Performance Pipe's manufacturing operation in Plano, Texas, earned a Star Site designation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for operating 13 years without a recordable injury.
The high density polyethylene pipe producer is a division of The Woodlands, Texas-based Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP, which now counts all 18 of its eligible U.S. locations as holding the safety distinction for maintaining some of the industry's lowest recordable incident rates.
The recognition follows participation in OSHA's voluntary protection program (VPP), which was started in 1982 to encourage safe and healthy working conditions.
With sales of $450 million, Performance Pipe ranks No. 9 among North American pipe, profile and tubing extruders, according to Plastics News' latest ranking.
Between its manufacturing and administrative facilities, Performance Pipe far outperforms national averages for the pipe-fitting sector when it comes to RIR, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.
The honors for the Plano operation build on Chevron Phillip's initiative called "Our Journey to Zero" to maintain top safety results, according to Kate Holzhauser, the company's vice president of environment, health, safety and security.
"Thanks to them, we are now one of a handful of U.S. private employers with all eligible sites VPP Star certified," Holzhauser said in a news release. "This remarkable achievement reflects our relentless focus on safety performance and reinforces one of the main goals of our operational excellence strategy: Eliminate high-severity/high-potential process and personnel safety events."
Companies trying for the Star status must exceed minimum OSHA standards and continue to develop improvement programs.
"As a VPP Star Site, our Plano office has undergone a transformational effort to engage employees through diverse safety tools that raise general safety awareness," Mike Zeglin, Performance Pipe general manager and president, said in the release. "I could not be prouder of their hard work and enthusiasm to reach this outstanding goal to keep our people, contractors and neighboring community safe."