A national safety program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy recently recognized five Savannah River Nuclear Solutions employees for their exceptional performance, leadership and accomplishments related to workplace safety.

Mary Baird, Jennifer Scott, Richard Hudson, Jodie Saverance and Brandon Heath were each recognized for their achievements by the Voluntary Protection Program Participant Association in Nashville, Tenn. The VPPPA mission is to be a leader in health and safety excellence through cooperation among communities, workers, industries and governments.

“We are exceptionally proud of these awardees and our company for proactively seeking to learn from the best safety programs in the country,” said Barbara Guenveur, SRNS Employee Engagement Lead. “You have to learn from the best to be the best.”  As pioneers in safety and health, the VPPPA Program shares their knowledge of best safety practices with others and develops new techniques to create and sustain a safer, healthier work environment.

Award winners were recognized Aug. 28-31, in Nashville, TN, at the annual VPPPA safety conference.
Each received a commemorative award and gained visibility within VPPPA publications.  In addition, a letter of distinction will be sent to key individuals from the winner’s chief executive officer/plant manager and officials from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and DOE.

“There is a long and revered history of safety excellence at SRS dating back to the early 1950s,” said SRNS President and CEO Stuart MacVean. “To receive a prestigious award from an outstanding safety organization like VPPPA while representing a company that so strongly supports safety every day speaks volumes about the character and dedication of our five winners.”

Saverance and Heath are the two latest SRNS employees to win VPPPA Individual Achievement awards, while Baird, Scott and Hudson are the first at SRS to win a VPP Outreach Award.

“We felt they were perfect candidates for the Outreach Award category,” said Guenvere. “Each was an exemplary example of employees who highly value safety while devoting time, skills and other resources to community outreach events and charitable organizations. And, they do this while frequently being called upon to mentor 24 SRNS safety improvement teams who represent over 5,000 SRNS employees as they assist them in safely executing work both on-andoffsite with outreach projects including United Way-Project Vision, the J. M. Still Burn Unit and Toys for Tots campaigns.”

The VPPPA Safety and Health Achievement Award recognizes the exemplary safety and health achievements of employees at VPPPA member sites.  The VPP Outreach Award recognizes those who achieve an outstanding level of outreach activity and encourage others to share their knowledge and reach out to communicate and persuade others of the benefits of pursuing OSHA, DOE or state-plan VPP safety program participation.

The VPP Outreach Award is for an individual, worksite or company that has done an extraordinary amount of work in these areas.

“We continue to seek out new ways to strengthen and reinforce our many safety programs at SRNS,” added Guenveur. “We take pride in the wide range of safety-related records achieved by our employees since SRNS became the management and operations contractor at SRS in 2008.”