Security, safety, health, and well-being are at the root of our identity and enshrined in both our Safety, Health, Environment & Security (SHE&S) policies and our SHE requirements. The roll-out of our Life Saving Rules (LSRs) and the strengthening of our SHE leadership and culture have played a critical role in ensuring a safe and healthy workplace for all our employees and contractors.
Security
At dsm-firmenich, the health and well-being of our employees, the communities we serve, and the public, all remain top priorities. Equally as important is fostering trust with shareholders and customers. To uphold these commitments, we established a robust Crisis Management framework to ensure we are well-prepared to respond effectively to any crisis.
We understand that security is a shared responsibility, which is why we introduced a set of Key Security Behaviors to empower each and every employee to play an active role in safeguarding our organization. Tragically, in 2024, we experienced the loss of an employee involved in a security incident while commuting between two of our premises. Another (on-site) fatality, of a supervised contractor, is still under investigation by the authorities. At the time of the publication of this Report, it was not expected to be work-related. Both these incidents have deeply affected the families, friends, and colleagues involved, reminding us of how important our continued commitment to safety and well-being is.
Occupational safety
Occupational safety refers to the safety of our employees and contractors in the workplace. In 2024, we saw a significant reduction in recordable safety incidents versus 2023. This was attributable to the way in which our people took ownership of safety and their relentless focus on our safety foundation. With 85 incidents recorded, we significantly improved on last year’s figure of 116 incidents.
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2024 |
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2023 |
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Occupational safety1 |
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Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR)-all |
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0.24 |
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0.31 |
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Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR)-own |
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0.22 |
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0.29 |
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Process safety |
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Process Safety Incident rate |
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0.31 |
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0.28 |
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Occupational health |
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Health rate-all |
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0.11 |
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0.14 |
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In 2024, we continued to implement the first wave of our LSRs. This was greatly facilitated by a shared focus on capability development throughout the company after the merger. We also rolled out the next wave in the final months of 2024 and launched our new SHE requirements. These are the backbone of our SHE management framework and form a core part of our SHE management system, outlining key management and leadership activities needed to support and achieve our objectives.
Process safety
Process safety refers to the safe operational design of our facilities. In 2024, our Process Safety Incident (PSI) rate concluded at 0.31.
Despite improvements at many sites, we experienced three serious cases: the implosion of a tank, the bursting of a silo and a runaway reaction. Fortunately, no injuries were sustained in these cases. We focused on sites with the highest number of process safety recordable incidents in 2023, and continued to implement site-specific improvement programs.
The root cause of most process safety cases is incorrect behavior. New procedures and guidelines were developed in 2024 to meet the needs of our Business Units and operational processes. These behavior-based programs will be key to creating the right mind-on-the-job attitude and first-time-right approach across our company. We also continued to incorporate process safety information in an integrated digital platform for risk assessments and related controls. This was complemented by continued monitoring and management of the process safety life cycle. Our dedicated process safety trainings are designed to strengthen development of local and regional competences and key areas remain the handling of self-heating materials, safe handling of powders, and safe blending of liquids.
We conducted 31 fire protection integrity assessments at affiliates world-wide, reflecting the importance we place on protecting our people and assets from fire and natural hazards. Our audits cover both organizational and technical preparedness.
Occupational health and industrial hygiene
Occupational health uses medical assessments to detect early signs of work-related injuries and illnesses and to mitigate any symptoms, to keep our workforce healthy.
Industrial hygiene focuses on the evaluation and control of workplace hazards to protect the health of employees. It addresses risks from chemical exposure, noise, and ergonomic issues, aiming to create safe working conditions and prevent ill-health. In 2024, we recorded a total of 37 occupational health incidents involving employees and contractors, including cases of hearing loss. In response, we implemented corrective actions, such as providing enhanced hearing protection as well as engineering controls specifically designed to reduce noise at source.
We achieved a major milestone in developing an integrated hazard and risk assessment digital platform. This enables a structured approach to industrial hygiene, covering everything from hazard identification to risk control. This means we have company-wide accessibility to industrial hygiene data, providing insights that allow us to effectively track, analyze, and address health challenges while facilitating the sharing of best practice across sites. The project will be rolled out incrementally in the coming years.
We also reorganized our internal qualification system for health risk assessments, with deployment to commence in 2025. This initiative aims to strengthen competencies across sites, maximizing the effectiveness of our management of health risks.
A key accomplishment in 2024 was the release of a standard on occupational exposure limits, aimed at harmonizing our exposure control practices globally. This standard exceeds regulatory requirements, underscoring our commitment to protecting employee health in a proactive and uniform manner across our sites.
Furthermore, we implemented a standardized guideline on local exhaust ventilation. This ensures that newly installed ventilation systems are properly designed, maintained, and optimized to protect workers from chemical exposure. We also developed in-house methods for the monitoring of exposure and biomonitoring of key chemicals.
Our ergonomic program continued to deploy wearable devices at selected sites. These devices detect improper movements and provide real-time feedback to employees, encouraging safer lifting techniques and reducing ergonomic risks. They also help us identify tasks that require ergonomic adjustments.
Employee health and well-being
Fostering a healthy and supportive working environment for all our employees and contractors is central to our mission.
In 2024, we continued to invest in a workplace culture that encourages proactive health choices, especially in the context of ongoing organizational change. Our Global Vitality Office, established in 2023, drives this mission by combining our expertise in nutrition, health, and beauty to provide employees with the resources they need for long-term well-being.
Key initiatives in 2024 included:
- 'BoostYourVitality’ global platform: available in six languages, this platform consolidates all of our well-being initiatives and offers employees exclusive resources, lifestyle assessments, and discounted products. We launched the ‘Make Vitality Your Priority’ campaign via the new app to provide easy access to science-backed advice, resources, and life hacks to support long-term health
- Women’s health: we created a dedicated section on our Global Vitality Hub that included menopause support and biometric monitoring. On Menopause Day in October, we organized a global webinar with our Women’s Inspired Network
- Men’s health: in November, we hosted a global webinar on a range of challenges specific to men, fostering open conversations, providing practical tools, and empowering men to take proactive steps to improve their mental and physical health
- Mental health: we trained over 580 Mental Fitness Champions worldwide, created a ‘Train the Trainers’ program, and organized a ‘Beating Burnout’ webinar on mental resilience and early detection, timetabled to coincide with World Mental Health Day
- Workforce nutrition: we organized a global webinar on the importance of protein and expanded the availability of our nutritional supplements in company restaurants
