12 Birla Carbon sites receive Safety Performance Awards from International Carbon Black Association

The International Carbon Black Association (ICBA) awarded certificates of recognition to 12 Birla Carbon sites for achieving a level of safety performance above the industry average, thus making it a leading carbon black manufacturer in the realm of safety performance. The sites include the two R&D centers in the United States and India. These sites are recognized at the Gold level for their safety efforts for the calendar year 2020. Of the 12 sites, seven sites have consistently received the Gold rating for the third consecutive year.

Twelve gold awards were awarded respectively to Birla Carbon plants across North and South America, Europe, and Asia. This achievement gains further importance since, despite the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on personnel and manufacturing facilities worldwide, Birla Carbon still upheld its safety norms for all its employees globally.

Speaking about the recognition, Joe Gaynor, Chief Legal, Risk, and Sustainability Officer, Birla Carbon, said, “Despite the challenging times which were faced due to the pandemic, Birla Carbon continued to build and maintain its culture of safety, globally. All our plants maintained the highest safety standards for all employees, which is in many ways built on our purpose to ‘Share the Strength’”. He further added, “Such recognition by the ICBA only emphasizes the value of safety for our employees and across the industry. I want to thank the ICBA for this recognition, as it motivates the industry to partner and work towards a stronger and safer future for everyone.”

The ‘Safety Recognition Program’ identifies plants that go the distance to protect the carbon black industry’s workforce. The goal is to have every person going home the same way they arrived at the worksite.

This recognition was started by the ICBA to acknowledge outstanding safety records and educate policymakers and the public about the carbon black industry’s genuine regard for making employee safety a pre-condition for successful operations. It is a voluntary program where the participating companies submit the previous year’s safety performance data, which gets certified by the company’s members on the ICBA Board of Directors. Awards are given in three categories, and the sites that meet more than one award criteria receive the highest recognition:

• Bronze Awards are given to sites that achieved zero Lost Work Day (LWD) cases for their employees during the calendar year of 2020. An LWD case is a work-related injury or illness resulting in one or more lost workdays for the employee following the day of the injury.

• Silver Awards recognize sites that met the requirements of the Bronze Awards or demonstrate greater than 50% improvement from the previous year; and achieved zero medical aid or OSHA recordable incidents or greater than 50% improvement from the previous year; zero fires or property damage incidents with an impact greater than $100K; and zero regulatory citations for safety-related events, audits, or activities.

• Gold Awards were presented to sites that met the criteria for Silver Awards and received an external safety or environmental management system certification recognition, such as ISO 45001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, OSHA VPP, or equivalent 3rd party MGMT System certification recognition; or implemented a company-specific safety management system and achieved more than three years with a zero LWD case at the facility.