United States Steel Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer David B. Burritt announced on October 31 that U. S. Steel has earned the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 45001 certification for its Great Lakes Works and U. S. Steel Košice facilities, more than a year ahead of its commitment to achieve the latest global occupational health and safety accreditation. Burritt made the announcement during remarks at the ResponsibleSteel™ Forum III event in Memphis, Tennessee.
U. S. Steel is committed to achieving the certification at all its facilities by 2024, as part of the health and safety goals outlined in the 2021 Sustainability Report. The certification of the facilities in Košice, Slovakia, and River Rouge and Ecorse, MI, are the company’s first under the standard.
“We are pleased to reach this safety and sustainability milestone more than a full year ahead of our 2024 target. The phrase ‘Safety First’ originated in our steel mills in 1908, and sending our employees back home to their families safely each and every day has always been our most important priority,” said David B. Burritt. “In order to achieve our Best for All® strategy, we need the best from all, and with the enhanced structure and data that ISO 45001 brings to our existing, industry-leading best practices, we will be better able to deliver on our commitment to 360° Safety.”
ISO 45001 focuses on process over procedures, which enables continuous safety improvement, takes a holistic approach to the physical, psychological and cognitive condition of workers to minimize the risk of injury or death on the job, and crucially, incorporates the viewpoints of all safety stakeholders including contractors and employees.
“U. S. Steel is committed to fostering a culture of caring that makes employee safety a top priority,” said James E. Bruno, U. S. Steel Košice President. “We strive to maintain the highest safety performance standards, while always looking forward to ensure that we are prepared to address the next safety challenge.”
“This certification builds on our zero-harm culture, including developing an enhanced Safety Management System that empowers employees to assess, reduce and eliminate workplace risks with an improved safety communications systems and stronger contractor safety processes,” said Robert C. Rudge, Jr., Vice President and Chief Safety and Security Officer. “ISO 45001 certification gives management and our highly-skilled employees better data and structure to enable proactive, strategic safety practice improvements, as well as fuller awareness of high-risk and high-hazard activities that will build on our strong safety record.”
Earlier this year, U. S. Steel received the National Safety Council’s 2022 Green Cross for Safety Excellence Award®, which recognizes a corporation, coalition or organization that is relentless in its pursuit of safety. U. S. Steel also received a 2022 Safety and Health Excellence Recognition award from the World Steel Association (worldsteel) in recognition “for delivering demonstrable improvements in safety and health.” In 2021, the Company achieved a record global days away from work case rate of 0.06, which is 90% better than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ global days away from work case rate.
