MPW Industrial Services presented its 2017 Green Hat for Safety Award to its Steubenville Branch July 31 in Mingo Junction, Ohio.
Steubenville attained many impressive safety benchmarks in earning its second consecutive Green Hat, including a zero-recordable-safety-incident streak that lasted an entire year and a record of zero recordable injuries at FirstEnergy’s Bruce Mansfield Plant in Shippingport, Pa., that goes back six years.
“I’m extremely proud of Steubenville’s safety performance,” said Mike Nicholson, manager of ICG’s North Eastern District, which includes the Steubenville Branch. “Steubenville is a big branch in terms of both employees and revenue. We have 130 employees and we service five power plants, two steel mills, a chemical plant and a refinery. So, I think our zero-recordable streaks are great accomplishments.”
In November, Steubenville earned two Zero Injury Safety Awards (ZISAs) from the National Maintenance Agreements Policy Committee, Inc. (NMAPC). The awards are for 214,922 zero-injury man-hours at Bruce Mansfield and 79,733 zero-injury man-hours at FirstEnergy’s W. H. Sammis Plant in Stratton, Ohio.
The Green Hat takes its name from the National Safety Council’s Green Cross for Safety, which is awarded annually to an organization that “demonstrates a steadfast commitment to improving safety and health in the workplace and beyond.”
The MPW Executive Staff compares all cost-center groups across all three divisions of the company annually to determine the winner. MPW presents the award to the team that has demonstrated the strongest commitment to health and safety in the following areas:
• Safety culture
• Observations
• Recordable injuries
• Safety incidents
• DOT citations
• Vehicle incidents
• Property damages
Steubenville joins Industrial Water (2011, 2014) and A.K. Steel Middletown (2009, 2010) as the only two-time Green Hat winners.
Nicholson said Steubenville’s Health & Safety Manager Anthony Tagliaferro, and Operations Managers Moe Berger and John Petrella deserve much of the credit for earning the Green Hat.
“The experience within the branch is crucial to our success,” Nicholson said. “Moe and John each have 24 years with MPW and a lot of our account managers have 20 years or more in the industry. But all these old dogs have learned new tricks. They’re all continuously improving at their jobs and they’re adapting to our new equipment.
“Also, in the North Eastern District we have two district-wide safety meetings per week with managers, safety personnel and sometimes guest speakers. These people have hands-on experience around hazardous jobs, so when they hear about a process during the meeting they have a lot of ideas and ask a lot of good questions. We’ve been holding these meetings for 2 years and they’ve worked well.”
Nicholson said MPW’s corporate-wide initiatives help create a safety-conscious culture.
“I think MPW’s Safety Steering Committees are unique. In our ICG meeting, all the District Managers make a point to attend. That is a knowledgeable group to discuss safety topics with,” he said.
Previous Green Hat Winners
2007 Corporate Maintenance
2008 Northern Ohio
2009 Middletown A.K. Steel
2010 Middletown A.K. Steel;
Robins Air Force Base
2011 Industrial Water
2012 Corporate Shops
2013 Georgetown, Ky., Toyota
2014 Industrial Water
2015 Honda Ohio
2016 Steubenville