'Many companies start at the employee level, but it's really about management - management goals and management clarity,' says Jim Forsman, president of DuPont Safety Resources.

and others mimic the company's internal safety mantra: Make safety a priority from the top down. The best practices DuPont espouses to clients such as General Motors Corp., General Electric Co., Alcoa Inc. With $24.7 billion in revenues and about 83,000 employees, the company has developed so successful a safety program that three years ago it formally began training other companies in safety via its DuPont Safety Resources unit. In 2000, more than 90% of DuPont's sites operated with zero injuries. The Wilmington, Del.-based chemicals manufacturer has decreased its number of incidents including injuries, illnesses, waste and emission by 60% over the last decade. That's indicative of DuPont's reputation as a leader in safety. They had several things to celebrate, including the fact that since production began in 1992, the site has had zero environmental incidents and no recordable safety cases. The employees of DuPont & Co.'s titanium technologies facility in Uberaba, Brazil, recently planted trees to commemorate the site's 10th anniversary.

Dupont saferoom