Keurig Green Mountain Receives Commissioner's Safety Award

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips announced that Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. in Knoxville was chosen to receive the Commissioner’s Award of Excellence for Workplace Safety.

"Keurig has demonstrated a strong commitment to maintaining a safe and healthy workplace," said Steve Hawkins, TOSHA Administrator, who presented the Commissioner’s Award of Excellence to the company today. “The evaluation criteria for this award are challenging, and this company has worked extremely hard to meet and exceed the standards the award requires.”

“At Keurig and at our Knoxville facility, the safety of our people is one of our highest priorities,” said Mike Brennan, Director, Knoxville Plant Operations at Keurig.  “We have worked hard to develop our systems and processes, and it shows in the strong improvements in our safety metrics year-over-year.  Steps we have taken include adopting the Behavioral Safety Technology (BST) approach and conducting Employee Safety Observations, which sets a clear feedback process for supervisors and employees.  We are now building on that by rolling out peer-to-peer Safety Observation programs.”

The Commissioner’s Award honors Tennessee employers and their employees who together have achieved a required number of hours worked without experiencing a lost workday case and have maintained total injury and illness incidence rates below the national average. The number of hours required is based on the size of the company.

Keurig’s Knoxville facility has 957 employees involved in coffee-related manufacturing. The facility has qualified for the Commissioner’s Award by working more than 1,599,170 consecutive hours without a lost-time injury.

The Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development Safety Awards Program is designed to stimulate interest in accident prevention and to promote safety. The program recognizes manufacturing and construction firms throughout the state that achieve and maintain a safe and healthful workplace.

To obtain an application or additional information on the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health (TOSHA) Safety Awards Program, contact the TOSHA office in Nashville at (800) 325-9901 or (615) 253-6890.

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