Every EHS project meeting at PepsiCo begins with a litany of voices coming in from around the globe – PepsiCo (IW 500/19) CEOs of Europe, the Middle East and Americas; chiefs of science, nutrition and human resources; of food and beverage – all of them laying out a concise, harmonized message about the safety standards at the core of the company's global leadership.
"Nothing is more important than safety," John Compton, former CEO of PepsiCo Americas, Foods, tells each group.
"Making safety a priority is a demonstration of how we live, our core values of delivering sustained growth," adds Eric Foss, CEO of Pepsi Beverages.
And then, Indra Nooya herself, PepsiCo chairman and global CEO, jumps in, telling them that “health and safety aren't just abstract ideas we talk about – they are central to what we at PepsiCo are all about.”
This four-minute video, is the culmination of a solid year of work by Craig Torrance, global director of Health, Safety and Well-Being at PepsiCo.
There is nothing novel or earth-shattering in the content of the video; it's essentially the same "safety-first" message pinned up in the corner of just about any EHS office.
But what is unique about it, and arguably earth-shattering, is the high-ranking voices it includes, all of the senior leaders gathered together to deliver one powerful message of a unified dedication to safety. And that, said Torrance, is what holds the company's efforts together.
"This is what safety leadership looks like," he told a packed room of EHS professionals and engineers at EHS Today's 2013 America's Safest Companies conference. "This is what commitment looks like."
And it's that commitment from the highest levels of leadership, he explained, that keeps the company's safety program intact and enforced even across the farthest reaches of its massive global enterprise.
Read the full story at EHS Today.
