and community engagement and supporting Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) 17, CDL has forged an extensive partnership involving 6 agencies, 12 industry partners and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) to design and build the zero energy Singapore Sustainability Academy (SSA). It is a hub to bring government and business leaders, industry players, youth and the community together to share knowledge and collaborate for sustainable development.
Opened on the World Environment Day 2017, the SSA is a custom-built, zero-energy facility that demonstrates how sustainability concepts can be strategically integrated into the entire lifecycle of the development – from design, procurement, construction and maintenance to user and community engagement. Beyond the day-to-day training of sustainable energy professionals that is led by SEAS, CDL chairs a special program committee involving key partners in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. It designs and implements programs that are aligned with global and local climate actions as well as emerging sustainability trends and best practices. Since its opening in June, the Academy has conducted many activities and initiatives to complement the mission of the Academy.
► Indonesia Medika, a Special Mention for Sustainability, Asia Pacific
Indonesia Medika, a company focused on developing innovative products to expand national health access and reduce inequities in the health care system, has been recognized with a special mention in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards on account of its unique approach to sustainability embodied in the ‘Garbage Clinical Insurance’ project.
Founded in Malang in 2013 by 27-year-old doctor, Gamal Abinsaid, Indonesia Medika adopts principles of social entrepreneurship to address persistent challenges related to the delivery and quality of health care in Indonesia. In just four years, the company’s activities have expanded quickly to encompass 10 projects in two states. These include a mobile hospital that can be easily disassembled and transported to different locations, a ‘Mother Happiness Center’ offering comprehensive services to support perinatal mental health, and integrated systems to improve information management practices in local hospitals.
Simultaneously addressing issues of environmental sustainability and social need, the ‘Garbage Clinical Insurance’ initiative is Indonesia Medika’s most notable innovation. Recognizing that many people were unable to access health services because of prohibitive costs, the company developed a micro health insurance program that uses garbage as a financial resource. By collecting and depositing waste through the scheme, members gain access to basic health coverage, which is funded through the revenues secured from commercial recyclers. The company also manages a network of volunteers that visit members at home and advise on preventive care.
Beyond health improvements, the ‘Garbage Clinical Insurance’ project also creates incentives for member communities to institute proper waste management and waste entrepreneurship at a household level. In urban areas like Malang, more than 55,000 tons of solid waste is produced every day, but only 50-60 percent is collected through municipal services. To date, Indonesia Medika has already replicated the scheme in five areas, each with a membership base of approximately 500 people. However, in order to support an even faster scaling up of the program, the company has produced a detailed startup manual that allows independent groups to initiate their own pilots.
► Resolute Forest Products, a Special Mention for Sustainability, North America
Resolute Forest Products, a global leader in the forest products industry, has been recognized with a special mention in the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards due to the company’s diverse and innovative approach to improving its sustainability performance.
Headquartered in Montréal (Canada), Resolute Forest Products produces market pulp, tissue, wood products, newsprint and specialty papers, which are marketed in over 70 countries. The company owns or operates some 40 manufacturing facilities in the United States and Canada, and is the largest producer of newsprint in the world by capacity, the largest global producer of recycled pulp, the number one producer of uncoated mechanical papers in North America, and the largest Canadian producer of wood products east of the Canadian Rockies. With a total workforce of approximately 8,000 people, Resolute recorded sales of US$3.5 billion in 2016.
In 2010, the company committed to developing a strategy that would directly align and integrate its sustainability efforts with its core business activities, focused in particular on reducing its carbon footprint and improving natural resource management. Since then, Resolute has pursued a range of initiatives, including boosting renewable energy use, fuel switching, sourcing wood fiber from sustainably managed forests, implementing waste disposal programs that recycle or repurpose pulp and paper mill residues, and teaming up with local investors to build Quebec’s largest greenhouse complex, Toundra Greenhouse, adjacent to the company’s Saint-Félicien pulp mill.
To ensure continuous improvement, the company has been tracking its progress and updating its targets. The results to date have been impressive, with greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 73 percent against a year-2000 baseline, 74 percent of total energy needs met using renewable sources, 80 percent of fuel energy derived from biomass sources, all managed forests certified to internationally recognized standards and the on-site use of coal eliminated since April 2014. Resolute also is investing in the development of commercial applications for biomaterial products that can provide an alternative to petrochemicals.
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9/6/17
John Michael Kern, DuPont, +41-22-717-5293, [email protected]
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