EHS Today announced that eight companies – ABB Inc., BASF Corp., Bell Helicopter, General Cable, Honeywell International Inc. – Honeywell Aerospace, Life Technologies, Ordnance and Management Solutions – URS, and Total Safety – have been named the 2012 America’s Safest Companies.
Combined, the 2012 America’s Safest Companies employ more than 100,000 employees and contractors in the United States and represent industries as diverse as biotechnology, aerospace engineering, and chemical weapons destruction. The companies, despite diverse business models and industries, have integrated safety into the way they do business, treating EHS as a building block necessary for business success.
“We believe that safety and productivity are directly related and that by creating a participatory management culture and by focusing on how we do work, productivity will also improve,” said Marty Buell, director, Environmental, Safety, Health and Quality, O&MS – URS.
All of the 2012 America’s Safest Companies demonstrate support from management and employee involvement; provide innovative solutions to safety challenges; report injury and illness rates significantly lower than the average for their industries; support comprehensive training programs; believe that that prevention of incidents is the cornerstone of the safety process; have integrated safety into their corporate culture and communicate the value of safety to employees and customers; and substantiate the benefits of the safety process.
“Safety, or HSE, is who we are. It’s a core value that is integrated into all business aspects. This is demonstrated by the complete integration of HSE into the Honeywell Operating System, the organization’s overarching business system…to drive performance in safety, quality, delivery, cost and inventory,” said Charles E. Osborne III, CSP, director, HSE Operations & Management Systems, Honeywell International Inc. – Honeywell Aerospace.
“We are very enthusiastic about this year’s group of America’s Safest Companies,” said Sandy Smith, editor in chief of EHS Today. “They are transformational safety leaders. They might not call what they do transformational, but we do. They have no interest in being average or in having just compliance with federal regulations as a goal. They strive to be world-class.”
“We are so passionate about creating more transformational leaders that we are launching the first annual EHS Today America’s Safest Companies conference, Sept. 11 and 12 in Chicago,” she added. “We will celebrated the success of these companies at an awards luncheon at the conference on Sept. 11.”
Smith commended the sponsors of America’s Safest Companies – MCR Safety, UL Pure Safety, Columbus McKinnon, Dakota Software, Encon Safety Products, ISEA – the International Safety Equipment Association, and Performance Solutions by Milliken – for “their commitment to promoting safe work environments and for their support in recognizing the country’s safest workplaces.”
EHS Today, a Penton Media brand, serves as a resource for safety, health and industrial hygiene professionals in the manufacturing, construction, and service sectors, informing them about trends, management strategies, regulatory news and new products to help them provide safe and healthy work sites.