Harsco Celebrates June National Safety Month With Strong Health, Safety Performance

• Company beat its 2020 enterprise total recordable incident rate goal by 15 percent and grew the number of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 18001 or 45001 certified sites by nine, bringing its total to 60.
• Harsco Environmental division launched a digital safety initiative to improve communications with nearly 9,000 employees.
• Clean Earth division demonstrated safety commitment by requiring its senior leadership team to conduct in-person reviews of all locations.

CAMP HILL, Pa. – (June 25, 2021) – In recognition of National Safety Month, Harsco Corporation (NYSE: HSC), a global market leading provider of environmental solutions for industrial and specialty waste streams, today announces its workplace achievements and commitments around health and safety. 

June marks the 25th anniversary of National Safety Month.  According to the National Safety Council (NSC), National Safety Month is an annual observance to help keep each other safe from the workplace to anyplace. The NSC notes that as the U.S. has experienced the highest number of workplace deaths since 2007 – 5,333 fatal workplace injuries in 2019 – this observance is more important than ever.

In 2020, Harsco attained numerous accomplishments for its health and safety initiatives, including:

• Growing to 60 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 45001 and International Occupational Health and Safety Management Standard (OHSAS) 18001 certified sites, an increase of 20 percent since 2018.
   
  • ISO 45001 is the world’s international standard for occupational health and safety; OHSAS 18001 is an international standard developed by the British Standards Institution (BSI) for occupational health and safety management practices.
     
• Achieving a Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of 1.06, beating the company’s 2020 target by 15 percent.

As all of Harsco’s businesses are designated essential services, more than 85 percent of the Company’s employee population continued working on-site at its facilities or customer sites throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Just weeks into the pandemic, Harsco implemented the HarscoCares COVID-19 Global Principles at all its facilities to ensure the health and safety of its global workforce throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

“At Harsco, safety isn’t just something we talk about – it is part of who we are,” said Nick Grasberger, Chairman & CEO of Harsco Corporation. “Our vision to eliminate workplace injuries and illnesses is embedded in our Employee Care value and drives a sustainable safety culture designed to protect employees, customers, work environments and communities.”

Clean Earth

In 2020, Harsco’s Clean Earth division achieved the prestigious ConstructSecure Gold Safety Award for the Waste Collection trade for the first time in company history.  Clean Earth’s soil treatment and recycling facility located in Carteret, New Jersey, the largest soil remediation facility of its design in the U.S., successfully completed 2020 without a recordable safety incident.

In addition, to improve its safety and compliance performance, Clean Earth proactively engaged in five key activities in 2020:

1. Conducted an internal visit program for safety and environmental compliance, requiring its senior leadership team to visit all locations in-person.
    
2. Improved training programs to ensure employees understand hazard identification, policies and procedures.
    
3. Improved communications by releasing internal monthly reports on Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) metrics and highlighting best practices.
    
4. Strengthened its culture of accountability by holding every employee accountable to the same high standard, individually and collectively.
    
5. Reinforced a zero-tolerance policy for non-compliance to safety and environmental regulations.

Harsco Environmental

In 2020, the Harsco Environmental division embarked upon a safety strategy refresh at its 150+ sites across the globe. 

Unique cross-functional working groups formed across the company to utilize a five-step approach to identify, prioritize and implement key initiatives based on Harsco’s existing Safety Management System: leadership commitment, engagement, risk management, operating discipline and assurance. Key initiative highlights include training nearly all managers and supervisors on a new health and safety initiative and launching a digital safety program to improve communications with its nearly 9,000 global employees.

Additionally, Harsco Environmental India recorded the best safety performance out of any region by operating 4 million man-hours without a recordable injury. Harsco Environmental’s site in Taiyuan, China has also not had a recordable injury in 1,171 days and has not recorded a serious injury in nearly 10 years.

Harsco Rail

Harsco Rail’s North America Contract Services received a 2020 Platinum Safety Award from the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) for the third consecutive year.

To learn more about Harsco, visit www.harsco.com. 

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About Harsco Corporation

Harsco Corporation (NYSE: HSC) is a global market leader providing environmental solutions for industrial and specialty waste streams, and innovative technologies for the rail sector. Based in Camp Hill, PA, the 12,000-employee company operates in more than 30 countries. Harsco’s common stock is a component of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and the Russell 2000 Index. Additional information can be found at www.harsco.com.