Arxada, trading as Arch Wood Protection SA, has been awarded the esteemed 2021 Responsible Care Award in recognition of the company’s outstanding year-on-year performance in the CAIA Responsible Care programmes for safety, health and environmental performance.
From left: Kesun Govender (Site Head and Operations Manager); Denise Conradie (Quality Manager); Theshin Naicker (Export Manager); Stephen Manikam (Process Safety Engineering Manager) and JJ du Plessis (Senior Regional Sales Manager). Image credi: Arch Wood Protection SA
The award was presented to Arch Wood Protection at the Chemical and Allied Industries Association’s (CAIA) 83rd Annual General Meeting, Responsible Care Report Launch and Responsible Care Awards Ceremony, held on November 17, 2021. Out of fifty-five noteworthy contenders, Arch Wood Protection exhibited the best results when comparing the 2020 and 2021 KPI data submissions as well as the contribution to CAIA working groups, the attendance of training workshops and the company’s process safety.
“Winning this award verifies the fact that commitment to safety is an inseparable part of our company culture. Our site safety record has surpassed twenty-eight years without any loss of time due to injuries or fatalities and we are confidently on track to complete our twenty-ninth year. To achieve this, safety was included in other organisational programmes, such as plant improvement projects and the Corporate Operational Excellence project, and in this way remained top of mind for every colleague,” said JJ du Plessis, the senior regional sales manager at Arxada.
Du Plessis expressed his appreciation for the outstanding work carried out by CAIA to promote the sustainability of the chemical industry through Responsible Care.
“We thank CAIA for providing a programme that not only encourages and assists the industry to raise its standards and win greater trust from the public, but also motivates, acknowledges and rewards companies who go above and beyond. Despite the unprecedented challenges faced in 2020, our operation manager and site head, Kesun Govender, and our entire team continued to prioritise safety. The time and resources invested into safety training programmes and improvement projects has been instrumental in achieving a safety record that is worthy of an award,” said du Plessis.
About Responsible Care
Responsible Care is the chemical industry’s own initiative. It is a unique, voluntary programme that is designed to have a measurable impact on safety, health, environmental performance and security through a rigorous system of checklists, performance indicators and verification procedures. This enables the industry to demonstrate how it has improved over the years and to develop policies for further improvement.
