Mead: Safety, Health and Environmental Policies
Create a workplace free from occupational injuries and illnesses;
Mead is committed to achieving safety excellence and promoting employee health and wellness.
Mead will also ensure that our employees receive prompt, quality medical care; and be able to return to productive employment should an occupational injury or illness occur. Today, we manage our businesses with a belief that all accidents are preventable and that accident prevention is a responsibility shared by all Mead employees. We will accomplish safety excellence through Mead’s Safety Management System Guidelines. These guidelines provide a "road map" for Mead operations to follow and emphasize the importance of: management commitment; clearly defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities; employee participation; communication; behavioral skills; and performance measurement.
Eliminate environmental incidents;
Mead ensures its ability to respond to and mitigate the impact of environmental incidents by maintaining emergency response capabilities and by working closely with the communities in which we operate. Having these capabilities is essential, but Mead is also committed to eliminating environmental incidents. Spills and accidental releases to the environment are unacceptable – and preventable. Through careful planning and review of our facilities, we identify risks from these types of incidents, and we eliminate them.
Ensure sustainable compliance, and go beyond compliance when necessary to protect human health and the environment;
Mead operations encompass a wide range of activities, which are subject to many federal, state and local regulations and standards. The company has also established its own policies which support and, in some cases, are more strict than the regulations when we feel that existing laws and regulations do not adequately protect human health and the environment. To achieve sustainable compliance, we monitor our operations and identify any situations, which may compromise our ability to comply with the law, and we then act to resolve any problems. We also establish management systems to ensure that Mead employees understand and continuously comply with applicable regulations and policies.
Focus on prevention of pollution as part of our total productivity improvement process;
Mead routinely evaluates methods to prevent pollution before it is generated. These include source reduction, chemical substitution, and new equipment and processes. While this prevention approach is preferable, some amount of after-the-fact treatment of wastes is required in many manufacturing processes. We are committed to operating waste management and pollution control equipment to minimize environmental impact. As we evaluate these opportunities, we consider the economic and productivity impact as well as the environmental impact.
Integrate safety, health and environmental strategies into our businesses;
Safety, health and environmental excellence is an integral part of daily and long-range operating decisions at Mead. As we develop annual business plans and long-range facility plans, we set goals to achieve safety, health and environmental excellence; establish measurement systems to track progress; and continually evaluate opportunities for further improving safety, health and environmental performance of our products and manufacturing operations.
Effectively communicate Mead’s commitment and performance to our stakeholders and continue to be recognized as a responsible company;
Through open communications with employees, customers, shareholders and others who are critical to our success, Mead strives to build mutual understanding and respect. We will respond appropriately to any safety, health and environmental concerns of our stakeholders and will regularly share our progress. Our intent is to continue to be recognized by these important stakeholders as a responsible company.
Manage forest resources to enhance future productivity, practice sustainable timber harvesting, and identify and protect unique ecosystems;
Mead operates in accordance with the forest products industry’s Sustainable Forestry Initiative SM, which is a comprehensive set of principles that integrates the reforestation, growth and harvesting of trees for useful products with the conservation of soil, air, water and wildlife resources. Combined with specific best management practices, these principles set forth a rigorous, but important forest management program at Mead. A key to the future of our business is a sustainable supply of wood fiber and it is imperative that forests remain healthy and productive.