That’s the spirit behind the Stephen R. Wilson Award for Excellence in Safety, which recognizes the most impactful safety innovations and improvements made across CF every year. Improvements are nominated from each CF facility and are judged by a cross-functional selection committee. The selection committee narrows the field to five finalists, and the winner is chosen by CF’s senior leadership team.
Judges evaluate the nominated innovations on four criteria, and in 2018, the Woodward Nitrogen Complex took home top honors. The team identified and engineered a new solution for stopping the 30-foot-wide fans in our cooling towers when repairs or replacements are needed. Here’s what makes the Woodward team’s solution a winning idea.
| WHAT WE LOOK FOR | HOW WOODWARD DELIVERED |
|---|---|
| Impact on safety performance and culture | The industry-standard practice of using a 2x4 to stop a cooling fan’s drive line left much to be desired. A new brake system with a long handle allows technicians to safely stop and lock out fan blades without being exposed to rotating hazards. |
| Transferability to other sites | Across CF operations, there are more than 100 cooling tower fans where this solution can be applied. It may even improve safety beyond CF, as several other companies are exploring using this fan brake as part of their Lock-Out Tag-Out process. |
| Ability to be sustained and improved upon | The Woodward team visited other types of facilities that use cooling towers, such as refineries and power plants, to identify the best approach. They worked closely with a vendor to design a brake system that would meet our needs while being easy to install and use. |
| Demonstration of our values | The solution exemplifies our “Do It Right” safety culture. The Woodward team also demonstrated our value “Execute as a Team” by collaborating to research, design and test an idea that will improve safety for many. |
CF’s “Do It Right” culture focuses on safe operations and strives to prevent any incidents – both big and small. It also extends to our emergency response preparedness at all CF manufacturing and distribution sites. During this past year, we have focused on strengthening our emergency response and contingency planning.
CF has more than 500 employee responders who have received extensive training on emergency response. Training is organized into four main categories:
Facility employees are trained to respond quickly to emergency situations regarding medical issues, traumatic injuries and accident scenes.
We must contain and safely clean up hazardous material releases that might occur on our properties. We are also prepared to provide technical support to other responders for hazardous material spills that occur off site.
Because of the specialized nature of our operations and the chemicals present at our facilities, CF must be prepared to respond to its own fires.
Because our work occasionally requires us to work in confined spaces or at heights, we have teams that are trained on how to properly respond to incidents that may occur in these situations.
We also continue to work closely with local and federal emergency responders, local officials and nearby communities to develop detailed emergency response and crisis plans that extend beyond our physical plants. These community safety activities include sponsoring hazardous material safety training, donating equipment for local emergency responders, conducting joint training exercises, and hosting community open houses with facility tours and safety presentations. We are proud to share this knowledge widely, knowing that if the unthinkable were to happen, these activities could save lives.
In 2018, CF participated for the second time in the National Safety Council Safety Culture Survey, the Safety Barometer, to measure our safety culture, employee engagement in safety and identify opportunities for improvement. The survey was implemented at all CF locations. Among nearly 900 multinational companies, CF ranked in the top 15% overall and in the top 10% for employee participation. While we are pleased to remain among the top respondents, our scores dropped slightly from the previous survey. This provides us with an opportunity to focus our efforts to improve our safety culture.
We were also proud to be recognized for our commitment to rail safety in our distribution network. CF received five awards for the safe preparation, loading and shipping of hazardous materials in 2018: the BNSF Product Stewardship Award, NS Thoroughbred Chemical Safety Award, the UP Pinnacle Award, the CP Safe Shipper Award and CN Safe Handling Award.