Learn about Ternium’s Scoreboard, another commitment to transparency and environmental care at our plant in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ternium Brazil installed an Environmental Scoreboard near the entrance of the shed, next to the safety scoreboard, in order to consolidate its commitment to transparency and measures to control environmental aspects and improve environmental performance.
This initiative aims to disclose the environmental indicators of the plant, which are monitored by the Environment and Operations areas. The data updates each month, except for the information about “Days without a relevant incident,” which is updated whenever there is a relevant event.
The Environmental Scoreboard has 6 great graphic elements that are proof of the daily work done by the Environment and Operations Departments to control environmental aspects and improve process performance.
The Environmental Scoreboard is near the entrance of the plant, next to the safety scoreboard.
According to Luciana Campello, Environmental Analyst and responsible for the management and data updating of the scoreboard, the initiative aims to demonstrate the company’s commitment.
“We encourage transparency and so we want the information to stay at the plant entrance. This is proof of the effort that has been done to show our commitment and responsibility with the environment.”
First Impressions
Most of the personnel who have contact or pass through the entrance noticed the board since the first day it was installed. “It is one thing to say that we are committed to the environment, but another is to show how much we control and also to disclose it with this board. In this way, people who are not so familiar with the data can get into context when we show everyone's contribution to achieving a positive result,” said Aline Silveira, Workplace Safety Technician.
She concluded by saying that the proposal could generate many benefits in the future. “With this initiative, it is expected that we can increasingly show that Safety and Environment go together as two of the main values that Ternium encourages. It is very important that this concept can be developed among us, the employees, and that we can always have improvements.”
For Pamela Reis, Environmental Manager, the scoreboard is one more step to reinforce the environmental culture in Ternium Brazil, which has evolved in the last few years. “We launched the Environmental Time Program in 2020, and now we have taken a step further in this process with the Environmental Scoreboard, which aims to transparently share the environmental performance and encourage process improvement to reinforce everyone's commitment to environmental culture,” she said. She emphasized how the commitment of the operating areas has been growing to minimize the risks of environmental incidents.
This scoreboard was suggested by Titus Schaar, Operations Vice President of Ternium Brazil, to demonstrate to everyone who enters the Industrial Center that Ternium is completely committed to environmental control. “When we share clear information and set the scoreboard to zero when we have incidents, it raises red flags around the world," he said.
Schaar pointed out that the company has a thorough process to investigate all environmental incidents, following a root cause analysis protocol, through a Crisis Committee to present and discuss them with Máximo Vedoya, CEO of Ternium, and Paolo Rocca, the Chairman.
“We analyze safety and environmental incidents from all Ternium operations every month to understand the causes and set measures to prevent them from happening again,” he said.
What Does the Environmental Scoreboard Show?
- Days without relevant environmental incidents: These are the days without relevant incidents (severity 4) established by factors that consider the context in which the plant operates and the impact of such events.
- Record of days without incidents: It is the accumulation of the most stable period of events that do not meet the level of relevant environmental incidents.
- Effluent reuse: Monthly percentage of effluents treated at the plant's Effluent Treatment Station (ETE, for its acronym in Spanish) and reused in Ternium's daily production cycle, in order to reduce effluent discharge and increase our water efficiency.
- Water recirculation: It is the water percentage from cooling systems (indirect contact) that is returned to the process cooling circuit, in order to reduce consumption of this natural resource and contribute to increasing water efficiency.
- By-product recycling: It is the number of by-products that are recycled and reused internally (in the plant's processes) or externally (by third-party partners).
- Air quality: Based on the Air Quality Index (ICA, for its acronym in Spanish), which follows federal environmental legislation on air quality. It is composed of the data generated by air quality stations operated by Ternium and located within the company's perimeter. It is used to establish the level of air quality calculated by measuring the atmospheric pollutants controlled by Ternium.