SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
SAFETY AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
A key priority for Thai Union is building a safe workplace for our staff and contractors. In 2019, we reduced our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR)1 by 26 percent from 2018 to a figure of 0.42. With this we have already exceeded our 2020 target of 0.50. In 2019 we also maintained a zero occupational illness frequency rate for employees, with no employee fatalities.
To achieve this, we analyzed accidents and their causes and ranked them on a monthly basis. According to analysis, the top three reductions in accidents compared to 2018 were as follows:
- Contact with moving machinery reduced by 56 percent
- Contact with sharp objects reduced by 30 percent
- Contact with manual handling pushing reduced by 33 percent
The results show that the top three lost time accident cases were reduced in total by 38 percent from 2018. These are the key factors that lead to the total lost time frequency rate being reduced from 0.57 to 0.42, or 26 percent, compared to 2018. We also improved communication between management and employees to identify and conduct action plans for accident prevention. This has increased the effectiveness of our accident reduction.
Despite our focus on Safety, Health and Environment, on 1 June 2019 there was a fire at the Thai Union Ingredients Tuna Oil Refinery in Rostock, Germany. The plant was not in operation at the time of the fire and there were no staff onsite, so there were no injuries reported. Damage was quickly assessed and clean-up and salvage operations were launched a short time after the incident. Construction of the new plant is underway and is expected to be completed in Q4 2020.
Tragically, Thai Union had one fatality of a contractor in 2019, which was as result of construction in our shrimp farm. We have conducted the root cause investigation to learn as much as possible and to implement measures to prevent reoccurrences. Lesson from the accident showed a gap in our contractor management as well as risk analysis practices in our farm operation. These shall be integrated into our SHE Management Program which will be launched in 2020.
‘Trustworthy safety’ is central to every Thai Union workplace. We strive to provide safe working conditions for all our workforces and recognize that to achieve our ultimate goal of zero accidents, our daily actions – whether at processing factories, at shrimp farms or in offices – require diligent planning and management.



1 Data covers employees, contractors and visitors in offices, factories, farms and hatcheries in Thailand, Vietnam, France, Portugal, Poland, Norway, Ghana, Seychelles, and the US
2 Data covers employees, contractors and visitors for offices, factories farm and hatchery in Thailand and Vietnam.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Climate change is a global challenge involving economic, social and environmental issues. Oceans are also directly linked with climate change, whether through warming sea surface temperatures, rising sea levels, or ocean acidification. It is our social and environmental responsibility to take action to minimize the factors which cause climate change. Thai Union is committed to protecting the environment by mitigating risks from our natural resources consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, especially within our organization. We are also committed to our proactive environmental sustainability 2020 targets for enhancing our environmental accounting, monitoring and mitigation plans.
Global ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE 2016 vs 20193

Thai Union is committed to protecting the environment by minimizing our consumption of natural resources, reducing any adverse impact on the environment. In 2019, we exceeded our 2020 targets for water consumption reduction and waste to landfill reduction. We have reduced our water and waste to landfill by 22 and 67 percent respectively, compared with 2016. We are making progress towards our greenhouse gas intensity reduction target. In 2019, we reduced our greenhouse gas intensity emissions by 18 percent, or about 87,547 tons CO2 equivalent. The total environmental reduction programs have realized a cost saving for Thai Union of more than USD 24 million since 2016.
GHG EMISSION REDUCTION TARGET
The GHG reduction projects that we implemented in Thai Union are:
- Reducing GHG from coal consumption in boiler system such as sourcing high-quality coal, improving our steam pipeline, reducing vent pipe size, and reducing steam pressure.
- Big Bag Project to reduce coal moisture can result in reducing coal consumption.
- Reducing electrical usage in refrigeration system by improving energy management in cold storage and installing inverter compressor fans.
- Replacing hot water system from an electrical heating system to LPG heating system.
- Replacing 2 kilns/cookers with a more modern energy efficiency model.
- Implementing heat recovery to dry fish in smoking cells.


3 Data covers factories in Thailand, Vietnam, France, Portugal, Poland, Ghana, Seychelles, and the US
Water Reduction
In 2019, Thai Union initiated a lot of water reduction programs (more than 20 projects), especially reusing and recycling water in production processes. As a result, Thai Union was able to reduce water consumption more than 1.94 million m3 or 22 percent against 2016.

Example of water reduction project,
- Reuse and recycle water from rejected RO.
- Installation of ozone treatment system on evaporative condenser unit.
- Reducing pressure on water supply.
- Reducing water in thawing process by using High Voltage Electrical Field (HVEF) technology.
- Reusing wastewater after treated for planting trees, cleaning floors, flushing toilets etc.

Moreover, Thai Union supports factories to use alternative water sources to reduce the impact from water shortages and conflict that may arise from water usage within the community.

Waste Reduction
Thai Union has initiated several waste-to-landfill reduction programs including:
- At Okeanos (OKF), Pak Food Asia (AP) and Thai Union Seafood (TUS), they utilized wastewater sludge to fertilizer for planting trees
- Songkla Canning (SCC) increased recyclable plastic by using plastic washing machine to reduce contaminated plastic waste which would normally go to landfill
- MA Poland initiated the installation of a Styrofoam compactor for its recycling program
As a result, Thai Union was able to reduce waste-to-landfill by more than 26,771 ton, or 67 percent, against 2016.


THAILAND VOLUNTEER EMISSIONS TRADING
Thai Union Factory (TUF) and Thai Union Manufacturing (TUM) has been part of the “Thailand Verification Emission Trading Scheme (TVET-S)” project with the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Organization (TGO) since 2017. The objective and benefit of this project is to establish a baseline GHG for the food industry sector, mock up an initial GHG reduction target and recommend opportunities to reduce GHG in the food industry sector.

SOLAR ENERGY GENERATION PROJECT ON PLANT ROOFTOP (SUN SEEKER PROJECT)

Renewable Energy: Our Sun Seeker Project to install solar rooftops in our factories continued in 2019. Since 2017, we have achieved total solar capacity of 6.6 MW producing a total of 5,535,446 kWh. This has resulted in greenhouse gas reduction of approximately 2,878 tons CO2, equivalent to planting 191,895 trees. The Sun Seeker Project will continue at least 5 MW in 2020.
OUR ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH, AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Thai Union’s Environment, Health and Safety division works tirelessly to develop and implement stringent protocols to meet our commitments to reducing our environmental impact and providing a healthy and safe workplace for our employees, contractors and suppliers. These actions are guided by Thai Union’s Business Ethics and Labor Code of conduct and our sustainability strategy, SeaChange®

For more information about EHS Guideline, please click here