Safety first
We launched our global Safety First program in 2022 to ensure that safety is even more firmly embedded in our organizational culture. Keeping our employees safe at work is an essential aspect of our true purpose. The program strives to elevate our safety standards and ensure that this passion is reflected in our behaviour.
✔ Safety is our top priority. Our life-saving rules always prevail.
✔ We stop working when it is unsafe.
✔ We comply with our rules and agreements.
✔ We lead by example.
✔ We report unsafe situations and help to resolve them.
We improved our QHSE policy
The Safety First Global campaign began by improving the content and awareness of our Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) Policy, which sets high standards for our way of working.
Our QHSE policy
Our QHSE Policy
We supply safe, reliable and durable products to our customers that meet the agreed specifications.
We comply with laws and regulations.
We use our QHSE system to identify and manage risks and learn from our mistakes.
Health & Safety
We take care of each other and ensure a healthy and safe workplace.
We encourage a safety culture in which open communication, mutual trust, feedback, ownership, respect and care for each other are important characteristics.
We work according to agreed standards, regulations and specifications.
We ensure through training that everyone can work safely and responsibly and can continue to learn and grow.
Environment
We contribute to sustainability and circularity and prevent negative consequences of our activities on people and the environment.
We are transparent about our QHSE goals and performance and discuss these both internally ands externally.
We are a good neighbor.
We spread awareness
The Safety First program kicked off with an awareness campaign to increase the visibility of and communication around incidents. A safety video, telling true stories about accidents that happened by the ones who were involved, was shown to all employees followed by discussions to encourage open communication. This enabled local Safety First teams to improve safety and safety awareness.
We provided risk-assessment education
The next campaign ‘Last-minute risk assessment’ addressed our golden rule: Stop working when it is not safe. All managers now have a toolbox of resources to improve general knowledge on last-minute risk assessment for all work situations.
"Safety is not just a priority; safety is the basic condition for doing our jobs. At the end of the day, we must all go home safe."
Peter ter Horst, CEO, Teijin Aramid
The raw materials transition
Achieving our sustainability goals can never be a solo journey – partnerships and collaboration are essential. This means our suppliers are crucial. They provide the raw materials we need to produce our high-performance aramids and, whilst fossil-based resources have been our primary feedstocks in the past, we are continuously looking for renewable alternatives to derive aromatic raw materials from sources such as biomass and plastic waste or recycled aramid products.
Purposeful transparency
A transparent aramid chain for Twaron®
In 2021, we launched our eco-datasheet for Twaron®. It explains the environmental impact of our products and services to our partners. As a step in our journey towards a fully sustainable and circular aramid value chain, the eco-datasheet includes recent calculations of Twaron’s® carbon footprint measured in CO2-equivalent units. It also includes information about its recyclability and compliance with current chemicals industry regulations and other leading environmental standards and assessments.
Our Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study shows that Twaron’s® carbon footprint is steadily reducing and is now less than half of 2008. The LCA study was externally reviewed and conducted according to ISO standards 14040 and 14044.
EcoVadis-verified commitment For the seventh year in a row, Teijin Aramid has achieved gold status in EcoVadis’ sustainability assessment. This independent and objective assessment shows that we are in the top 2% of all ranked companies in all sectors. Teijin Aramid’s overall score is 75 out of 100 points, with EcoVadis’ assessments offering us objective insights and feedback we can use to strengthen our sustainability strategy.
This remarkable achievement demonstrates our unwavering commitment to environmental protection and to strong ethical and social responsibility performance in areas such as Labor and Human Rights.
Science-Based Targets
The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) provides a clear path for enterprises to understand how much and how soon they must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping the global temperature rise well below two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. Teijin Group’s new greenhouse gas emission targets have been verified by SBTi as helping to minimize climate change risks. Teijin Group is the first company in the Japanese chemical industry to be awarded this honor.
Diversity and Inclusion
We believe that innovation and an open, inclusive corporate culture go hand in hand. Part of our true purpose is to foster this culture, to encourage a workplace built on a foundation of respectful interaction where everyone feels they belong.
Diversity and inclusion are part of our DNA, embedded in our PURE values (Passion, Unity, Respect and Excellence), values that extend beyond the company to how we treat our customers and partners.
Diversity
Diversity is not only about including both men and women in our employee teams. It goes beyond this to acknowledge and celebrate differences in cultural background, age, appearance, sexual orientation, thinking styles and skills.
We know that companies with diverse teams are more innovative. Diversity leads to making better decisions, stronger performance and above-average results.
Inclusion
Inclusion is about feeling connected to others and knowing that it’s okay to be yourself. We aim to create a workplace where all employees are seen and heard, and everyone feels that they belong. Our core value of respect means we value people for their unique contribution while sharing agreed goals, standards and values.
Diversity and inclusion in practice
- In 2022, Teijin Aramid CEO Peter ter Horst signed a letter of intent to follow the UNESCO Charter Diversity. This commits us to making active efforts to stimulate diversity and inclusion in our company.
- Our annual global engagement survey helps us see any gaps between our existing company culture and our vision and to make improvements. In 2022, we added questions about diversity and inclusion so that we can hear what people think about it and consider how we can improve.
- Since 2021, a group of enthusiastic diversity and inclusion ambassadors have been creating more awareness about the subject within our company.
- Our unconscious bias training is teaching us how bias influences our daily decisions.
The program challenges and invites participants to become more aware of their unconscious beliefs that may lead to stereotyping groups of people. Concrete strategies are provided to help mitigate the effect of our biases.
Diversity and inclusion are part of our DNA, embedded in our PURE values (Passion, Unity, Respect and Excellence), values that extend beyond the company to how we treat our customers and partners.
Ethical Commitments
Our Code of Conduct, rooted in our PURE values (Passion, Unity, Respect, Excellence), is a foundation for our actions. It guides our interactions with colleagues, customers and the environment.
To ensure all employees are familiar with our Code of Conduct, we've developed e-learning content, mandatory for all. Employees follow the mandatory e-learning on our Code of Conduct and we regularly publish videos and messages on various topics of the Code of Conduct on our intranet.
Code of Conduct
Our standard for business ethics is set in our Code of Conduct. We pay specific attention to Anti-bribery and Anti-corruption, Human Rights and Labor conditions, as well as Information Security, through e-learnings, audits and recurring attention in team meetings and on our intranet.
We also set a high standard in our supply chain, performing due diligence checks via various forms of screening (for customers, suppliers, and pre-employment). In case of dilemmas, our employees can consult with our Ethics Committee.
This year’s highlights include:
- Integrity and Ethics dilemma sessions held with our Global Leadership Team provided insight into this Team’s decision-making process for difficult issues. For these, we use our Traffic Light Model as a guidance.
- During our yearly Ethics Month in October, we highlighted four chapters of our Code of Conduct, and positive statements on behavior to generate discussions on the work floor.
- We stimulate social dialogue between management and employees through the Works Councils, Roadshows and regular on-site meetings.
- Our yearly Employee Engagement Survey and Employee Awareness Survey identified room for improvements and we defined actions based on the outcome of these surveys.
Whilst we do not tolerate unethical or undesirable behavior, if it does come up, we strive to ensure that everyone feels safe and secure enough to address it directly with the people involved. As a backup, we have various speak up channels where employees can report their issues, either anonymously or in person, such as Counsellors, the Complaint Committee, the Ethics Committee and through our Speak Up system. A yearly report to the Management Team of Teijin Aramid BV on the issues reported via the various Speak Up channels keeps integrity and ethics on our Board’s agenda.
