Honeywell
Aerospace, building technologies, safety and productivity solutions, and performance materials and technologies
Charlotte, NC
39,900 employees | 212 sites | 328 EHS professionals
How does a Fortune 100 (No. 94) multinational conglomerate protect its nearly 40,000 U.S.-based employees, many of whom are involved in manufacturing sectors such as aerospace & defense, chemicals, fuels, and air purifier and ventilators? At Honeywell, the answer in part centers on integration. The Honeywell Sustainable Opportunity policy, endorsed by the company’s CEO, Darius Adamczyk, explains: “By integrating health, safety and environmental considerations into all aspects of our business, we protect our employees, our communities and the environment, achieve sustainable growth and accelerated productivity, drive compliance with all applicable regulations and develop technologies that expand the sustainable capacity of our world.”
Honeywell has an overall structured safety management system known as HSEPS (Health, Safety, Environment, Product stewardship and Sustainability). This system mirrors standards such as ISO 45001 and ISO 14001. It’s governed at the corporate level, but deployed and overseen by each strategic business group within the company.
Also, through Honeywell’s Contractor Safety Program, all contractor work is evaluated for risks. As Tim Belitz, director of health, safety and environmental, explains, all contractors and sub-contractors must meet acceptable levels of performance to work at Honeywell sites or on a Honeywell project. The company’s contractor evaluation process includes all required safety programs, training, certifications, insurance, and past performance indicators. “The Contractor Safety Program has resulted in not only reduced risk to our organization but also has driven improvements through the contractor organizations that we engage with on a routine basis,” he notes.
To be considered for an America's Safest Companies award, organizations must demonstrate excellence in several areas: support from leadership and management for EHS efforts; employee involvement in the EHS process; innovative solutions to safety challenges; injury and illness rates lower than the average for their industries; comprehensive training programs; evidence that prevention of incidents is the cornerstone of the safety process; good communication about the value of safety; and a way to substantiate the benefits of the safety process.
The 2021 ASC awards will be presented during a ceremony at EHS Today’s Safety Leadership Conference 2021, in Cleveland, Ohio. For a detailed look at this year's program and to register, go to www.safetyleadershipconference.com for all the details.
Honeywell already had a well-defined pandemic plan in place even before COVID-19, and that plan was quickly implemented by the Honeywell Medical Team as soon as the pandemic was declared. Beyond protecting its own employees from the virus, Honeywell also stepped up production of medical-grade PPE, including face shields and N95 respirators.
Continuous improvement is a core concept within Honeywell’s corporate philosophy, and that extends into the safety management process. Indeed, safety comes under scrutiny at the highest level of the company, including the board of directors and CEO, who review leading and lagging indicators, as well as evaluating strategic plans for improvement.