Evergreen goes for VPP Star at Texas City Branch

November 12, 2009

On November, 12, 2009, the OSHA VPP Audit Team met with Evergreen Industrial Services concerning VPP star status at the Texas City Branch site. Bill Shaw, VP of Safety at Evergreen, explained that the VPP star qualification process takes 1 to 2 years and entailed a three-day audit which included numerous employee interviews, a facility audit, and reviewing reams of safety documentation. The audit team's decision was to recommend VPP Star status at the Evergreen Texas City branch. Approval into VPP is OSHA's official recognition of the outstanding efforts of employers and employees who have achieved exemplary occupational safety and health.

The application process for VPP Star status at the Texas City branch started in July 2008 with a kick-off meeting that included Evergreen members Jon Hodges, President, Paul Sievert, VP, Mark Stoffel, Division Manager, RD Russell Safety Coordinator, and OSHA SGE VPP Mentor Dee Ann Haney, CSP (Emergency Management Coordinator / Environmental, Safety & Health–Texas for United Space Alliance).

Hurricane Ike literally blew the roof off our plans to qualify for VPP status by mid-year 2009. After repairing the roof, rebuilding the mechanical shop, and redoing the interior of the Texas City branch, management focused once again on VPP. The team members who contributed in 2009 included Bill Shaw, Mark Stoffel, Cliff Manous, OJ Lowe, Keith Broussard, Kevin Edwards, RD Russell, Nina Parker, Buddy Tucker, and David Wiggins. All Texas City employees participated in the VPP program and should be commended for their hard work for achieving this level of excellence.

Bill Shaw cited recovering from the Hurricane was a bump in the road in the quest for another VPP star. Evergreen is no stranger to the process when they qualified for VPP Star status at Valero Houston in June of 2008. In qualifying the Texas City branch, a huge part of the VPP consideration was the review of a year-long program of Industrial Hygiene monitoring. Evergreen's management team made a financial commitment to hire ICU as a consultant to institute the Industrial Hygiene monitoring program of the Texas City employees. The employees included drivers, mechanics and tank cleaning technicians that work at BP, Sterling, Marathon, Ineos, and Praxair.

The OSHA VPP Audit team was Johnnie Collazo (VPP Coordinator, Chevron Phillips Chemical Port Arthur), Cheryl Kuhfelt (Safety Manager, Webb Murray), and the Lead Auditor was Bill Klingbaugh, VPP Regional Manager. Johnnie Collazo commented to Evergreen after the audit was finished, "I appreciate the wonderful hospitality your entire corporation gave to us on our visit. Actually this experience is what VPP is all about, partnership and sharing."

Evergreen management supports the effort to obtain VPP star status throughout the organization. In the meantime, we are waiting for the final review of documents and stamp of approval from Washington DC. We hope to fly a new VPP flag by year-end.

July 2008 VPP Team Kick-Off Meeting included from Evergreen: Jon Hodges, President/CEO, RD Russell, Jason Lucas, Buddy Tucker, Paul Sievert, Vice President, and from OSHA VPP was Dee Ann Haney, OSHA SGE VPP Mentor