Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA
February 5, 2015
- Seed production site is injury-free for almost seven years
- Success attained through the Syngenta Goal Zero safety initiative
- Helping people stay safe a key component of The Good Growth Plan
The
Syngenta soybean seed production facility in Pekin, Illinois, recently recorded a significant safety accomplishment. Employees there have worked more than 500,000 consecutive hours without an injury or illness as part of the Syngenta Goal Zero safety initiative, a drive to eliminate incidents and injuries across its Production and Supply operations.
According to Pekin site manager Tim Hufnagel, Syngenta believes that recordable injuries are more than just numbers on a page – they’re serious problems for real people.
“The health and safety of our people is a core value at Syngenta,” Hufnagel said. “To put this achievement in perspective, 500,000 hours without injury is equivalent to 240 full-time employees working for an entire year without incident. Safety is an important part of our workplace culture. We discuss it every day, at the beginning of each shift, and our employees not only take responsibility for their own safety, they look after one another, as well.”
The Pekin seed production facility not only has an impressive track record for safety, it has a long history of serving the seed industry, as well, dating back to 1909 when it was first established as Sommer Bros. Seed Company. The 27-acre site currently contracts and produces soybean seed for customers in six states and employs 14.
In 2013, as part of the introduction of
The Good Growth Plan, Syngenta announced six commitments to address the global food security challenge. One of these is helping people stay safe. Bob Millner, Corn & Soybean HSE Manager for Syngenta, noted that this impressive safety milestone demonstrates the deeply held value for Health, Safety and Environmental performance held by all Syngenta employees at Pekin.
“This success was achieved by our colleagues in Pekin by making safety an integral part of everything they do, in large part by looking out for their safety and the safety of co-workers – each and every day,” Millner said. “It truly shows that they care about each other’s well-being. They have shown that they believe everyone deserves to go home as healthy and well as when they arrived at work.”
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