ESAB Corporation’s environment, health, and safety (EHS) policy.
Our vision, policy, goals, and operations.
Vision.
Our vision is to conduct our global operations in a manner that conserves natural resources, is protective of the environment, and returns each worker (associates, contractors, and/or visitors) home each day in the same condition that they arrived to work in.
Policy.
As an industry leader in welding consumables, equipment, cutting systems, and gas control equipment for medical, high purity, and industrial needs, ESAB is committed to acting as a socially responsible and sustainable manufacturer while also providing a safe and healthy work environment for all workers. Our EHS Management System fosters a high-performance culture where EHS awareness, involvement, and accountability are intrinsic to all business activities.
Guiding principles.
- Promote safety and environmental protection as core values in which we will set out to continually improve through assessments, action planning, and sharing of best practices.
- Commit to resource conservation, waste minimization, and pollution prevention (across air, water, and solid wastes) for our global activities, products, and Extend a life-cycle philosophy and expectation to our upstream and downstream interested parties, with a focus to:
- Reduce Greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency and utilizing renewable energy.
- Minimize water consumption and contaminant discharges to water and air.
- Responsibly manage materials and chemicals to reduce wastes to landfills.
Employee safety and culture.
- Focus on the goal of zero harm – no workplace injuries, illnesses, or environmental incidents.
- Cultivate an EHS culture that fosters engaged, empowered, and action-oriented workers.
- Be attentive to the Voice of Customer and act as their valued EHS partner, contributing to our shared success.
- Achieve compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and other requirements to which we subscribe.
- Report, investigate, and analyze all EHS-related incidents with a focus on preventing reoccurrence.
- Educate and train workers to identify, understand, and respect EHS aspects and hazards, and reduce impacts and risks in their work environment.
Progressive future.
- Provide interested parties with useful information about EHS impacts and risks associated with ESAB business activities.
- Commit to consultation and participation of workers, and, where they exist, workers representatives.
- Recognize EHS milestones and celebrate success.
EHS operations.
Consistent with the importance we place on human health and personal safety, we have safety personnel at the corporate, business unit, and facility level. Our board reviews our safety initiatives at the start of each regularly scheduled board meeting, and our key leadership reviews safety matters at the start of each quarterly town hall meeting. Training is provided on an ongoing basis to relevant associates, including executives and other key associates, on human health and associate safety matters. Associates receive training on proper ergonomics and handling of hazardous materials to prevent injuries, environmental contamination, and damage to products or equipment, and we have invested in disaster and other emergency preparedness training and routinely practice drills.
Safe work practices.
We have also adopted safe work practices at our manufacturing facilities to help provide a safe and healthy place to work. Among other things, our safe work practices address use of protective equipment, housekeeping, workplace condition and incident reporting, and corrective action reporting. Our businesses and certain facilities conform to internationally recognized standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, and ISO 50001.
Measuring key performance indicators.
We measure safety using numerous established metrics and report various key performance indicators to senior leadership at both the corporate and business unit level. The rate of recordable incidents per hours worked has decreased for each of the past six full years, and in 2021, our continuing business operations saw 0.33 recordable incidents per 200,000 hours worked.
We have numerous recent and ongoing initiatives to reduce incidents and promote human health and personal safety. We have established reporting for major injuries, dangerous occurrences (which are a leading indicator of major injuries), and near misses, and enhanced our related data collection processes, trend analysis, and incident response capabilities utilizing an electronically-based platform.
- Enhanced our focus on high-hazard operations and activities by introducing our Life Critical Standards (LCS) campaign and program;
- Developed and implemented a fire safety–risk reduction program across the enterprise;
- Developed and rolled out a driver safety policy, metrics, and communication program;
- Established weekly Global EHS community calls and quarterly all-hands global safety reviews; and
- Introduced additional sustainability metrics and refined our environmental management strategy.
Environmental targets.
Many of our business units have set objectives for key environmental aspects, such as lowering energy and water use, and eliminating hazardous substances. Our life-cycle approach enables us to balance opportunities with risks and make choices that contribute value to our economies, natural environments, and communities.
Code of conduct for business partners.
We have adopted a Code of Conduct for Business Partners that sets out the expectations and standards that apply to any agents, distributors, dealers, contractors, intermediaries, joint venture partners, suppliers, and other partners doing business with ESAB. Among other things, the Code of Conduct for Business Partners addresses health, safety, and the environment.