In the case of the various efforts related to occupational health and safety, an activity policy is formulated by the Safety Subcommittee established under the CSR Committee. These actual activities are promoted by the Manufacturing Infrastructure Enhancement Center Safety & Environment Group.
We have formulated the Sekisui Chemical Group Safety Policy, which forms our basic philosophy on occupational safety and is shared by all employees within the Group. In addition to collecting a range of occupational health and safety data such as incident frequency rates, we also collect data from partner companies (contractors) outside the Group including those that occur during production and construction operations as well as any incidence of occupational health and safety issues during research activities. In fiscal 2019, two meetings of the Safety Subcommittee were held in September and March.
In event of an actual occupational injury, information including the form of employment of the injured party is collected. Improvements as required are also sought when there is a problem with the management of a business site.
While Sekisui Chemical does not undergo such external certifications as ISO 45001, the Company does promote activities based on international standards at business sites. This includes reflecting ISO and Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) requirements in audit evaluation items.

The Occupational Safety Committee at each business site of Sekisui Chemical Group holds a meeting every month, as mandated by law. In addition, the Central Occupational Safety Committee, consisting of members from corporate headquarters and labor unions, meets once a year. The Central Occupational Safety Committee was created on the basis of collective labor agreements to conduct disaster-related investigations and make strategic proposals related to occupational health and safety. Every employee can potentially become a member of the Central Occupational Safety Committee.
Based on the outcome of the Occupational Safety Committee’s deliberations, Sekisui Chemical Group aims to strictly comply with laws and regulations, including the Industrial Safety and Health Act, ensure the safety and health of employees at work, and create a comfortable workplace environment. The Central Occupational Safety Committee and the Occupational Safety Committees at each business site assess workplace environments, draw up and implement solutions to workplace problems, and decide rules with regard to various topics related to occupational safety and health.

Based on the recognition that it is of the utmost importance for the top managers at business sites to exercise leadership and take the initiative in safety activities, leaders from each division, including the president, declare their commitment to safe business practices each fiscal year, and their personally written declarations are published on the intranet.

Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) audit evaluation reports are drafted and used in self-assessments and corporate audits at each business site. Evaluation items are revised annually, which include incorporating ISO 45001 requirements published in March 2018. Taking into consideration the status of safety management activities and the incidence of natural disasters, corporate audits were conducted at 20 business sites in Japan, a smaller number than in previous years, in fiscal 2019.

Article 14 of the Group’s Safety Management Rules stipulates that a comprehensive preliminary occupational safety assessment must be undertaken by the business general manager concerned when launching a new business. Based on this stipulation, the relevant divisional company that is looking to launch a new business implements an assessment.

In fiscal 2019, 38 employees (68 in total since fiscal 2017) were certified under the “safety leader” qualification to serve as personnel who take the initiative in safety activities. Safety leaders are tasked with identifying and mitigating risks at their respective workplaces, holding workshops with other safety leaders Group-wide, and promoting the standardization of safety training curriculum.
In addition, we encourage employees to obtain the qualification called “safety sub-assessor,” holders of which play a role in promoting intrinsic safety in equipment. Since fiscal 2017, 140 employees in total have been certified as safety sub-assessors. We have deployed safety sub-assessors in Group-wide projects extending over several business sites, where they promote improved safety in areas such as elevated opening/closing fences, pinch rollers, and handcarts commonly used at these locations.

In fiscal 2017, we issued Equipment Design Safety Guidelines, which summarize the safety design standards necessary for production equipment used by Sekisui Chemical Group. Steps are taken to monitor the status of compliance on an ongoing basis. Safety specification checklists must be attached to equipment manufacturer estimates. Corporate audits are conducted to verify that equipment safety standards are actually being adhered to at workplaces and intrinsic safety is being promoted.

We conduct practical risk assessment-improvement training in order to develop personnel able to identify and mitigate risks at their workplaces. In fiscal 2019, training sessions were conducted at Sekisui Fuller Company, Ltd. Shiga Plant and Chushikoku Sekisui Heim Industry Co., Ltd. The identification of risks by personnel, who have undergone training, and improvements made at their workplaces are monitored. Since fiscal 2016, this training program has been held at a total of 10 workplaces, with the number of participants reaching 239 to date. In addition, the training program has resulted in over 1,900 risk items being identified and unacceptable risks being mitigated.

To prevent fires and explosions that, once they occur, have a major impact on the surrounding environment and on business continuity, in addition to the safety audits performed thus far, we implement emergency response audits, to which we invite outside disaster experts. We verify items such as the storage and handling status of hazardous materials as well as the recovery systems used following a disaster, including natural disasters, and promote the quick identification of disaster risks and the subsequent implementation of preventative measures.
Of the 147 measures implemented to prevent a reoccurrence of the 20 fires (including small fires) between fiscal 2104 and fiscal 2017, we confirmed that 139 were still in place. We recommended further measures for strengthening the remaining eight measures and confirmed that these improvements had been made.
Building on the accident prevention handbook issued in 2017, we published a second edition in 2019. Based on this handbook, steps are being taken to identify fire and explosion risks at 48 business sites nationwide. By fiscal 2019, 4,072 risks were identified, and 1,858 (90%) of 2,069 risks requiring improvement were mitigated as of the end of fiscal 2019.

We have established getting caught or entangled in machinery at a production facility, falling off equipment or falling over at a business site, and a fire or explosion in a chemical process as high-risk scenarios on which Sekisui Chemical Group should place a particular focus on preventing. The Company conducts “Heads-up Training” where chemical processes are integral to production.
At Sekisui Chemical Group, we conduct “Heads-up training” to fortify the decision-making abilities of all our employees in the event that they encounter an emergency situation. More specifically, supervisors with years of experience will ask trainees what they would do if equipment designed to prevent danger fails and the trainees will be tasked with providing responses off the top of their heads. This training improves the skills needed to respond to unexpected situations in the event of a disaster by passing down to younger employees the on-site safety know-how accumulated over many years by senior employees. Through this training, we were able to improve equipment countermeasures and revise operating procedures. In addition to teaching trainees how to handle potential problems, the training has been applied on various occasions, including evacuation drills and disaster prevention drills.

We are working to prevent occupational injuries caused by machines and equipment by making the equipment itself intrinsically safer while also preventing occupational accidents caused by worker operations. Based on the lessons learned from past occupational accidents that actually occurred on Group business sites, the “Six Basic Safety Principles,” which summarize compliance matters and matters prohibited during operations for each operational process, were established in fiscal 2017. In order to promptly disseminate these principles within the Company, we created and distributed to each workplace a poster that showed them in an easy to understand, illustrated format.
We confirmed that these posters are being utilized at each business site through corporate audit inspection tours conducted in fiscal 2019. In addition, similar details have been processed into a simple animation format. A mechanism is now in place to view this animation on personal smartphones and replayed on workplace monitors.

At our overseas production sites, which operate under the varying laws and regulations as well as differing cultural awareness of safety issues in each region, Sekisui Chemical Group has, since fiscal 2013, been deploying safety global standards to raise the level of safety activities. Having commenced safety audits based on these global standards in earnest in fiscal 2014, we implemented audits at seven business sites in fiscal 2019. We are also holding regional safety brainstorming sessions in North America and China to share regional issues and discuss countermeasures. Planning and implementation, which had been previously spearheaded in Japan, have been shifted to regional head office staff. The program is undertaken each fiscal year based on such themes as policy development, sharing workplace initiatives, lectures by experts, and methods to investigate the causes of accidents.

Sekisui Chemical Group Safety & Environment Conference is usually held to coincide with National Safety Week in July of each year. In fiscal 2019, the president was among the total of 250 people, who also included other directors, business heads from domestic production business sites and laboratories, construction companies as well as those in charge of safety, etc. who attended the conference on July 12, 2019. The fiscal 2018 presidential award was given to the business site with the best safety record for the fiscal year at the conference.

Based on the idea of securing the safety of employees from partner companies (contractors) involved in the on-site construction of housing, the Housing Company organizes the Sekisui Heim Cooperation Association with its partner companies (contractors) and holds periodic meetings while utilizing other methods to share the Group’s safety policy. We also provide a variety of training opportunities related to occupational safety, such as safety education sessions.

Aggregate scope: 48 production sites and 5 research institutes in Japan