The Charlotte, NC Reconditioning facility recently received an Air Compliance Excellence (ACE) Award from the Mecklenburg County Land Use and Environmental Services Agency. This award is given by the agency to highlight local industry’s efforts in achieving compliance with air quality permits therefore reducing pollution and improving local air quality.
To receive this award, the Charlotte facility was required to meet all the terms of their air quality permit including on-time accurate reporting, no violations or nuisance complaints, completed on-time required testing, and demonstrate efforts to further improve air quality. This is the second time the Charlotte facility has received this award.
"This award helps us demonstrate to our customers our commitment to providing sustainable and environmentally friendly reconditioning services."
“Our customers are very cognitive of their vendor’s environmental impact – especially in the reconditioning business. This award helps us demonstrate to our customers our commitment to providing sustainable and environmentally friendly reconditioning services,” commented Nathaniel Hendren, Facility Manager.
Along with reporting compliance and a commitment to sustainability in everyday actions, the facility has made improvements to the drum reclamation furnace and worked with vendors to improve paint emissions. The facility has also made capital investments to improve automation including a new drum forming line and beader/pre-beader. Combined, these investments enable to the facility to provide service to customers that is both efficient and environmentally friendly.
In a letter of commendation accompanying the ACE Award, Jason Rayfield, Mecklenburg County Air Quality Program Manager stated, “A record of continued environmental compliance indicates both an awareness of and a commitment to improving air quality in the County and is typically the direct result of many hardworking and dedicated individuals.”
In addition to receiving the ACE Award, the Charlotte facility also reached a new safety milestone of two years without a recordable safety incident on August 31. The facility’s previous record was 255 days. In addition to a daily commitment to safety from each employee, Hendren credits this accomplishment to a variety of programs and behaviors adopted by the facility. These include:
- "See Something? Say Something" Campaign (focuses on safety, EIP, maintenance, and housekeeping)
- Milestone celebrations
- 6S Implementation
- Improving PPE
- Safety Champion program
- Meetings and toolbox talks with trust-building discussions
- Safety Camera System
- Peer voted Employee of the Month recognition
- Engagement meetings with leads and employees to discuss what is needed to make duties safer
- Improved automation and ergonomic improvements
- Team and self-accountability efforts
The facility celebrated the safety milestone with lunch and Mauser swag for the employees and a raffle for additional gifts.
“The safety of our people is our most important value. No other award to achievement matters if we sacrifice safety. A lot of time and effort has been put into building a safety culture. I’m proud of this team’s commitment to safety above all else,” commented Hendren.
