Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 83
At its Vigo site, ACTEGA optimized the noise protection of
its extractor systems and installed lifting devices to ensure
improved ergonomic conditions. By investing in hydraulic lifts,
ELANTAS decreased the use of forklifts at its site in Zhuhai.
The company suggestion scheme (CSS) continues to play
a key role in the improvement of ALTANA’s safety culture.
In 2017, hundreds of employees around the world took part
once again. Their suggestions helped improve ergonomic
conditions and occupational safety, and promoted sustainable
resource consumption. In addition, some suggestions en-
abled costs to be cut.
A Focus on Safety Communication
To continue to sharpen safety awareness in the long term,
the ALTANA Group primarily relies on targeted communica-
tion. In the year under review, some companies had their
first experiences with communication-oriented safety training.
Serving as an example, ELANTAS Europe organized a so-
called “safety walk” at each of its Italian sites. During the walk,
local managers and employees identify possible risks of acci-
dents and together train safe behavior for these situations.
The cross-site two-day safety coaching of ACTEGA
North America is geared to managers, plant managers, and
foremen. With the support of external partners, the partici-
pants learn target-group-related conversation and communi-
cations strategies with which they can address the topic of
safety in a team locally. On account of the extremely positive
response, we will carry out this or a similar type of coaching
at other sites as well to continually improve safety behavior.
Health Protection
Protecting the health of the workforce is a key issue for all
ALTANA Group companies. In Germany, annual health days
staff magazine regularly discusses special accident incidents
and strategies for avoiding them. Moreover, all sites have
established efficient processes for prompt analyses of acci-
dents performed by employees and managers.
Incidents in Detail
Based on the definition of the German Chemical Industry
Association (VCI), we had a total of 12 significant incidents
in 2017 (previous year: 13). One employee was injured;
no third parties were harmed. Nine incidents involved the re-
lease of chemicals; the other three were fires. In eight of
the nine cases in which chemicals were released, the chem-
icals were caught by special basins or tanks installed ex-
pressly for such incidents. In one case, there was leakage but
no catchment basin, but this had no adverse ecological
impact.
Worldwide Safety Measures
Given the high level of technical and organizational safety
measures, in the year under review only selected precautions
were necessary to further improve ALTANA’s safety culture
and health protection. This progress included an automation
measure in the processing of solid raw materials at the
Quattordio site (ELANTAS Europe), which reduces production
employees’ contact with chemicals.
Further investments in health protection concerned the
reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the
ambient air of production buildings. In this regard, ECKART
made significant progress at its Schererville, Vétroz, and
Zhuhai sites, and ACTEGA at its Sedan site. With the help of
closed systems, optimized extractor systems and automa-
tion measures reduced the corresponding emissions consid-
erably.