Safety First at Covia: A Commitment to Health and Well-Being

At Covia, Safety First is a core value that is embedded into our culture and mindset throughout the organization. Ensuring the safety, health, and security of our Team Members, customers, business partners, and communities remains paramount in all we do.

To further commit to Safety First and to achieve outstanding safety performance and foster continuous improvement, we have established targets aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) 3: Good Health and Well-Being.

Target: Achieve year-over-year improvement in all incidence rate for Team Members in support of our Safety First value and priorities. The ultimate goal, of course, is zero injuries. 

2023 Progress: We drove meaningful progress in our year-over-year performance through several strategic initiatives and investments to reinforce our culture of shared responsibility and accountability at all levels of the organization. We continued to prioritize company-wide awareness through refreshed and innovative training. Additionally, we strengthened our Safety and Health teams by investing in hiring and developing talented people at various levels and locations, ensuring each site has appropriate and effective resources to reinforce our safety programs.

As a result of these efforts, our all-incidence rate decreased to 0.95 in 2023, representing an annual improvement each year since 2021 (our baseline year).

Target: Achieve year-over-year reduction in the number of job positions potentially overexposed to respirable silica, through the Hierarchy of Controls, which can be found on page 35 of Covia’s 2023 ESG report. 

2023 Progress: We continued to invest in measures and capital projects focused on improving dust control at our mining and processing sites. As a result, we reduced the number of job positions potentially overexposed to respirable silica to nine by the end of the year, a reduction of 36% since 2022. We define potentially overexposed as having greater than 25% probability of exceeding our internal respirable silica exposure limit, which is more stringent than regulatory requirements. This represents an improvement each year since 2021 (our baseline year).

Our comprehensive approach is outlined in our Safety and Health Management System (SHMS).

Key elements of our SHMS include:

• Policy statement
• Legal and regulatory information and records
• Rules and procedures
• Details regarding specific safety and health programs
• Training requirements
• Safety awards
• Contractor safety program
• Protective and preventive measures

Lastly, our efforts are supported by various policies, programs, and procedures including our Safety and Health Manual, Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Supplier Code of Conduct, and regular Team Member training and engagement. For more information about Safety and Health at Covia, visit https://www.coviacorp.com/esg/positive-social-impact/.