Safety and well-being are core to who we are. Whether working in our manufacturing operations, transporting product or serving customers in our stores and in the field, it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure a safe work environment.
Safe and Responsible Operations
Our employees are trained to recognize unsafe conditions and are empowered by leadership to respond accordingly, no matter the situation. In fact, we expect employees to cease working if they question the safety of a situation or task so they can fix and report it.
We aspire to achieve zero accidents, zero injuries and zero nonconformances — what we call our Vision of Zero. To reinforce this vision, we have revised our 2025 safety goals. We have replaced our goal to reduce recordable case rate with an aspiration of zero. Similarly, our goal to reduce ergonomic injuries by implementing two ergonomic interventions per year in each manufacturing site has been replaced in order to focus on those locations where we have the highest risks for these types of injuries.
Our actions in 2024 have centered on moving closer to this vision — by focusing on our most significant risk areas and addressing governance, processes and communication around all aspects of safety. During the year, our manufacturing operations achieved a recordable rate of 0.69. Overall, Sherwin-Williams recordable incident rate increased to 1.36 during 2024, reflecting an increase within our retail operations where trips, cuts and ergonomic-related injuries have increased. In response, we are enhancing and strengthening many aspects of our occupational safety program.
Fleet Safety
Drivers of tractor-trailers, delivery vehicles and passenger vehicles in our fleet must manage risks related to traffic and road safety. Many drivers are also responsible for loading and unloading deliveries from our vehicles. Therefore, our fleet safety programs focus not only on safe driving, but also ergonomic improvements. In 2024, North Carolina State University researchers conducted ride-alongs with delivery drivers who frequent customer job sites to identify possible ways to reduce risks of material handling injuries among this group.
With a focus on other areas that will make the greatest difference, we introduced new comprehensive safety training for recently hired fleet drivers. Covering elements of both onboarding and day-to-day compliance, this training will help drivers start their Sherwin-Williams careers on the right path.
Sherwin-Williams recognizes our most accomplished Contract Transportation System (CTS) drivers who have covered 1 million miles or more without an accident. This milestone, which 129 drivers have achieved, typically takes between 10 and 12 years. In 2024, we held an in-person Million-Mile Banquet that also recognized 36 drivers who have covered 1.6 million miles or more without an accident — as well as 20 winners of local driving rodeos, which are competitions designed to showcase a driver’s skills behind the wheel. We also began offering truck decals to all drivers who have logged 3 million miles or more of safe driving — a group that now totals eight drivers in our fleet — to showcase these drivers’ commitment to safety excellence.