Adana Cement, a Turkish company with production facilities across the Mediterranean region and Cyprus, has been selected as a winner for the DuPont Safety and Sustainability Awards 2013 based on its impressive achievements in improving safety performance, according to DuPont.

A key element in the Adana’s efforts to ensure a safe work environment has been its ongoing commitment to improving occupational health and safety standards in line with international best practices, DuPont said in a statement. After launching initial activities in 2004, Adana Cement Industry established an integrated OHSAS 18001-certified Safety Management System in 2005, before implementing further processes and improvements in 2008 after recognition that 96 percent of accidents were caused by dangerous behaviours, rather than conditions.

Together, these initiatives have had a profound effect in shaping a positive safety culture among employees. In particular, a multi-faceted approach, including behaviour-oriented site visits, accident information meetings, reward and sanction practices, and a schedule of continuous training programs, has resulted in a dramatic decrease in employee and sub-contractor accidents since 2008, based on statistics collected since 2003. A new record of 243 uninterrupted days without an accident was achieved in 2012, in a period when expanding production objectives were successfully met.