Workplace Health, Safety and Security

Our Journey to Zero:

Every day, we continuously strive to improve our culture of safety and accountability that empowers every employee to be a safety leader. Employees are committed to “Make Safe Happen” and drive safety excellence across our global operations through our “Journey to Zero,” which we define as zero accidents, zero errors and zero harm.

Our commitment to safety was fully evident throughout 2020 as we focused on keeping our employees safe and healthy. As part of our safety culture built on continuous improvement and anticipating emerging risks, Lubrizol had pandemic response plans and teams in place well before 2020. These plans and teams were activated in the early days of the pandemic, and we worked quickly to implement protocols, and evolve them over time, to ensure our sites are amongst the safest places for our employees.

Throughout the pandemic, our Lubrizol manufacturing locations remained fully operational. Forty percent of our workforce shifted to remote work, and we regularly shared safety information and tips with this population as well, ensuring their health and safety during this unprecedented time.

As an organization, we achieved a more than 30% improvement over the prior year in lost time and recordable injuries. For our latest safety and security performance data, refer to our Sustainability Scorecard.  

Responsible Care® Management System 

As a member of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Lubrizol subscribes to the principles of Responsible Care®. The ACC created the Responsible Care Management System (RCMS), which requires third-party certification of our Health, Safety, Environmental and Security (HSES) management systems across all business activities. With continual improvement a fundamental goal, implementing RCMS provides a framework to take our company above and beyond prior HSES accomplishments.
 
Beginning in 2017 Lubrizol elected to certify all of our US facilities to the RC14001:2015 management system standard.  
 
Although ACC required certification is currently only for U.S.-based operations, we've implemented best practices at all facilities around the world. Some countries where our facilities exist require third-party certifications, and we either have or will be meeting those requirements. For countries where there is no requirement, we began internal second-party audits following the 2009 completion of the U.S. sites.

Security

At Lubrizol, protection extends far beyond closed gates, locked doors, and security badges. You'll find our approach to be not only comprehensive but proactive and measurable. We are proud of the commitments made, and efforts taken to keep Lubrizol safe and secure. Highlights include:

• A comprehensive structure to assess vulnerability and implement risk-based security measures to protect our operating sites, both internal and external personnel, property, technologies, proprietary data, transportation, travelers, cybersecurity and communities
• Affiliation and involvement with organizations such as ASIS International (an international security organization) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC)
• Compliance with U.S.-based security legislative requirements
• Global security initiatives that align with our ACC Responsible Care Global Charter
• Close working relationships with law enforcement agencies in many communities

Process Safety 

Process safety involves preventing releases of hazardous materials that could result in serious injuries or fatalities to employees or neighbors, as well as harming the environment. Lubrizol works hard to prevent process safety incidents at every facility by:

• Ensuring that employees are properly trained to identify and mitigate hazards and risks
• Conducting process hazard analysis at facilities and implementing safeguards or layers of protection
• Managing all changes to the process, equipment and procedures before implementation
• Managing proactively equipment integrity and reliability
• Investigating incidents and sharing learnings from the root causes
• Reviewing our practices and seeking opportunities for continuous improvement