Safety, a priority for all

Sequana constantly strives to improve its safety performance in its production and distribution activities by investing in the very safest equipment as well as in staff training and awareness operations.

The safety policy is one of the keystones of Sequana’s CSR policy. It is based on common guidelines applied to the entire Group, and takes the form of practical initiatives which involve the staff in the improvement of their working environment.

Arjowiggins: making paper safely

At Arjowiggins, the ‘Making Paper Safely’ scheme, launched in 2009 for a period of 5 years, is based on two major principles: the pre-eminence of the physical safety and health of staff throughout the production cycle and the necessity to work simultaneously on safe conduct and the protection of equipment. For example, in 2010, the French factory of Palalda, which specialises in the manufacture of paper for the medical sector, led a staff awareness scheme focusing on a safety mechanism installed on a papermaking machine.

Arjowiggins has also set itself the objective of obtaining the OHSAS 18001 certification for all its sites by the end of 2012. This certification provides a clear working framework for efficiently implementing and maintaining a safety management system. It is also a sign of external and independent recognition of the Group’s maturity in terms of safety and is perfectly in line with its continued progress approach. At the end of 2010, 10 out of the 27 Arjowiggins sites were certified, which is 5 more than in 2009.

Antalis: distributing safely

Antalis invests strongly in safety training and awareness schemes for its teams. In 2010, safety seminars created with the company’s insurers were organised in the different countries. They focused on the protection of goods and persons, covering topics specific to the region concerned, and brought together operational managers, dedicated safety coordinators, and maintenance technicians from the various sites in a given country or region.

Finally the countries regularly lead their own initiatives to improve their safety performances. For example, in Spain, as well as the creation of ‘safety corners’ in all the warehouses in 2010, a project concerning safe driving of forklift trucks led to the definition of a usage standard (a 1-metre radius ‘safety circle’ around forklift trucks at all times).