Health and Safety Have the Highest Priority for Bayer
Safety management and the continuous development of a safety culture are a cornerstone of corporate responsibility in the Bayer Group. Preventing accidents and incidents in day-to-day work, when operating production facilities, and on work-related travel and transportation routes where people or the environment may suffer harm or damage has top priority for us.
Responsibility for steering and monitoring health, safety and environmental protection across the Group lies with Corporate Health, Safety & Environment (CHS), which is assigned to the member of the Board of Management responsible for Crop Science. The enabling function establishes responsibilities, targets, key performance indicators and framework conditions. These include the corporate policy entitled “HSE Management and HSE Key Requirements,” adopted in April 2018. The continuous review and revision of corporate policies by the HSE enabling function, regular mandatory internal audits and external certification processes ensure that the systems at all sites meet the requirements in each case.
Read more in the latest sustainability report, page 93.
Occupational Health and Safety
Safeguarding the occupational health and safety of our employees, and of the employees of contractors under the direct supervision of Bayer, involves preventing work-related accidents and occupational illnesses, assessing potential hazards, ensuring comprehensive risk management and creating a healthy working environment.
In 2021, the incident rate rose to 0.37 cases per 200,000 hours worked, which is equivalent to 441 occupational injuries worldwide (2020: 390). The RIR thus came in below the defined target for 2021 of 0.39. In statistical terms, this means that one recordable incident occurred for more than every 534,000 hours worked. Recordable injuries with lost workdays constituted 249 of the total of 441 occupational injuries, meaning that the corresponding parameter, the Lost Time Recordable Incident Rate (LTRIR), rose slightly from 0.20 in 2020 to 0.21 in 2021. The continued low number of occupational injuries was due in part to increased working from home, which was considerably expanded as a protective measure in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more in the latest sustainability report, page 101.
Biological Safety
In accordance with the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) on biorisk management principles, we consider biological safety to comprise the principles, technologies and processes implemented to prevent unintended exposure to biological materials that could pose a risk to people or the environment. Misuse or theft of biological materials is also prevented by corresponding measures.
Processes for carrying out assessments and measures are established in a corporate policy on biosafety that is oriented to the specifications of the WHO. Wherever local laws and regulations are more stringent than the standards laid out by the corporate policy, the more stringent variant takes precedence.
Read more in the latest sustainability report, page 102.
Plant Safety
We aim to design and operate our processes and production facilities in such a way that they do not pose any inappropriate risks to employees, the environment or neighboring communities. This is conditional upon an effective system to ensure plant safety being in place that enables operational risks to be identified, remedied and reduced and their effects mitigated. We are continuously working to further develop the safety culture, the expertise of employees and the globally applicable corporate policies on process and plant safety, which prescribe uniform processes and standards for evaluating risks and establishing suitable safety measures.
Since 2019, we have used the globally standardized key performance indicator (KPI) “Process Safety Incident Rate (PSI-R)” as an early indicator for plant safety incidents. Reporting of this indicator is based on the requirements of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). In addition, we are also indicating the Process Safety Incident Severity Rate (PSI-SR) for the first time in 2020. We report this according to the grading system of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA).
Read more in the latest sustainability report, page 102
Transportation and Storage Safety
Transportation and storage safety is part of the Bayer HSE management system and is implemented by a network of experts and users with practical experience who cooperate across the Group.
In this case, safety means having procedures in place that ensure that materials are handled, transported and stored according to the relevant regulations and their respective hazard potential and that suitable logistics and warehouse suppliers are selected. Details are specified in the Transportation Safety, Warehousing and Health, Safety and Environment Audits corporate regulations. The underlying standards comprise not just internal Bayer guidelines, but also the rules of the international crop protection association CropLife International and the European Guidelines on Good Distribution Practice of Medicinal Products for Human Use.
Read more in the latest sustainability report, page 104
Emergency and Crisis Planning
We ensure safe working conditions and an environment where our employees can work safely and without fear and undertake international business travel without risk.
Extraordinary events are registered in the Bayer Emergency Response System according to a standard Group-wide procedure and re-ported to the Global Security Operation Center, which initiates the further steps such as the effective steering of information.
Processing of such incidents is the responsibility of the Group-wide safety and crisis organization or the local emergency response team. For this purpose, organizational precautions with defined responsibilities and procedures have been implemented and communicated through training measures at the sites and / or in the countries.
Read more in the latest sustainability report, page 106
