The safety of CF Industries’ employees and those who live near our locations is our top priority.
Safety at CF Industries starts with our Do It Right philosophy, which includes equipping our employees with the proper safety knowledge, tools and procedures, and a culture that encourages employees to act with safety in mind every time they come to work. This priority is documented in Our Values, Code of Corporate Conduct, and EHS Policy.
Our Approach
The foundation of our culture is an unwavering focus on occupational and process safety. Our approach to safety includes equipping our employees with the proper safety knowledge, tools, and procedures as well as empowering employees to act with safety in mind every time they come to work.
We empower all employees to promote a culture of EHS excellence where everyone is engaged, empowered, and innovative. We continually prioritize improving our processes, with many of our implemented safety measures being developed by employees rather than directives from management. The Company utilizes on-the-ground experiences, insights, and feedback to inform the majority of our policies. This approach cultivates a workplace that prioritizes the safety and health of our employees, contractors, customers, partners, and neighboring communities.
Key Safety Metrics
At CF Industries, we have a series of key safety metrics that are tracked and managed through Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) monitoring dashboards. This system provides an easy way to visualize and track progress on all the Company’s EHS and operating expectations, performance, and areas needing attention. This program complements our monthly safety reports, which provide location-specific EHS performance results to senior management and site leadership.
Recordable Incident Rate
0.36 incidents per 200,000 work hours as of 12/31/2023
DART Incident Rate
0.11 days away, restricted, transferred per 200,000 work hours as of 12/31/23
Lost Time Incident Rate
0.04 lost time days per 200,000 work hours as of 12/31/23
Fostering a Culture of Safety Excellence
Be Strategic
- Plan for continuous improvement in safety
- Know and act on safety data trends
- Align management systems to support safety
Be Tactical
- Model “Do It Right”
- Build safety knowledge and competence
- Set clear expectations and define your role in safety
Be a Coach
- Engage in open conversations with your team
- Understand the why behind at-risk behaviors
- Conduct observations and safety leadership activities
Be Symbolic
- Demonstrate care for your team
- Be personally accountable and own it
- Recognize success in others and celebrate it
Wilson Safety Award
Each year, employees across CF Industries implement impactful safety innovations and improvements. These invaluable contributions to our organization not only improve our ways of working but promote the safety of our friends and coworkers.
We do not see safety improvements as proprietary information. We reward safety innovation within our organization, and we share our progress and insights throughout our network and with industry peers.
One of the most prominent ways we do this is through the Wilson Safety Award. Every CF Industries location nominates initiatives to receive the award, and finalists are chosen by a cross-functional selection committee. Then, our Senior Leadership Team selects the winner based on impact on safety performance and culture, transferability to other sites, ability to be sustained and improved upon, and demonstration of our Core Values.
2023 Wilson Safety Award Winner: Courtright
Courtright identified a way to clear drain valves safely and reliably using a rodding tool. This important safety innovation supports our ability to maintain our process equipment, which requires careful depressurizing and draining prior to maintenance activities. Bleed valves are used to release remaining pressure and drain materials from piping. However, blockages can occasionally prevent proper drainage. Courtright’s Wilson Safety Award winning idea directly addresses that challenge.
Courtright Wilson Award Video
2023 Wilson Safety Award Finalists
In addition to our 2023 Wilson Safety Award winner, our Courtright Complex, four other locations were chosen as finalists for the award. For Wilson Award winners and finalists before 2023, please visit our youtube page here.
Safety Training
To fully embody our Do It Right culture, employees and contractors must know what ‘Right’ is. We ensure this by clearly and regularly communicating our safety expectations and by providing a variety of training programs. Employees are required to participate in regular EHS training, including hazard recognition and response, emergency response procedures, occupational employee health training, workplace violence prevention, equipment safety, and safety leadership. Training is assigned and provided regularly, and at least annually, to ensure our employees are up to date on relevant safety topics. Training is also mandated whenever key change occurs, such as a process or regulation changes.
Safety Feedback
To assess our performance, identify risks, and facilitate best practices across our operations, we conduct a suite of periodic and regular compliance-based and issue-specific audits. Our EHS Audit Team performs regular internal audits and provides our EHS Councils with feedback to ensure that Company standards are understood and functioning in alignment with identified best practices. In addition to internal audits, CF Industries conducts third-party audits, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) audits, Protect & Sustain audits by the International Fertilizer Association (IFA), National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) audits, FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) audits, various regulatory inspections, and customer audits.
Contractor Safety
At CF Industries, we hold our contractors to the same safety standards as our employees. As part of our contractor screening process, we assess all contractors to ensure they have adequate safety management systems in place that align with or exceed our standards. This includes:
- Collecting and reviewing self-reported information to ensure contractors meet regulatory compliance and insurance requirements.
- Ensuring contractors have the necessary programs and practices to operate safely on our sites.
- Confirming contractors understand our safety expectations.
- Benchmarking contractor safety performance against their industry peers.
Risk Management
We plan and prepare for a wide range of business continuity risks. That process starts with our enterprise risk assessment process, where each identified risk is evaluated for business impact and assigned an owner, and mitigation strategies are developed and documented. Our risk mitigation strategies are integrated in the Business Continuity Program, the Crisis Management Plan, Incident Management Plans, and specific Emergency Response Plans, including a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan. This approach documents the essential information and actions needed for CF Industries to protect personnel and assets and restore mission-critical functions necessary for the resumption and continuation of operations. Additionally, each facility has specific response plans for addressing applicable risks at their location.
Oversight of Safety at CF Industries
Safety responsibility and oversight begins at the Board of Director level. To ensure our EHS program continues to receive the highest priority at the Company, our Board has oversight and receives monthly reports on EHS data. The Board also discusses EHS performance at each of its meetings as a standing agenda item. EHS senior management includes our CEO, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Distribution, and Vice President of Environmental, Health Safety, and Quality. An EHS Steering Committee, comprised of the EHS Managers from each location, regularly reviews EHS performance and develops new standards or programs for the organization. There are six EHS Councils comprised of subject-matter experts that focus on specific areas of EHS and provide benchmarking and knowledge-sharing opportunities.
At our locations, our EHS program is governed by dedicated site leadership teams that lead onsite engagement, training, and safety measures. Site leadership at manufacturing and distribution facilities meet biweekly to discuss and share EHS initiatives, performance, ongoing challenges and best practices, and improvement opportunities across our locations.