Danone Waters wins 2009 DuPont Safety Award
Danone rewarded for its global approach to accident reduction built on commitment, discipline and good practice transfer.
Paris, France, November 4th, 2009 – During the A+A trade show held in Düsseldorf – a major trade event for safety products and services worldwide – the prestigious DuPont Safety Awards for individual and collective safety initiatives in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) were announced.
“The annual DuPont Safety Awards reward the most significant projects, programs, contributions, in the field of safety in the workplace or in society in general, made by individuals, companies or organisations”, explained Koen van Neyghen, President DuPont Safety Resources EMEA. “There are five categories and we are delighted that the Waters Division of Danone has won the award in the Performance Improvement category.”
Danone Waters is rewarded for the worldwide implementation of a standardised Safety method, called WISE, which has led to a 6-fold decrease in accident rate over the past 6 years. The approach which was started in 2004 to drive safety performance across all Danone business units, focuses on people involvement and management commitment. “WISE blends a bottom-up participative approach, a rigorous methodology and a strong, visible, engagement from the top” explains Marc Grosser, Labor relations and social responsibility director. The approach was first implemented in the Manufacturing sites, followed by Logistics, and now the program is being deployed in Sales and Head Offices across the world in all divisions.
The WISE program has had a positive structuring effect, a clear relationship being established between operational performance improvement and safety. Senior executives have been really involved at a personal level, dealing directly with the families of injured employees. From these experiences, rose a stronger determination to run the business with “Zero accidents”.
“We are delighted that DuPont, one of the world’s leading companies and with such high safety standards, has chosen Danone Waters to receive the award for Performance Improvement,” comments Martin Powell, Operations Director for Danone Waters. “We are at the very beginning of our Safety journey, internal motivation to make Danone a safer place to work is stronger than ever, and the DuPont Safety Award, rewarding the implication of all of our 33,000 employees, is a new milestone on our path”.
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Notes to editors
DuPont is a science company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture, nutrition, electronics, communications, safety and protection, home and construction, transportation and apparel.
Since 2001, DuPont has been promoting the Safety Forum and Award in order to stimulate safety initiatives in companies around Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as to promote safety in all walks of life.
DuPont is the authority on safe workplaces, with a proven track record in consulting and training in workplace safety and operational excellence. Leveraging the Company’s 200 year history of safety knowledge and experience, DuPont helps leading-edge companies gain sustainable improvement in insurance and operating costs, security, productivity, product quality, public image and employee morale.
About Danone
Danone is a Fortune 500 company and one of the most successful healthy food companies in the world. Its mission is to bring health through food to as many people as possible. Fulfilling this mission is a major contributor to the Groupe’s continuous fast growth. Danone with 160 plants and around 80,000 employees has a presence in all five continents and over 120 countries. In 2008, Danone recorded € 15.2 billion sales. Danone enjoys leading positions on healthy food in four businesses: fresh dairy products (n°1 worldwide), waters (n° 2 on the packaged water mark et), baby nutrition (n°2 worldwide) and medical nutrition. Listed on Euronext Paris, Danone is also ranked among the main index of social responsibility: Dow Jones Sustainability Index Stoxx and World, ASPI Eurozone and Ethibel Sustainability index.
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For more information, please contact :
DuPont de Nemours - Stéphanie Nedjar -
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- +33 1 41 97 44 58
Danone Corporate Communications - +33 1 44 35 20 75
