Crown Holdings, Inc. has announced the winners of its annual Chairman’s Sustainability Awards, which honour individual manufacturing facilities within the company’s global network for exemplary contributions across three categories – environmental, safety and social. 

This year’s awards cycle marks the 10th anniversary of the program and celebrates the collective effort of its widespread team throughout the last decade.

Winners of the 2023 awards are as follows:

Crown’s LaCrosse, Wisconsin beverage can plant won the Environmental Sustainability Award, which recognises excellence in environmental protection by minimising the impact of the company’s operations, reducing material consumption or improving recycling or reuse of resources. 

The facility received this award for optimising overflow processes to reduce washer water usage, not only saving 8.4 million gallons of water in 2022 but also avoiding a projected 170,000 pounds of landfill waste generated by water consumption. The effort directly supports the Company’s Twentyby30 goals to reduce water usage by 20% by 2025 and to send zero waste from our operations to landfill.

Two plants received this year’s Sustainability Award for Safetyfor their efforts to prioritise employee health, improve accident prevention and ensure a safe working environment: Crown’s Ponta Grossa, Brazil beverage can plant and the Bengaluru, India (Prime Bulk) facility in the Company’s Transit Packaging Division. 

The Ponta Grossa team made several new changes: the addition of gates, guardrails, lifelines and anchor points to increase work safety at various heights; and the implementation of an automated tilting system for employees emptying large containers of coatings or other chemicals, lowering the risk of injury and of chemical spillage during the process. 

The facility also added a new device to replace the need for using a sledgehammer during maintenance activities, reducing the risk of hand injuries and improving process safety. As a result of these changes, the plant has achieved a 49% decrease in recordable incidents from 2021 performance. 

Similarly, the Prime Bulk facility enacted several production changes to improve employee conditions, including installing a safe ladder and water level sensors to minimise falling hazards, applying new safety features to forklifts and adding new sensors and safety barricades for sealing and cutting machines. 

As of December 31, 2022, the plant maintained a total recordable incident rate (TRIR) of 0 and 1,871 consecutive accident-free days.

Receiving special honour this year is Crown’s Osmaniye, Turkey beverage can plant, which earned the Social Sustainability Award for activities that significantly impact the well-being of the workforce and the local community. The team demonstrated tremendous compassion and resilience following the unprecedented devastation of the Maraş-Turkey earthquakes in early 2023. In the aftermath of the disaster, the team sheltered 168 people in the facility to provide a safe refuge for displaced employees and their families, providing hygiene and nutritional support along with temporary housing.

“From making critical process improvements that boost workplace safety and reduce our environmental footprint to going above and beyond in the face of tragedy to protect their colleagues in need, our employees continue to astound us with their determination—even after 10 years of this awards program,” said Timothy Donahue, President, CEO & Chairman of the Board at Crown Holdings. “We are grateful for our regional teams’ continued commitment to our Twentyby30 program and the even more impressive impact we see across our global organisation as a unified group. Congratulations to the winners of our 2023 Chairman’s Sustainability Awards and to all the teams working diligently to help us continue to become the best steward possible.”