The VPP Corporate Pilot was designed to streamline the VPP application and onsite evaluation processes for corporations that have made a commitment to VPP. The initiative also focuses on eliminating redundancy in the application requirements for sites from the same corporation.
"We congratulate Georgia-Pacific on being our first partner accepted to the VPP Corporate Pilot," said OSHA Administrator John Henshaw. "They have demonstrated the strong management systems needed to support the tenets of VPP. Safety must be an integral part of every business and we believe that by minimizing redundancy and demonstrating effectiveness, we can make the program even more successful."
Added A.D. "Pete" Correll, Georgia-Pacific's chairman and CEO: "Safety leadership and employee-driven safety programs the cornerstone of VPP have been a part of Georgia-Pacific for more than a decade now. We're proud to have OSHA recognize our dedication to safety by making us the first corporation in their VPP Corporate Pilot. Our goal is to bring our remaining manufacturing facilities under the umbrella of VPP."
Georgia-Pacific was accepted after a comprehensive program evaluation of the company's safety and health management systems at its headquarters in Atlanta. The evaluation included key aspects of Georgia-Pacific's safety and health policies, programs and records, as well as interviews with senior managers and executives. Key to their approval was the strength of their internal prescreening processes to ensure VPP readiness of Georgia-Pacific locations prior to submitting an application and OSHA conducting the onsite evaluation.
Henshaw first announced the Georgia-Pacific acceptance at the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants' Association conference in Las Vegas in August. Five additional corporations and the U.S. Postal Service are also applying to become VPP Corporate Pilot members.
Georgia-Pacific is one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of tissue, packaging, paper, building products and related chemicals. The company employs approximately 55,000 people at more than 300 locations in North America and Europe. Thirty percent of its 206 U.S. manufacturing locations currently participate in VPP.
