This year has been a remarkable one that has disrupted lives in so many ways. One of these disruptions is the forced cancellation of the Texas Chemical Council/ Association of Chemical Industry of Texas (TCC-ACIT) 2020 EHS Seminar and 2020 Awards Banquet.
Though the organizations were forced to cancel the awards banquet, they were not thwarted in their efforts to recognize their members for excellent safety performance, caring for Texas and support for industry.
Caring for Texas Awards
The objective of the TCC Caring for Texas awards program is to promote continuous improvement by the chemical industry relative to community awareness, emergency response, security and pollution prevention. The program provides recognition for member facilities that, during the previous calendar year, have achieved exemplary results and demonstrated a strong commitment to their employees and their community.
The Excellence in Caring for Texas awards recognize sites the judges felt demonstrated excellence in their respective groups. The Excellence in Caring for Texas award winners by category are:
- Group Two (company sites with 61-200 employees): Flint Hills Resources - Longview.
- Group Three (company sites with 201- 500 employees): Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) - Pasadena Plastics Complex.
- Group Four (company sites with more than 500 employees): Ascend Performance Materials - Chocolate Bayou, CPChem - Cedar Bayou Plant, and Olin Corp. - Texas Operations.
Sustained Excellence Awards
The Sustained Excellence Award recognizes company sites that have won the Excellence in Caring for Texas award at least once within the past three years and provides information about how their sites consistently demonstrate caring for Texas year after year. The 2020 Sustained Excellence in Caring for Texas Award winners by category include:
- Group Two: CPChem - Orange Plant and OQ Chemicals Corp. - Bay City.
- Group Three: Chemours - Ingleside.
- Group Four: BASF Corp. - Freeport, CPChem - Sweeny/Old Ocean, and Eastman - Texas Operations.
Occupational Safety Distinguished Service Awards
The Occupational Safety Distinguished Service Award is presented to company sites that have met the minimum participation requirements of at least three Occupational Safety Committee or Subcommittee meetings during the course of the year and have demonstrated improvement in their injury and illness incident rate for 2019 when compared to the previous three years. The 2020 Distinguished Service Award winners are:
- Group Two: CPChem - Orange Plant, Dow Chemical Company - Bayport Operations, INEOS Oligomers - Chocolate Bayou, Nouryon Functional Chemicals - Pasadena Site, Nouryon Functional Chemicals - Battleground Site, Oxy Vinyls - Deer Park VCM, and Oxy Vinyls - Pasadena PVC Plant.
- Group Three: Chemours - Ingleside, CPChem - Pasadena Plastics Complex, Dow Chemical Company - La Porte, LyondellBasell - La Porte, and OxyChem - Ingleside.
- Group Four: Ascend Performance Materials - Chocolate Bayou, CPChem - Cedar Bayou, Covestro - Baytown, and Lubrizol Corp. - Deer Park.
Best in Texas Awards
The Best in Texas Award is presented to the top company sites within each category that meet the criteria for "Distinguished Safety Service" and maintain a contractor safety program under TCC's recommended guidelines for contractor safety. The award applications are peer-reviewed by members of the Occupational Safety Awards Subcommittee who judge applications in categories different than their own. The 2020 Best in Texas Award winners are:
- Group Two: CPChem - Orange Plant.
- Group Three: CPChem - Pasadena Plastics Complex.
- Group Four: Covestro - Baytown.
For more information, visit www.acit.org or www.texaschemistry.org.