Recognizing 36 facilities with 52 awards for outstanding health, safety, and environmental performance.
Published 11-19-20
Submitted by Vinyl Sustainability Council
Vinyl Institute Recognizes Companies for their Outstanding Health, Safety, and Environmental Award Recognition
November 19, 2020 /CSRwire/ - The Vinyl Institute (VI), the U.S. trade association representing manufacturers of vinyl resin, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), additives, and modifiers, announced recipients of its annual health, safety and environmental awards, which are given to companies in the vinyl industry for safeguarding workers and protecting the environment at manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada. This year, VI recognized 36 facilities with 52 awards for outstanding performance.
These awards are based on facility performance according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable incidents, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), other regulatory permit performance, and the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory data for air and water during the 2019 calendar year.
“Our industry is fully committed to the safety of our workers and environmental practices, and this is evident by the large number of awards we’re presenting this year,” said VI President and CEO Ned Monroe. “Worker health and safety continues to be a long-term goal in our sustainability journey, and we’re proud of the major investments our member companies have made and continue to make to ensure employee health and safety and in finding additional ways to reduce emissions. In fact, our resin and monomer producer members have an occupational injury and illness rate that is less than one third of the chemical industry. And since 1987, VCM emissions have reduced by 88 percent, while PVC resin production has increased by 100 percent.”
Each year, VI proudly recognizes facilities in the PVC, EDM/VCM, plasticizer production, additive production and chlorinated PVC compounding categories that have achieved outstanding performance in four categories: Safety Excellence, Safety Performance, Environmental Excellence and Environmental Honor.
Safety Excellence Award
This award recognizes consistent adherence to OSHA safety regulations and recognizes plants with five or more consecutive years with no recordable incidents. This award was presented to:
Safety Performance Award
This award recognizes efforts to improve worker safety based upon federal OSHA recordable incidents, which are defined as an occupational injury or illness resulting in medical treatment. This award, which recognizes plants with no recordable incidents for the reporting year, was presented to:
Environmental Excellence Award
This award is based on outstanding track record of performance for five or more consecutive years under EPA’s NESHAPs, and other environmental permit requirements. The following facilities demonstrated continued outstanding performance in 2019:
Environmental Honor Award
The criteria for this award includes emissions reduction under the NEHSAP, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for air and water. This award is presented to two plants, one in the PVC category and one in the EDC/VCM category. The facilities achieving this award for performance during 2019 were:
About the Vinyl Institute:
The Vinyl Institute (VI), founded in 1982, is a U.S. trade association representing the leading manufacturers of vinyl, vinyl chloride monomer, vinyl additives, and modifiers. The VI works on behalf of its members to promote the benefits of the world's most versatile plastic, used to make everything from PVC piping to flooring, roofing and vinyl siding. The vinyl industry in the United States employs over 350,000 highly skilled employees at nearly 3,000 facilities and generates an economic value of $54 billion. For more information, visit vinylinfo.org.
The Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC) is a voluntary membership organization that is taking a leadership role in uniting the industry to advance sustainable performance throughout the vinyl value chain.
The VSC created +Vantage Viny® as a voluntary initiative to advance the U.S. vinyl industry’s contribution to sustainable development. It aims to drive continuous improvement across all three sectors of sustainability – environmental, social and economic performance.
Individual company commitments are aligned with voluntary industry sustainability targets that were developed as a result of a materiality assessment. This analysis identified three impact categories, resource efficiency, health & safety and emissions that were aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
An independent verification process provides assurance of achievement of company commitments. Verified companies are awarded the right to use the +Vantage Vinyl trademark as evidence of their commitment to advancing sustainability in the vinyl industry.
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