Report

Contact Information

Global Nalco Locations
Local Sales Offices
Energy Services Contacts

 

Nalco EAME Headquarters

Nalco Europe Sàrl
A-One Business Park
Z.A. La Pièce 1
Route de l’Etraz
1180 Rolle
Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0)21 614 6400

Social Sustainability

2010 included many positives for Nalco such as continued overall strong safety performance and growing efforts in community outreach and philanthropy. However, it was also a year that included two fatalities.

Safety

Safety is one of our core values and remains Nalco’s number one priority. The impact of the two lives lost in 2010 served to redouble our efforts to make safety personal and continue to focus on zero—zero accidents, zero injuries and zero fatalities.

To improve contractor and overall safety we have identified site safety leaders for all accounts to ensure clear accountability at sites where multiple Nalco or contract personnel routinely work. This builds on our existing District Manager and Safety Champion networks. In addition, customer site safety tools including a risk profile tool, risk assessment templates and site audit tools have been developed. We expect these steps to combine with an improved contractor selection process and new training to improve performance.

The employee fatality involved a delivery specialist who died after being ejected from the cab of his truck while not wearing a seat belt, in violation of Nalco policy. In response to this tragedy, we conducted a seat belt use communications campaign with the theme “Everybody, Everywhere, Every time” including newsletters and posters to restate this longstanding policy.

A Pareto analysis of injury incidents sustained in 2009 was used to identify the three key behaviors which, if eliminated, would have contributed an 85 percent reduction in incidents. This analysis and three key behaviors – eyes on your path and task, preplanning and wearing the appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment) – have been widely shared and used in safety coaching. We continue to engage employees in identifying and reporting unsafe acts and conditions. We regularly share Safety Alerts and Safety Lessons Learned based on that reporting. These notices relate the root causes, lessons learned and resulting recommendations from the investigation of an incident or near miss.

In addition to these steps, Nalco’s monthly global safety dashboard is a combination of leading and lagging safety metrics to measure our performance. The leading metrics track training in a number of key areas including driving, risk assessment (to guide identification, evaluation and control of workplace hazards) and SOS or Safety On Site (which includes confined space, fall protection and other core elements) as well as near misses and safety audits.

Since 2007 more than 4,500 Nalco employees have completed our innovative SOS training across multiple training hubs in each region. The program combines classroom instruction with on-site, hands-on practical field exercises to reinforce the classroom work. These leading measures are designed to ensure we have the proper programs in place to drive safe work practices as new hires begin their careers at Nalco. SOS refresher training is required for existing employees every three years thereafter, via webcast or in-person training.

2010 also saw the design and launch of Nalco's new Safety Leadership Course targeting middle management through executive leadership. The training captures a broader cross section of leadership than traditionally targeted for safety training and is being deployed globally in eight languages during 2011.

Lagging indicators are the gauge of our actual performance. Our Total Vehicle Accident Rate (TVAR) which measures accidents per million miles driven, dropped 30 percent from 2009 representing 155 fewer accidents. The rate has fallen 45 percent over the past five years. At 2.3, the TVAR in 2010 was better than our goal of 3.3. Our Severe Vehicle Accident Rate (SVAR) measures driving accidents resulting in death, bodily injury, disabling or rolling over a vehicle. The SVAR in 2010 improved 20 percent to 0.24, also below our target for the year.

Regrettably the number of recordable injuries increased slightly from 2009, which combined with a growing global workforce saw our Total Recordable Injury Rate or TRIR (the rate of injuries per 100 full time workers) remain virtually flat for the third straight year at 0.57. While we did not meet our target of a TRIR of 0.48, we remained among the top 25 percent of companies in our industry (LA7).

In 2010 we developed a Travel Security and Journey Management process to ensure that our employees experience safe, secure travel while on business for Nalco. Each country is classified according to medical and security risks and employees automatically receive a pre-travel advisory email with information regarding medical risks, recommended vaccinations, cultural information, and safety and security recommendations.

Community

Nalco and our employees have a longstanding dedication to involvement in our communities, focusing on critical local issues that have a broad impact. We are also increasingly looking for ways to affect larger regional and global issues through support of, and interaction with, major nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Global Cooperation

Complex problems require cooperation to identify solutions. We deepened and expanded our involvement with a number of organizations to bring our expertise and problem solving abilities to bear on that process.

Water For People

 The Nalco Foundation has supported Water For People (WFP), a non-profit international development organization helping people in developing countries, since 2004. A $150,000 grant in 2010 supported a water and hygiene program in West Bengal, India. WFP partners with the local district assembly and local NGOs to construct and repair community water points. The program establishes water committees whose members are trained in the operation, maintenance and financial management of each water system. A hygiene education program helps improve health by reducing the incidence of illness caused by untreated or poorly treated water.

Nalco has provided administrative and technical expertise, office space, equipment and chemical donations to directly impact WFP’s efforts. A Nalco senior executive, Group Vice President Mary Kay Kaufmann, volunteers on WFP’s board of directors.

“On the ground” support for WFP comes from Nalco volunteers in the World Water Corps (WWC) – a volunteer program that gives individuals the opportunity to travel abroad and share their unique skills and experience. Six Nalco WWC volunteers traveled to Bolivia, Rwanda and Guatemala in 2010, helping ensure the sustainability of water and sanitation systems by testing and through observation and interviews with people on the ground in homes, clinics, schools and at community water points. More trips are planned for 2011.

Nalco NLC India also partnered with WFP in Calcutta, India to distribute water testing kits in schools to increase awareness and promote the importance of clean drinking water among people living in remote villages. Nalco developed the tests for water quality analysis while WFP designed and branded the kits to ensure the message was understood by local inhabitants.

WWF

We signed a memorandum of understanding with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the world's foremost conservation groups, to jointly develop best practices to protect and conserve water. Nalco is providing $50,000 annually to support the Global Water Roundtable, which is being organized by WWF and the Alliance for Water Stewardship, in developing credible water stewardship standards for fair and sustainable management of fresh water. In addition, Nalco staff around the globe will provide technical support and analytical services to WWF staff working in the field to conserve fresh water ecosystems.

United Nations Global Compact

Our ongoing support for the Global Compact aligns with our daily efforts to deliver environmental solutions to our customers, provide employees with a safe, rewarding workplace, operate ethically and fairly, and conduct our own operations in a way that protects the planet. Our CEO, Erik Fyrwald, further demonstrated that commitment by signing the UN Convention against Corruption. In April, Nalco co-sponsored the fourth Business for Environment (B4E) Global Summit in South Korea and Dr. Manian Ramesh, our Chief Technology Officer, was part of a panel on sustainable water management.

CEO Water Mandate

We helped the Water Mandate create the Guide to Responsible Corporate Engagement in Water Public Policy, which serves as a roadmap for companies to understand the best way to interact with governments and neighbors when developing and responding to water-related public policies. Nalco also co-sponsored and participated in the CEO Water Mandate’s Sixth Working Conference in Cape Town, South Africa in November.

Joint Research and Development Efforts

Our open innovation efforts include joint research and development projects with various colleges, universities and government facilities. A joint partnership with Argonne National Laboratory in the United States has worked on projects that include helping power plants reduce water consumption by using lower quality water in their cooling systems and decreasing the energy and cost of capturing carbon dioxide.
Water scarcity is a major issue in the Middle East, one of the most arid regions of the world. Nalco is a founding member of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s (KAUST) Industrial Collaboration Program in Saudi Arabia. The partnership with KAUST provides opportunities for advancing important environmental technologies such as water reuse, membranes and desalination.

Local Involvement

Our outreach encompasses a broad range of involvement including donating time, money, used furniture, clothing and other items as well as participating in community cleanups, child sports programs and the like.

When natural disasters occur, Nalco responds. Employees donated $37,000 to North America and International Red Cross agencies after the earthquake in Haiti and Nalco matched those contributions. A few months later when Chile was also struck by an earthquake, employees donated more than $8,000 that was matched by the Nalco Foundation. In Indonesia, Nalco donated cash to help victims in Yogyakarta, Central Java following the Mount Merapi volcano eruptions in October and November.

Seventeen Nalco employees, friends and family members participated in the two-day, 180-mile bicycle ride from Houston to Austin, Texas, raising $13,740 to fight multiple sclerosis with an additional $10,000 donated by the Nalco Foundation. More than 100 employees, their family and friends supported the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation annual fundraising walk in Chicago, collecting nearly $26,500 and Nalco donated an additional $50,000.

Education is an important focus. Nalco facilities and our employees routinely support local schools by spending time volunteering in classrooms, providing school supplies and donating used furniture and lab equipment. The broadest impact comes from our Science is Fun chemistry demonstration program that reached more than 60 Chicago-area schools and nearly 5,000 students in 2010.

Since the program began 20 years ago, more than 170,000 third grade students have witnessed the series of 10 different experiments designed to inspire careers in science. Once that interest has taken hold, vocational education, internships and summer job opportunities with Nalco provide real world experience for older students.

Nalco volunteers regularly support food banks, blood drives, clothing appeals and similar events worldwide. Employees in the United States and Canada annually pledge support for the United Way, which in turn funds a multitude of programs and agencies that help the many people in need of educational, financial and health assistance. Nalco employees pledged more than $111,000 last year while the company provided $100,000 for a total contribution in excess of $211,000.

The Nalco Foundation donated more than $540,000 in 2010. Major grants made in the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill funded Catholic Charities of New Orleans’ on-going assistance programs, the Audubon Nature Institute’s sea turtle rescue program and Louisiana State University’s environmental research efforts.
.