November 5, 2005—The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has formally approved Georgia- Pacific Corporation as the first company in OSHA’s new VPP Corporate Pilot program.
The VPP Corporate Pilot was designed to streamline the VPP application and onsite evaluation processes for corporations that have made a commitment to VPP. The initiative also focuses on eliminating redundancy in the application requirements for sites from the same corporation.
Georgia-Pacific was accepted after a comprehensive program evaluation of the company’s safety and health management systems at its headquarters in Atlanta. The evaluation included key aspects of Georgia-Pacific’s safety and health policies, programs and records, as well as interviews with senior managers and executives. Key to their approval was the strength of their internal prescreening processes to ensure VPP readiness of Georgia-Pacific locations prior to submitting an application and OSHA conducting the onsite evaluation.
Henshaw first announced the Georgia-Pacific acceptance at the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association conference in Las Vegas in August. Five additional corporations and the U.S. Postal Service are also applying to become VPP Corporate Pilot members.
VPP Corporate, along with “OSHA Challenge” and “VPP for Construction,” are three new initiatives announced by Henshaw a year ago to expand the Voluntary Protection Programs.
Georgia-Pacific is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of tissue, packaging, paper, building products and related chemicals. The company employs approximately 55,000 people at more than 300 locations in North America and Europe. Thirty percent of its 206 U.S. manufacturing locations currently participate in VPP.
OSHA’s role is to assure the safety and health of America’s workers by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach, and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual improvement in workplace safety and health.
