Sustainability Report 2020

News & Stories

Group health & safety strategy

The Health & Safety Policy that came into force at the end of 2020 provides a comprehensive basis for meeting the requirements of safe and health workplaces. The policy contributes to responsible leadership and increases the importance and value of occupational safety and health protection at all levels of our company. It aims to avoid high accident, illness and turnover rates at the company.

Mental health support at Greiner Packaging UK

One in four adults in the UK will be diagnosed with a mental health problem in their lifetime. To help colleagues affected by mental health issues as quickly as possible, 14 employees from Greiner Packaging at the Dungannon site in Northern Ireland qualified as “mental health first aiders”.

As part of their training, they learned how to identify whether a person is at risk of harming themselves, how to listen to those experiencing problems in a non-judgmental way, to give them support, encourage them to seek professional help and how to promote self-help strategies. Colleagues also received training in how to address the topic of mental health openly, as it is still largely considered a taboo topic among the public, not only in the UK.

It creates a minimum standard for all of our operations across the world. Of course, country-specific safeguards that go beyond this must also be observed at all times. The policy applies to all persons employed with or in similar relationships with Greiner and, where applicable, to external partners. Central aspects of our Health & Safety Policy include the appointment of internal safety officers for all Greiner operations (health & safety officer), who have corresponding authority and resources, i.e. authority to make decisions and give instructions, and providing a budget for purchases that promote health and safety. The policy also states that a certifiable management system with a focus on health and safety must be created, maintained and developed, a reporting system must be introduced for dangerous or unsafe situations or unsafe behavior and mandatory education and training provided for all managers on employee and health protection.

Kristi Byrum (Greiner Bio-One), Marketing manager (photo)

Kristi Byrum (Greiner Bio-One)
Marketing Manager

Greiner Bio-One Hungary supports fitness and popular sports

As part of the Greiner Cross Challenge, Greiner Bio-One Hungary supports the annual highlight of the Hungarian cross country calendar as the event’s main sponsor. The main motivation behind this event and other sporting events sponsored by Greiner is to boost the appeal of sports and, in turn, a healthy lifestyle, for the population and particularly for young people. On September 19, 2020, a total of 80 teams, each with four participants, competed against each other in seven different running, hurdling and canoeing categories. The title of the sporting event, “Something wild”, excellently describes the route with its wild ups and downs and numerous tough hurdles and other obstacles. And if the Greiner Cross Challenge was not enough, a week later participants could again demonstrate their fitness levels at the fourth Greiner mountain bike race.

Prevention is better than cure

The best healthcare is a preventative system. Our intention is to prevent ill health in the first place. Our goal is thus for 100 percent of all sites to introduce measures for healthcare. In a first step, all sites should implement at least one measure in the area of health protection in 2020. All Greiner sites are to develop and implement at least two health measures by the end of 2021. 40 sites implemented at least one health measure in 2020. Unfortunately, there are still sites that have not introduced any health measures. We will have to keep working hard on our target of all sites implementing at least two measures each year.

We define health prevention projects and measures as all measures that aim to prevent or delay health problems or make these less likely to occur. The health measures introduced focused on medical care (44 percent).

Sites with at least one health measure1

Sites with at least one health measure (bar chart)
1 Greiner AG is the 40th site. However, it is not assigned to any of the four Greiner divisions and so is not explicitly included in this graphic.
Cristina Tamas (NEVEON), Operator (photo)
Cristina Tamas (NEVEON) Operator

Greiner Packaging Serbia: Silver medal for safety concept

“The safety of our employees takes top priority in our day-to-day work. We are working hard on implementing a safety culture at our plant and I consider this award an acknowledgment of our activities and our strong commitment to the issue,” said Dragoslav Marić, General Manager at Greiner Packaging in the Serbian city of Odžaci, commenting on the national award received in the occupational health and safety category. Despite extremely tough competition, the Greiner site instigated numerous, significant changes in these areas and ranked second in the category for companies with fewer than 250 employees.

“Safety first” is the principle by which Greiner Packaging in Odžaci operates. Through targeted measures such as safety blades from a specialized manufacturer, for example, the number of cuts has been reduced to zero since the fourth quarter of 2019 and for the entirety of 2020. Marked paths for pedestrians and lanes for forklift trucks at the operational facilities also help improve workplace safety. Additional money was invested in fire safety (hydrants and fire alarms).

Old forklift trucks that no longer meet the relevant safety standards were also replaced by new models, which also have better ergonomics. A reporting system for risk situations, risk evaluations and safety management complete the award-winning raft of measures. These also include audit training for the management team. The fact that safety standards at our company site in Odžaci already meet all European requirements is particularly satisfying and beneficial moving forwards.

Health prevention in action

Health protection can take many forms. There are many small things that, added together, help our employees live healthier private and work lives. The concept of a workplace that helps maintain and promote health is also becoming increasingly relevant, as we need a healthy, qualified and highly motivated workforce if our company is to achieve success in the future. Workplace health promotion is thus becoming an integral part of any modern corporate strategy. The European Network for Workplace Health Promotion defines workplace health promotion as the “combined efforts of employers, employees and society to improve the health and well-being of people at work”. The two-pronged approach of our strategy for healthy and safe workplaces at Greiner aims to prevent work-related ill health, work accidents, work-related illness and stress while at the same time strengthening health and safety potential, thereby improving our employees’ wellbeing at work. To achieve this goal, we – as the examples below show – focus on measures to improve work organization and conditions, promoting active employee participation and improving personal health and safety skills.

Health prevention measures

Health prevention measures (pie chart)

Compared to the base year 2018, the total number of accidents rose by 29 in 2020, an increase of 6 percent. The rise in the total number of accidents reflects more minor accidents (increase of 23/up 10 percent) as well as serious accidents (increase of 12/up 6 percent). Encouragingly, this was countered by six fewer accidents on the way to work, representing a decline of 17 percent.

Accidents (total)

Accidents1

Accidents (total) (bar chart)
1 The total number of accidents includes accidents with downtimes of more than and less than eight hours as well as accidents on the way to work.

Minor accidents1

Minor accidents (total) (bar chart)
1 Minor accidents are accidents that result in downtime of less than eight hours.

Serious accidents1

Serious accidents (total) (bar chart)
1 Serious accidents are accidents that result in downtime of more than eight hours.

Accidents on the way to work1

Accidents on the way to work (total) (bar chart)
1 Accidents on the way to work are accidents that occur off the company premises when traveling directly to or from the place of work.

Focus has increasingly shifted to occupational safety since our first sustainability report. We have since recorded accidents using consistent standards across the group. To assess whether accidents have actually increased relative to the number of hours worked, we also calculate the frequency of serious accidents per million hours of work performed. While this has decreased by 9 percent since 2018, at 11.59 it is still far higher than our goal of halving the number of serious accidents by 2025.

Frequency of serious accidents per one million hours worked1

Frequency of accidents

Frequency of serious accidents per one million hours worked (bar chart)
1 The total hours of work performed in 2020 amounted to 19,321,553 overall.

We have made a number of plans to further reduce the number of accidents. In the medium term, we intend to introduce a management system for occupational safety and health protection at all production sites and also to have it certified according to ISO 45001. There is a particular focus here on sites that have already implemented a quality management system and environment and energy systems.

Employee health check

Regular health checks can save lives: Detecting illnesses at an early stage means more time for treatment and subsequent complications can be avoided. The aim of check-ups is to accurately assess the patient’s state of health and risk factors, as well as to give advice on leading a healthier life. In order to provide this healthcare service to its employees easily and straightforwardly, Greiner offers a comprehensive annual check-up at the company headquarters in Kremsmünster (Austria). This also covers one-on-one consultations with the doctor about a healthy lifestyle and any further examinations or treatment needed.

Production sites with certified management system ISO 45001

Greiner Bio-One (logo)

 

 

2019

 

2020

Greiner Bio-One

 

0 / 9

 

0 / 9

Greiner Packaging (logo)

 

 

2019

 

2020

Greiner Packaging

 

1 / 23

 

1 / 23

NEVEON (logo)

 

 

2019

 

2020

NEVEON

 

2 / 15

 

3 / 23

Greiner Extrusion (logo)

 

 

2019

 

2020

Greiner Extrusion

 

0 / 8

 

0 / 8

Ivanka Vukadin (NEVEON), Team Lead (photo)
Ivanka Vukadin (NEVEON) Team Lead
ISO
The International Organization for Standardization is an association under Swiss law and the international association of standard-setting bodies. The ISO establishes international standards in all areas except electrical and electronic engineering and telecommunication.
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