Safety is one of the core values of Our VC Way, and it is stated without qualification: people’s safety comes first, before results. This principle is non-negotiable, and it guides how we operate inside our plants and terminals as well as how we conduct ourselves beyond them.
Our commitment to safety in the cement industry extends to every person involved in our operations, not only our employees, but contractors, customers, and all stakeholders who interact with our sites. Votorantim Cimentos conducts its business with the explicit policy of safeguarding the Safety and Health of all of them. At the global level, Votorantim Cimentos has set a 2030 target of zero fatalities across its operations worldwide, alongside a global lost-time injury rate for direct and contracted employees below 0.40. These are measurable commitments that every business unit in the network, including St Marys Cement, is accountable to.
Consistency is the clearest measure of a safety culture, and our record speaks clearly. St Marys Cement has marked 17 years without a Lost Time Incident (LTI) across its North American terminal network. Over that span, 19 terminals received and loaded millions of tonnes of cement into customers’ vehicles without a single lost-time injury.
A record of that length does not come from one initiative or one particularly careful year. It reflects disciplined processes and engaged teams, supported by accountability that holds at every level of the organization. Sustained periods without a Lost Time Incident are the result of steady attention to the fundamentals: hazard identification, housekeeping, and safe work practices applied the same way every shift, whether or not anyone is watching.
Our terminal teams maintain clean, well-lit, and well-organized sites where safety is built into each task and decision rather than treated as a separate consideration. Programs including the Highway Safety Improvement Program, regular safety audits, planned work observations, and biweekly safety meetings help surface risks early and resolve them before they reach the work. The 17-year record belongs to the people who apply these standards every day, and to their shared commitment to sending everyone home safely.
Strong safety performance is built on disciplined daily practice, not periodic reminders. Across our facilities, teams rely on hazard identification, housekeeping, planned work observations, and regular audits to keep risks visible and manageable. Biweekly safety meetings give crews a structured forum to raise concerns before work begins, ensuring that what people notice in the field reaches the people who can act on it.
Our Global Health and Safety Policy mandates strict compliance with Critical Risk Protocols and Life-saving Rules across all work and processes, for employees and contractors alike. Safety training is provided as part of every employee’s professional development, not as a standalone requirement but as a skill set that grows with a career. We also implement and monitor leading indicators that focus on safe behaviour, measuring the conditions and habits that prevent incidents before they occur rather than only tracking outcomes after the fact.
We hold an annual safety conference that brings teams together to explore what a strong safety culture actually requires: speaking up, listening without defensiveness, and building the kind of trust that makes people comfortable raising concerns before they become incidents. The conference also recognized the recipients of the Tarsha Krizka Safety Leadership Awards, honouring individuals who have driven that culture forward.
At the plant level, we have Safety Days, centred on three pillars: housekeeping, fire safety, and visible leadership. Vendor partners across equipment, rental, and service industries supported the event, reflecting the same principle that runs through everything else here: safety is not something one team owns alone. Act with Ownership and Learning and Evolve, two of the nine principles of Our VC Way, both show up in events like these, one asking every person to take responsibility for a safer workplace, the other treating safety itself as something to keep improving.
Safety is deliberately first in Our VC Way values because preventing incidents is our commitment. On site, this means sustained attention to the conditions that accumulate over time rather than in a single moment, including dust, noise, and fatigue management built into how work is planned and scheduled.
We also make wellness practical and accessible. Across Canada and the United States, our people have access to biometric screenings, flu vaccination clinics, and wellness assessments that track key health indicators over time. Mental health is supported directly, with representatives from our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) available for confidential guidance alongside on-site resources including nutrition stations and health information kiosks that make day-to-day choices easier to act on.
Our participation in wellness initiatives is measurable. A 30-day team movement challenge drew 472 participants who collectively logged more than 147 million steps, covering roughly 550,000 miles. Wellness days were added throughout the year, combining health screenings, flu shots, and on-site massage at some sites, while pairing nutrition guidance with mental health support from our Employee Assistance Program team at others. These gestures reflect a genuine investment in the people whose knowledge, experience, and commitment keep this network thriving.
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