Knauf is committed to ensuring the health, safety, and wellbeing of our employees and other people who may be affected by our activities and to continually improve our safe working environment. To this end, we accept an obligation as far as is reasonably achievable to:

• Assess the risks associated with our activities and implement controls to reduce them such that they are as low as reasonably practicable.
• Provide a safe place of work, with safe plants, equipment, and appliances, incorporating safe methods/systems of working.
• Provide employees with appropriate and sufficient information, instruction, training, and supervision as is necessary to enable the safe performance of work activities.
• Provide protective clothing and equipment.
• Provide adequate facilities and arrangements to enable employees and their representatives to raise issues of health & safety for consultation.
• Provide appropriate first aid and emergency facilities. 
• Provide details of the organization and arrangements for Health and Safety in our Integrated Management System.
• Ensure that this policy is subject to annual review to monitor the effectiveness of Health and Safety arrangements and if necessary, revised in the light of legislative or organizational changes.
• Investigate accidents or dangerous occurrences, which may take place to identify the probable causes and learn from them to avoid possible repetition.

The successful implementation of this policy requires total commitment, which will be demonstrated by measurable behaviors, from all levels of employee, from the boardroom to the shop floor.

Safe and healthy jobs

The safety and health of employees is a very high priority at Knauf. This applies both to work safety, mainly in the commercial sector, such as health protection in all areas. In a declaration of principle for occupational health and safety policy adopted in 2012, the following objectives were defined: the consistent prevention of safety risks through training and education, effective work safety management in all areas of the company, continuous improvement measures, the analysis of accidents at work and not least the enforcement of the Knauf safety standard.

The Knauf Safety Standard (KSS) is a binding instruction for occupational health and safety, which is binding for all executives. Its main components include the definition of responsibilities and areas of responsibility as well as regulations on risk assessment, the effectiveness assessment of workplace safety measures, emergency planning and the content of training programs. The KSS fulfills the criteria of the international occupational safety standard OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) - our international locations have been certified accordingly, although this is not mandatory in some countries. In Germany, the KSS does not only meet the OHSAS criteria but is certified with the seal of quality "Sicher mit System" (SMS) by the trade union for raw materials and chemical industry (BG RCI). As an integral part of our work safety management, we publish an internal newsletter ten times a year, which addresses our specific safety requirements.

Training and actions for health management

     Knauf supports the health protection of its employees with a comprehensive training concept and regular actions within the "Fit @ Work" program. The locations carry out regular health days, in which the company's health management is explained in detail and trainings are completed. In the two large works in Iphofen, the health days were held in October 2014 together with the AOK Bavaria, which drove to the factory grounds with the "AOK Gesundheit struck". Under the guidance of a sports scientist, exercises were carried out which made the employees aware of how they can protect their health in the workplace and in private life. On this occasion, we also interviewed our employees about possible safety- and health-related weaknesses in the company.

Knauf employees also work on their own initiative in numerous health initiatives and are supported by the company. This is how new training programs are being developed, which Knauf promotes, for example, by taking over rental costs for sports facilities. These include sports such as football, basketball, beach volleyball, gymnastics, yoga, swimming, hiking and visiting fitness studios.

QHSE Management System

Knauf Insulation follows the important International Management Standards. We are certified by one of the leading conformity assessment organizations, TÜV NORD.

Knauf Insulation’s management system is based on the continual improvement framework outlined in:

• OHSAS18001 (Health and Safety Management) for all our Europe, US, Russia and CIS Plants.
• ISO 14001 (Environmental Management) for all our Europe, US, Russia and CIS Plants.
• ISO 50001 (Energy Management) for all our Europe, US, Russia and CIS Plants.
• ISO 9001 (Quality Management) for all our Europe, US, Russia and CIS Plants.

World Safety Day initiatives

In 2018, we celebrated World Safety Day in all our plants, an international annual event designed to generate awareness about reducing work-related injuries.

KNAUF INSULATION LAUNCHES ‘AS SAFE AS HOME’ CAMPAIGN TO MARK WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK