Environment Health & Safety
Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our people and the communities where we operate. Ensuring that our working environments are safe is an important part of everyone’s job at IFF. Our Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) management system covers all employees and contractors for activities at sites globally. Employees, contractors and visitors are expected and encouraged to uphold all IFF’s policies, report any incidents and suggest opportunities that will improve the safety of work sites.
Our approach for reporting EHS incidents and the criteria we use for corporate tracking is based on U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards. In addition to complying with all local regulations, our pursuit of excellence and best practice guidelines drive us to go beyond regulations to keep our people and facilities safe and environmentally friendly.
To work toward an incident-free workplace, we uphold a set of policies, protocols and programs in three key areas:
Senior managers, middle managers, first line supervisors and safety professionals are equally engaged in attaining EHS excellence, according to clearly defined and executed roles, responsibilities, and activities. Local teams conduct proactive safety observations, near miss reporting and self-assessments (or first-party audits) to ensure all employees are following IFF’s rigorous standards. External site audits are also conducted to provide additional verification of our processes.
EHS training for employees is managed at the site level, with each facility customizing safety and environmental programs based on both local requirements and global policies. Mandatory training is held for EHS managers and teams. The topics are based on key safety priorities and reflect EHS best practices, regulatory requirements and IFF policies.
Culture
Instilling a strong and proactive safety culture characterized by awareness and communication is vital to improving our performance over time. In 2021, we worked to define, measure, evaluate and strengthen safety culture. For example, the global EHS team launched and implemented the Safety Focus Program to assist sites with improving their safety performance while providing support and assistance through a collaborative approach.
The Site Buddy program assists the local teams at safety-focused sites on their improvement journey by connecting them with EHS professionals from a nearby site that has a well-developed safety culture.
The Fresh Eyes program includes a visit to an identified safety-focused site by its designated Site Buddy and a global EHS team leader to discuss safety culture.
Report Library
Read more about how we are contributing to sustainable development in our 2022 ESG+ Report.
