The Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) has honored Monument Chemical’s Baytown, Texas and Houston, Texas sites for improving HSE performance in 2018.

Baytown received SOCMA’s 2018 Silver Performance Award for Product Stewardship. Houston was honored with a Bronze Performance Improvement Award for its overall HSE program.

In addition to the SOCMA recognition for Baytown and Houston, the Brandenburg, Kentucky site received two Performance Improvement awards this year. You can read that story here.

“It’s very gratifying to be recognized by our industry for improving HSE performance,” said Stacy Johnson, Houston area Health, Safety, Security, and Emergency Services Manager. “We recognize that when it comes to safety, no matter how well we are doing, we should always be trying to do better. Everyone at Baytown and Houston deserves to be very proud of their contribution to this recognition.”

The award for product stewardship indicates that Monument’s chemical-industry peers understand that Baytown employees are committed to “owning” their products before, during, and after the manufacturing process, Johnson said.

“We want to be able to work with raw materials safely, so we make sure we understand the hazards associated with them before they arrive on site,” Stacy said. “When finished products leave the site, we want them transported safely and efficiently, so we work only with preferred carriers. And we always ensure that our customers have the information they need to work with our products safely. All of these things are part of product stewardship.”

Narayan Dave, Environmental Manager, said the sites’ successful efforts to reduce hazardous waste may have factored in the SOCMA recognition.

“Our waste-minimization efforts helped reduce five million pounds of hazardous waste in 2017 and, in some cases, resulted in new co-products that further benefitted our bottom line,” Narayan said, adding that the waste-minimization effort now begins during research and development on new products.

“During R&D, we work to identify what the co-products from our manufacturing process will be and if we can make them marketable or use them to make a different product,” Narayan said. “This way, we eliminate waste before it’s even created.”

Both sites recently migrated from face-to-face HSE training to training that is done by computer. The change made training more efficient, improved record-keeping, and saved money. It’s just one of the many ways the sites are leveraging technology on behalf of improving HSE performance.

“We are becoming more proactive in everything we do around safety, and that’s why are improving,” Stacy said. “But when it comes to safety, every day is a new day. We have to keep moving forward and stay focused.”

SOCMA presented the Performance Improvement Awards to representatives of the winning companies this month in New York City.