Background:
Headquartered in Norwell,
Massachusetts, with locations strategically positioned in 36 states, six
Canadian provinces, and in Mexico and Puerto Rico, Clean Harbors Environmental
Services (Clean Harbors) is North America's largest provider of environmental
and hazardous waste management services. The company provides essential services
to over 47,000 customers, including more than 325 Fortune 500 companies;
thousands of smaller private entities; and numerous federal, state, and local
government agencies. Clean Harbors has 53 waste management facilities offering a
wide range of disposal options including incineration; wastewater treatment; and
landfill, recycling, and specialty disposal services. Clean Harbors' network of
over 100 service locations provides transportation and disposal, laboratory
chemical packing, 24-hour emergency response, and field and industrial services
on customer sites or other locations.
In June 2005, Clean Harbors' Lone Mountain facility in Waynoka, Oklahoma was
first recognized as a Star worksite under the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP)
– OSHA's premier safety and health recognition program. This was the first
Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) in the United States (U.S.) to
attain VPP Star status and recognition from OSHA which recognizes the
outstanding efforts of those who have implemented exemplary safety and health
management systems. Besides the Lone Mountain facility, there are five
additional facilities currently participating in VPP, including in: Reidsville,
North Carolina; Cincinnati, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; Kimball, Nebraska; with
Buttonwillow, California slated to be accepted later this year.
Success Impact:
Clean
Harbors' VPP Initiative Results in Many Positive Benefits
Promoting safety and health within all of their facilities throughout the U.S.,
Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico is Clean Harbors' top priority. It is the
company's belief that this type of commitment benefits all - the employees,
customers, the community, and the environment. Beginning in 2004, due to where
they were based, seven of Clean Harbors' facilities were selected to begin the
process of preparing to submit their VPP applications to OSHA.
Clean Harbors' VPP initiative incorporated key elements from OSHA's guidelines
on how to develop an effective safety and health management system, including
increasing employee involvement and their decision-making in safety. The VPP
initiative also increased safety and health training by delivering the loss
prevention and control course, and implementing a behavioral observation
program.
Testimonial
"Because Health and Safety is priority #1 at Clean Harbors, about five years
ago, I asked seven facilities within our company to initiate contact with their
respective OSHA cooperative programs and begin the VPP journey. Five years
later, I am pleased to share that Clean Harbors has five locations that have
been accepted into the VPP, and one more scheduled to fly the STAR flag by the
end of 2009. Since we kicked off this initiative, our facilities are enjoying
considerable injury rate reductions each year. We are currently pursuing VPP
status at several other facilities and we are planning on expanding our VPP
efforts across other business lines. This common sense cooperative management
system – which insists on managers working along side employees in analyzing
their work sites and preventing hazards – simply works."
--Alan S. McKim, CEO of Clean Harbors
Injury/Illness Data
Over the past five years, Clean Harbors' VPP initiative, combined with other
existing safety and health initiatives, resulted in a significantly reduced
Total Case Incident Rate (TCIR), Days Away, Restricted, and Transferred (DART)
rate, and Emergency Modifier Rate (EMR). Although Clean Harbors' has not
initiated pursuing VPP recognition at all of their 100+ locations yet, the VPP
initiative has been implemented, beginning in 2004, throughout its entire
Facility Division. The table below shows the decrease in injury and illness
rates and the Emergency Modifier Rate within this division over the past five
years (2004-2008).
|
YEAR |
DART |
TCIR |
EMR |
|
2004 |
2.07 |
3.64 |
.97 |
|
2005 |
1.58 |
3.37 |
.98 |
|
2006 |
1.44 |
3.10 |
.70 |
|
2007 |
.69 |
2.23 |
.62 |
|
2008 |
.97 |
2.22 |
.53 |
|
BLS Industry National Average (2007) |
4.30 |
6.70 |
-- |
As presented above, the TCIR was reduced by 39 percent between 2004 and 2008,
and the DART rate was reduced by 53 percent, which cut the corporate EMR by 45
percent. Also, Clean Harbors' 2008 TCIR was 77 percent below the 2007 Bureau of
Labor Statistics' (BLS) national average which is quite an accomplishment.
Future Plans
Clean Harbors plans to increase the number of its facilities that have pursued
and attained VPP recognition by taking advantage of OSHA's new corporate method
for participating in the program (formally effective May 9, 2009). Under the new
corporate option, large multi-facility employers who make a significant
commitment to the VPP can use a streamlined application process to gain VPP
approval at individual sites or sites within a DGA. The new procedure allows the
organizations to submit their basic safety and health management system
documentation one time and have OSHA evaluate the system one time. Currently, 10
additional Clean Harbors' facilities are in various stages of the VPP
application process.
Origin: Region I, Clean Harbors Environmental Services, Norwell, MA
Entered VPP: June 2005
Industry/NAICS Code: Waste Treatment and Disposal/5622
Employees: Approximately 4,000 (400 at VPP facilities)
Employer: 1
Source and Date: Scott Sylvester, Senior Director of Health and Safety,
Clean Harbors Environmental Services, Columbia, SC (May 2009)
Clean Harbors employees (from right to left) Jody Reinhart, Jay Adair, Walter
Syms, Jon Mitchell, Alan King, Lee Ann Meek, and Gary Mitchell raise Clean
Harbors' first Star VPP flag at their Lone Mountain, Oklahoma Facility in June
2005 |
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