SAFE Program
What is SAFE?
Serious About Fostering Excellence (SAFE)
SAFE is an official program of the Louisiana Chemical Association administered by the LCA Safety & Health Committee. Its mission is to:
- Promote continuous improvement in safety and environmental performance
- Build a valuable database of peer norms for plant safety and environmental data
- Honor outstanding performance with annual awards.
As your facility participates each year, you and the other LCA members are creating a powerful analytic tool so you can benchmark your performance, stay safe, and become steadily safer. Our online database extends back to 1995.
The SAFE program has two valuable components – it is first a mechanism that promotes performance improvement and, secondly, it provides an annual competition with recognition opportunities available to all LCA members. At the present time, the SAFE program uses 13 criteria each year to evaluate member performance and present top achievers (by class) with either ‘Best in Louisiana’ or ‘Most Improved’ awards.
The History of SAFE
The SAFE Program was created in the late 1990's when LCA members were under heavy attack from local and national critics, elected and appointed officials (including the governor), DEQ and the media (among others). LCA and individual companies were constantly playing "defense."
LCA's Eight Point Plan today refers to "leading the way in environmental, health and safety." Likewise, process safety is a much more established core value now than in the past. SAFE is based on a detailed review of SAFE program data and the collective judgement of member company professionals. It is intended to demonstrate the more pro-active approach adopted by LCA members. At present, the SAFE Program uses 13 criteria each year to evaluate member performance and present top achievers with either 'Best in Louisiana' or 'Most Improved' awards.
