Univar, a leading Europe-based independent distributor of speciality chemicals and ingredients has made significant strides forward in the areas of safety, health, environmental responsibility, and quality.
Univar operates a large number of distribution centres throughout North America, Europe and China. In 2006, Univar Europe launched its U+ Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) programme and each of the company’s sites has to meet a set of U+ goals – the core of which is the need to show continuous improvement. The U+ programme sets best practice standards for the sites to adopt – using best practice not only from within the chemical industry but also from other industries viewed as benchmarks. U+ has delivered some outstanding results for Univar – in just two and a half years Univar Europe’s Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR) has dropped to less than a third. Univar Europe now has the lowest LTIR rate in the industry (as measured by the European Chemical Distributor Association – FECC), and its LTIR rate is also lower than that of most other companies in other industries. U+ is not just about creating a strong safety culture – it is also about setting challenges to minimise environmental impact and ensure excellent quality performance. Univar’s work in reducing its carbon footprint has been recognised by the Carbon Trust in the UK, but sites are being challenged to achieve more improvements that will help improve their sustainability. This is not just a challenge for the operating sites but also for offices, the management of a fleet of trucks and employee car emissions. Univar has set itself a challenging 10% reduction of CO2 emissions to achieve by 2011 – and is well on the way to doing this. Developing expertise and knowledge is a key part of the U+ programme. The company has experts throughout Europe who not only advise internally on SHEQ issues but who are also able to assist customers in handling products safely and with respect to the environment. An example of Univar specialist expertise is its pharmaceutical grade filling plant (white room) pictured above. With GMP standards in place and high specification equipment, backed up with trained staff, the company can offer GMP products to sensitive markets such as those of personal care and pharmaceuticals.
