Case study: How Aptar promotes employee safety and wellbeing
Headquartered in Crystal Lake, Illinois, with manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, Aptar is a leading global supplier of a broad range of innovative dispensing, sealing and active packaging systems for the beauty, personal care, home care, prescription drug, consumer health care, injectables, and food and beverage markets. At Aptar, all employees contribute to maintaining a safe and healthy environment for themselves and those working with them. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2019 Corporate Sustainability Report by Aptar published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Having set employee health and safety as a top priority, Aptar finished 2019 with significant reductions in both total recordable incident rates and lost time incident rates. In order to promote employee safety and wellbeing Aptar took action to:
- implement an EHS Management System
- apply a Behaviour-Based Safety Programme
- make its workplaces COVID-secure
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Aptar has identified;
- How Aptar proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Aptar to promote employee safety and wellbeing
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2019 Corporate Sustainability Report Aptar identified a range of material issues, such as product stewardship, energy and emissions, ethics and integrity, environmental compliance. Among these, promoting employee safety and wellbeing stands out as a key material issue for Aptar.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Aptar engages with:
Stakeholder Group |
Employees |
Customers |
Investors |
Peers |
Industry Associations, NGOs, & Research Organisations |
Regulatory Bodies |
Communities |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Aptar engaged with its stakeholders through interviews.
What actions were taken by Aptar to promote employee safety and wellbeing?
In its 2019 Corporate Sustainability Report Aptar reports that it took the following actions for promoting employee safety and wellbeing:
- Implementing an EHS Management System
- In 2017, initial requirements were drafted and published for Aptar’s EHS (Environmental Health and Safety) Management System (EHS MS), a system setting global standards around key safety and environment topics. Each year thereafter, a new phase of these standards was released, with the Phase III topics introduced in December 2019. Through the year, sites worked on implementation and improvement of the EHS MS standards while developing action plans to address potential gaps.
- Applying a Behaviour-Based Safety Programme
- Mission Engage, Aptar’s Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS) programme, is about showing each and every Aptar employee that they matter. Mission Engage involves employees to determine what drives at-risk and safe behaviours. Focus on safety promotes a culture of caring where we demonstrate dedication to ourselves through self-accountability as well as to co-workers through team accountability. Increased safety conversations help site leaders target and prioritise key initiatives and process improvement. Aptar’s goal is to provide a safe workplace and to send every Aptar employee home, each and every day, injury free. The initials “ME” of the Mission Engage logo serve as a visual cue for the importance of employee engagement and communication, both critical to the success of a BBS (Behaviour-Based Safety) programme. Through this programme Aptar encourages its employees to:
- Speak up if they see an unsafe or at risk behaviour
- Help each other identify risks by encouraging open and transparent conversations
- Ensure Aptar follows through with feedback and actions when appropriate.
- Making workplaces COVID-secure
- Since early January 2020, Aptar has been faced with the developing coronavirus pandemic first in its Asia sites and then throughout its global operations. Internally, Aptar formed Global and Regional coordination teams to implement policy and procedure modifications, monitor current communications and evaluate global and site-specific risks and procedures. These teams helped sites create exposure control plans that incorporated site level crisis management teams and the development of detailed workplace practices. Those who could work remotely did so, travel between sites was limited, sanitising procedures were increased and clear guidelines to monitor cases were implemented. Tracking of COVID-19 suspected or confirmed exposure is being tracked in EHStar, Aptar’s digital solution for EHS management, allowing for prompt notification to all relevant Aptar members. In addition to COVID tracking, EHStar helps Aptar manage its EHS Management System implementation and tracks safety and operational eco-efficiency metrics.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:
1) Disclosure 403-1 Occupational health and safety management system
Disclosure 403-1 Occupational health and safety management system corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.8
Disclosure 403-4 Worker participation, consultation, and communication on occupational health and safety corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.8
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Targets: 16.7
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by Aptar, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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