Health, safety and well-being
In 2020, our ongoing commitment to our zero harm goal hasn’t wavered. Etex made great strides in its health and safety engagement, standards animation efforts and risk management approach.
Historically low safety numbers
When it comes to safety in our plants, 2020 was a turning point. After years of consistent performance, Etex has successfully left its safety plateau behind, moving from a lost-time accident frequency between 1.9 and 2.6 down to 1.4. These figures are the direct result of the structural changes implemented over the last two years, which aim to transform Etex into a global, unified, simpler and more agile organisation.
Record health and safety performance
Frequency rate
of lost-time accidents
Gravity rate
of accidents
The following initiatives explain this unique progress
- Our leaders walk the talk and engage daily in safety efforts. Several instruments are in place to assist our leaders in engaging their teams. In 2020, we introduced safety intensity as a way to measure safety engagement in all our plants.
- The Etex EHS team devised a plan to adhere to six risk identification standards, including HIRA. All Etex facilities have committed to implementing this concrete plan by the end of 2021.
- Five critical ‘life-saving standards’ have been introduced: from machine safety to site traffic.
- Also new in 2020 was our focus plan programme. We selected five Etex plants with room for improvement, and we launched a booster initiative to elevate them rapidly.
- We are transitioning rapidly from the OHSAS 18001 standard to its replacement standard, ISO 45001, which highlights an organisation’s health and safety management system.
- Between 2016 and 2018, we implemented the SafeStart behavioural safety principles across Etex. In 2020, all of our plants committed to reviving these principles and achieving the consistent level of maturity needed to sustain the momentum of SafeStart group-wide.
