The chemical industry’s Safety Awards granted to change agents – safety involves everyone
On 13 April 2021, the Finnish chemical industry´s Safety Award was granted to Nokian Heavy Tyres Ltd, Kraton Chemical Oy and Satatuote Oy. The awards for educational institutions went to Careeria and Tampere Vocational College Tredu. The awards highlighted new change agents and well-established contributors to best practices, as well as players who have successfully weathered the exceptional circumstances.
The chemical industry’s Safety Award encourages companies and, for the third time, educational institutions of all levels to develop their safety work and share best practices.
The award for large corporations went to Nokian Heavy Tyres Ltd. In the past few years, the company has made a huge leap in its safety culture, achieving its target of zero accidents. The company encourages good safety performance and has involved everyone in the improvement of safety. In addition, the company has successfully transferred its safety model to its subsidiary.
In the category for medium-sized companies, Kraton Chemical Oy grabbed the award for the second time. Year after year, the company successfully carries out new, innovative projects involving preventive safety work in various fields of safety. Recently, it has focused on the standardisation of work phases in collaboration with different shifts. It also sought solutions for the safety of contractors in a demanding construction project. The company is always willing to share its best practices related to the improvement of safety in order to support the work of other companies in the field.
Satatuote Oy is a new participant in the Responsible Care, the chemicals industry´s voluntary sustainability programme. The company received award in the category for small companies for its ability to deal with the coronavirus outbreak throughout the pandemic. The company showed exemplary attention to the health security and well-being of its staff. This also helped ensure that production essential to the secure supply of the pharmaceutical and food industries could keep running without interruption.
In the general category for educational institutions, the award went to Careeria – a vocational institution active in the eastern Uusimaa region and in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Careeria has adopted a systematic and purposeful approach to the development of safety culture. As its tools, Careeria uses the ISO 45001 standard for occupational health and safety management as well as various development projects in which it utilises best practices and new methods of work. Careeria aims to establish a collective culture of safety and well-being at work throughout its organisation.
The award in the chemistry category for educational institutions was awarded to Tampere Vocational College Tredu. Tredu links process industry studies in a hands-on and inspiring way to the production of real products. The coronavirus year encouraged the College to start hand sanitiser production: process industry students made the product, laboratory industry students assured its quality and media industry students designed the label. Safety is an inherent part of all stages of work.
Year after year, the jury faces an increasingly difficult task: how to choose the best from numerous excellent applications? This time, the jury decided to encourage new change agents with the awards. “The companies and educational institutions that received awards this time have worked actively to improve safety and have successfully tackled exceptional situations, in addition to sharing innovative new practices with others,” says Merja Vuori from the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland, who coordinated the competition, summing up the jury’s opinions.
The awards were presented at the Chemical Industry Federation’s event “Kemiat kohtaavat” in Helsinki on 13 April 2021. The prize has been awarded four times previously: in 2010, 2014, 2017 and 2019. The competition is organised in cooperation by the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland, the Industrial Union, Trade Union Pro and the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff. This was the first year that the Centre for Occupational Safety was on the jury. The chemical industry’s Safety Award is part of the Responsible Care programme and the Turvallisuuskumppani (“Safety Partner”) initiative coordinated by the Centre for Occupational Safety.
For more information, please contact:
Nokian Heavy Tyres Ltd, Antti Viitasaari, +358 44 481 1442, antti.viitasaari@nokiantyres.com
Kraton Chemical Oy, Elisa Tuhkanen, +358 40 341 3358, elisa.tuhkanen@kraton.com
Satatuote Oy, Juho Marva, +358 40 719 3437, juho.marva@satatuote.com
Careeria, Kim Lindroos, +358 400 360 863, kim.lindroos@careeria.fi
Tampere Vocational College Tredu, Heli Lampinen, +358 50 303 1451, heli.lampinen@tampere.fi
Competition jury:
The Chemical Industry Federation of Finland, Merja Vuori, Chief Advisor, tel. +358 40 730 1932, merja.vuori@kemianteollisuus.fi and Anni Siltanen, Senior Advisor, tel. +358 44 562 5991, anni.siltanen@kemianteollisuus.fi
Industrial Union, Jenni Uljas, Work Environment Expert, tel. +358 44 568 2658, jenni.uljas@teollisuusliitto.fi
Trade Union Pro, Taru Reinikainen, National Officer for Collective Bargaining Department, tel. +358 50 581 4371, taru.reinikainen@proliitto.fi
Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff, Mia Adolfsson, Officer, tel. +358 40 574 6668, mia.adolfsson@ytn.fi
Centre for Occupational Safety, Petri Pakkanen, Specialist, +358 40 844 6112, petri.pakkanen@ttk.fi