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Domtar sets safety goals aligned with its sustainbility agenda

Domtar announced that it has set two ambitious safety goals and has identified pathways to achieve them, as it looks towards 2030.

1. Attain zero actual serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs) for employees and contractors, with a focus on SIF prevention.

The company will work toward this goal by enhancing proactive prevention programs across all of its facilities with a consistent, company-wide approach.

Domtar also plans to shift from tracking OSHA’s total frequency rate (TFR) to tracking OSHA’s lost-time frequency rate (LTFR), which offers a stronger correlation to SIFs.

2. Reduce lost-time frequency rate (LTFR) by 63 percent from 2020.

Domtar aims to be in the top decile of similar companies reporting LTFR data to the American Forest & Paper Association. The company will also work to reach an annual safety goal of 0.10 or less by 2030.

To achieve this, it will track leading indicators and focus on managing risk assessment efforts and behaviours that result in reduced exposure to life-altering events.

“As we developed these six focus areas for our sustainability agenda the next several years, we knew that safety goals will continue to play a vital role,” says Paige Goff, vice-president for sustainability at Domtar. “While many people equate the term ‘sustainability’ with nature, we know there is nothing more important to our sustainability than the health and safety of our colleagues and communities.”

Domtar said in a statement that it recognizes safety as an essential element of its success and sustainability. Its safety goals are a top priority in its sustainability agenda moving toward 2030.

The company explained that while it works deliberately to avoid any type of injury, the focus of its safety goals is the most serious injuries that are life-altering.

“We are working to identify and eliminate all gaps between ‘work as imagined’ and ‘work as performed,’” says Larry Warren, Domtar’s senior director of health and safety. “These efforts will help us reduce all types of injuries and particularly those with the potential to be life-altering, while continuing to build a just culture for all people at Domtar facilities.”

Safety efforts at two of its mills were recently recognized. The Dryden Mill in Ontario tops the list of safest mills in Canada in its category in our magazine’s 2021 Safest Mill in Canada contest.

Additionally, Domtar’s Hawesville Mill in Kentucky received the Governor’s Health and Safety Award.