Safety program and performance

Continually Improving Our People and Process Safety

Safety first

One of Nouryon’s Values is ‘We do it right’ and this includes a culture of safety awareness to protect our people, contractors, customers, communities, and the environment.

Our Safety Ambition: zero injuries and harm

Our goal is to continually improve our performance, with the ambition of achieving zero injuries, waste, and harm. We have set internal goals to eliminate workplace injuries and have several strategies in place to keep improving our safety performance, including our Behavior-Based Safety and Process-Safety Management programs. As a result of these strategies, from 2018 through 2022, we reduced our OSHA incident rate by 12% and reduced our process safety incident rate by 79%. We continue to pursue improvements in our safety performance, for example, by focusing on leading indicators, emphasizing hazard recognition, and improving incident learning.

In 2022, Nouryon was recognized with a number of safety related awards.

Decrease in Recordable Injury Rate

49% Recordable incident rate decrease between 2018 and 2021

Decrease of Process Safety Incident Rate

74% Process safety incident rate decrease between 2018 and 2021

13 Responsible Care® Facility Safety Awards

Awarded 13 Responsible Care® Facility Safety Awards by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) in 2021

People Safety

Top-quartile performer in people safety

Safety Performance Awards and Recognition

In 2022, our strong safety performance was acknowledged by external organizations around the world. The awards included 17 awards from the Texas Chemical Council (TCC) and Association of Chemical Industry of Texas (ACIT) in recognition of our US efforts in continuous improvement in safety, emergency response, security, and environmental stewardship during the previous year.

We are very proud of our teams in Texas for consistently meeting or exceeding safety standards and environmental performance. The annual TCC-ACIT awards recognize the programs Nouryon has in place to protect the communities in which we operate and keep our employees safe.

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

  • 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.
  • 13 Responsible Care® Facility Safety Awards from the American Chemistry Council (ACC), in recognition of our exceptional employee health and safety performance, as well as our commitment to sustainability. Eleven of the awards were given for Excellence and two were Honor Responsible Care® Facility Safety Awards for the following Nouryon facilities in the US:
    • Excellence: Augusta, GA; Columbus, MS; Bridgewater, NJ; Brewster, NY; Lima, OH; Battleground, Fort Worth and Pasadena, TX; Moses Lake, WA; and Green Bay and Howard, WI.
    • Honor: Chattanooga, TN, and Salisbury, NC.
  • 2021 Texas Chemistry Council Caring for Texas Award: for the first time, all of Nouryon’s Texas (US) sites were acknowledged in the same year – Battleground (sixth consecutive award), Pasadena (five prior awards), Houston (two prior awards) and Fort Worth (two prior awards).
  • 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.
  • Chilean Safety Association Certification of COVID-19 Contagion Risk Management: Nouryon Talcahuano, Chile.
  • Responsible Care® Merit Award from the Association of International Chemical Manufacturers (AICM) in recognition of Nouryon’s distinguished performance in the fields of sustainability and responsible care in China. Four Nouryon employees also received 2020 Key Contributor Awards honoring their efforts in industrial policy advocacy and hazardous-chemical safety management.

People and Process safety


People safety

It is our belief s 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 2018 through 2022, we reduced our OSHA incident rate by 12% and reduced our process safety incident rate by 79%. We continue to pursue improvements in our safety performance, for example, by focusing on leading indicators, emphasizing hazard recognition, and improving incident learning

safety stats 2021.jpg

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).
  • 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.
  • conduct a risk assessment as part of each incident investigation and , for which an impact sheet with the actual and potential situations is developed
  • 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 reduce potential hazards in the workplace.
  • investigate every recordable injury to identify root causes and appropriate corrective actions to prevent future incidents
  • 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.

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 strive to deliver leading performance in HSE&S. Nouryon established a Process Safety Management (PSM) program for all operations in 2015, in alignment with industry standards and best practices. Our PSM framework is designed to prevent incidents and keep our facilities and people safe. PSM applies a management system and controls at our manufacturing sites, so that hazards are assessed, understood, and managed.

In 2022, 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. The total number of incidents involving a (Levels 1 and 2) process safety event (PSE) decreased by 83% between 2018 and 2022.

Cases - Improving safety and environment

Tennessee site celebrates 29 years without a lost-time injury

Our Chattanooga, TN, US, site celebrated a milestone of 29 years without a lost-time injury. This is a significant milestone in our Company’s global journey toward zero work-related injuries and illnesses.

Nouryon Global Safety Day 2022

We dedicate one day each year to focus on safety together in order to share ideas, experiences, and best practices.

Case: São Paulo’s Paulínia plant: 30 record years without injury

August 2021 marked an impressive anniversary for 30 years without work-related incidents at our site in Paulínia, São Paulo, Brazil.

Case: Reducing Emissions Through Renewable Energy

Our Mons, Belgium site purchases 100% renewable electricity. In 2021, we shifted 15% of the site’s electricity needs to solar cells.

Case: Frontline Leader Safety training

In 2021, we piloted a new training for site supervisors and leadership teams to improve employee engagement around safety.

Case: Circular Economy Business Practices in Brazil

In Brazil, our innovative solution contributes to a lower carbon and manufacturing footprint for some of the world’s most essential paper products

Learn more - Nouryon's sustainability pillars

Improving our safety performance and environmental footprint

We continuously work to improve our safety performance and environmental footprint for the benefit of our employees, contractors, customers, neighbors, and the environment

Growing our sustainable solutions through innovation

We provide solutions that are essential in applications ranging from pharmaceuticals and farming to electric cars and building insulation. Our goal is to deliver not just the desired functionality but improved sustainability performance as well.

Engaging people, partners, and society

At Nouryon, we aim to achieve sustainable business growth and have a positive impact on people’s everyday lives through our essential solutions as well as our actions.

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