The Louisiana Chemical Association (LCA) recently revealed the four recipients of the association's annual "Best in Louisiana" Serious About Fostering Excellence (SAFE) Award.
This award is given to Louisiana chemical facilities that have been judged as having achieved outstanding performances in employee and process safety and environmental stewardship.
LCA President and CEO Greg Bowser said, "A SAFE Award can only be earned by showing multi-year excellence evaluated against the strictest possible industry standards for employee and environmental safety. These companies are all truly the best of the best."
SAFE is a voluntary LCA program designed to help each facility evaluate, monitor and improve its environmental performance, as well as process and personnel safety. SAFE is sponsored by the LCA Health & Safety Committee.
"LCA member companies take environmental stewardship very seriously. Keeping our facilities and the neighborhoods that surround them safe and clean is of the utmost importance to all of our members," said Bowser.
The SAFE awards are broken up into four categories based on the employment size of the facility: Class 1, fewer than 100 employees; Class 2, 101-200 employees; Class 3, 201-400 employees; and Class 4, more than 400 employees.
The 2020 "Best in Louisiana" SAFE Award winners included:
- Class 1: Arxada, Lake Charles; Cabor Corp., Ville Platte Plant; and Koura, St. Gabriel
- Class 2: Air Products & Chemicals, HyCO
- Class 3: Occidental Chemical, Taft
- Class 4: Dow's St. Charles Operations
"We are incredibly proud of our winners and all of the participants in the SAFE program," Bowser said. "The scoring for these awards is always razor thin. With so many facilities showing longstanding dedication to these important measures, it really drives home the point that caring for the environment while producing essential products is possible, and we're doing it every day here in Louisiana."
This is the 26th year the annual SAFE Program has quantified safety practices and results among LCA member companies. Average OSHA accident and injury statistics for all LCA member facilities have fallen to less than one-fifth of the levels when LCA first began the program.
Four facilities that demonstrated impressive improvement in their environmental and safety performance over the past year were also recognized with "Most Improved" SAFE awards. These winners were: Arkema, Hahnville; Honeywell, Baton Rouge; TotalEnergies Petrochemicals & Refining USA; and Cornerstone Chemical.
For more information, visit www.lcasafe.org or www.lca.org.
