Health and safety at Lenzing

[ESRS S1-14; GRI 403-1, 403-8, 403-9, 403-10]

Employee wellbeing is crucial for Lenzing’s long-term business success and growth. Lenzing is ethically, legally, and morally responsible for occupational health and safety to ensure the wellbeing of its employees, contractors, and visitors, including customers.

The Lenzing Group’s health management system (“House of Health”) is based on the salutogenesis concept, which focuses on keeping humans healthy, and is tailored to the individual social and health care systems of the countries in which Lenzing operates. It provides a conceptual framework for targeted investments in the health of Lenzing’s employees. Global Health Care Management works closely with the regional employees responsible for health issues as well as the department of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE).

The Safety Management System, founded on standards by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), guides the company in mitigating health, safety and environmental risks. The company remains strongly focused on enhancing occupational health and safety performance as well as monitoring leading and lagging indicators. Safety dashboards provide the teams with daily access to essential safety metrics as part of their management dashboards.

100 percent of Lenzing’s employees, non-employees and contracted staff working on company property are covered by the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Management system. All manufacturing sites are certified to ISO 45001. Lenzing conducts regular ongoing internal and external audits on many key activities, including safety, health, environmental performance and compliance with the Lenzing Code of Business Conduct. External audits are also conducted to review this data as part of the process to certify that Lenzing’s OHS management systems operate in conformance with ISO 45001.

The internal management system audits assess Lenzing’s OHS program for compliance with ISO 45001, company policies, contracts, and regulatory requirements at site level. Another internal audit process is led by Lenzing’s corporate HSE organization. Audits are scheduled on different sites on a rotating basis according to their relative risk. All sites are obligated to conduct periodic internal audits in accordance with corporate policy. Additionally, each site or business is subject to formal external OHS management system audits linked to OHS-related commitments or certifications, such as ISO 45001 and ISO 14001. Regular documented OHS management review meetings at all sites inform decisions and actions related to possible management system changes, which are recorded on the appropriate database system and communicated to employees.

Key figures: occupational accidents and work-related injuries

Current performance compared to previous years

Lenzing is deeply saddened to report that in 2024, a tragic incident occurred, resulting in the loss of a valued employee who was fatally injured after being exposed to a hazardous substance. The company extends its heartfelt condolences and unwavering support to the family and colleagues affected by this devastating event.

Throughout 2024, Lenzing experienced a noticeable decline in health and safety performance, as reflected in the data in the tables below. This downturn is attributed to several factors, including increased operational pressures and organisational restructuring. Despite these challenges, Lenzing remains committed to enhancing safety protocols and fostering a culture of continuous improvement to ensure the wellbeing of all employees. Lenzing’s Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR; based on 200,000 working hours in line with the health target) for employees increased from 0.7 in 2023 to 1.1 in 2024. The TRIFR for contractors also rose slightly, from 0.5 in 2023 to 0.6 in 2024. The rate of all work-related injuries for employees rose slightly from 3.6 in 2023 to 4.0 in 2024, while the rate for contractors increased from 2.1 in 2023 to 2.8 in 2024.

High-consequence work-related injury

Regarding broader personnel safety performance, Lenzing experienced one high-consequence work-related injury event. This incident involved an employee becoming entangled within the fiber tow band, resulting in a fracture with complications.

Work-related hazards are identified and assessed at a site-specific level and fall into six core hazard types – safety, biological, physical, ergonomic, chemical and workload (psychosocial). The hazards are determined through various channels, including:

• Carrying out an internal risk assessment
• Analysis of adverse events to discover the frequency, severity, and type of incidents or accidents
• Analysing data for causal relationships, such as the correlation between human factors, environmental conditions, equipment performance, and incident or accident outcomes
• Reviewing safety information about products at workplaces
• Information from inspection and injury reports
• Setting up formal processes for employees to report hazards they see
• Conducting regular inspections of the workplace
• Collecting information published by relevant government agencies
• Consulting other outside groups that might have relevant information

The following two tables are not ESRS and inform the progress of the health target which is based on 200,000 working hours.

Within Lenzing, work-related hazards that pose a risk to ill health generally include chemical hazards (solvents, adhesives, dusts, etc.), physical hazards (noise, radiation, heat, etc.), biological hazards (infectious diseases), and ergonomic risk factors (heavy lifting, repetitive motions, vibration).

In the reporting year, 1,618 work days were lost due to work-related injuries, ill health and their fatalities among employees compared to 338 among other workers.

Health care at Lenzing’s production facilities

[GRI 403-3]

At all production sites, Lenzing gives employees access to an in-house primary care system, complementing the existing health systems of the individual countries. The production sites and their health care facilities are visited by an occupational physician from the Lenzing Health Care & Wellbeing department periodically to ensure the quality of those services.

Lenzing draws on the services of medical partners in the regions around the sites to offer its employees a diagnosis and therapy service tailored to local needs. The range of medical services extends from several medical examinations and therapy sessions per week at the sites in Mobile (USA) and Grimsby (United Kingdom) through to health care services for family members at a clinic in the vicinity of the production site in Purwakarta (Indonesia).

The large production plants in Lenzing (Austria) and Purwakarta (Indonesia) also have their own outpatient clinics with qualified medical staff for quick, competent outpatient treatment of acute conditions and injuries as well as their own ambulances to ensure prompt follow-up treatment at special medical facilities. Lenzing facilities have first aiders trained in certified basic and regular first aid refresher courses.

Occupational medical care

In 2024, Lenzing Corporate Health Care & Wellbeing together with Global HSE continued to coordinate and give guidance on general company issues regarding occupational medical care at the different locations in order to exceed the minimum standards required by the individual countries. By enhancing competence in the occupational medical care of Lenzing’s regional partners, Lenzing will ensure that employees and managers have the best resources available to protect themselves from and deal with risks in the workplace.

Safety training

[GRI 403-5]

The vision of Lenzing is to “leave home healthy, come home healthy”. The aim is to provide a working environment and culture in which people actively engage and drive health and safety excellence. It is recognized that all employees can influence health and safety performance and, through individual ownership and engagement, employees can contribute to a safer workplace.

Leadership is critical to behavior, and this is the central theme of Lenzing’s safety webinars, which were developed specifically for the company’s leaders. Six out of 12 webinars outlining the human factors known as the ”dirty dozen” took place in 2023. The remaining six webinars were presented in 2024. The aim was for the leadership team to understand how human factors play a role in adverse events, raise awareness and in the long-term, develop controls and procedures.

Lenzing also ensures that all employees receive adequate training on occupational health & safety topics, which is determined in line with the specific hazards to which employees are exposed while carrying out their tasks. Training schedules are prepared annually alongside refresher schedules in accordance with regulatory and compliance requirements. Additionally, induction training is given to both contractors and visitors to the various sites.

Health promotion

[GRI 403-6]

At the end of 2022, Lenzing started a formal corporate health improvement program, which continued in 2024. It provides a clear framework showing how local health promotion activities can be sponsored by a dedicated corporate health improvement budget. Sites can choose all local available health promotion activities, which are aligned with health topics chosen by Corporate Health Care. After approval by the Corporate Health Care & Wellbeing Manager they can perform the activity and have the related expenses reimbursed afterwards. A limit is imposed on the maximum expenses per head covered by this program.

Regarding mental health, part of the corporate health improvement program is the Employee Assistance Program which was available on eight production sites except in Nanjing (China). The sites themselves decide on their specific measures. In Lenzing (Austria), for example, employees have access to occupational psychologists (among other services).

Since 2019, the Lenzing Group has been focusing on promoting fitness as part of their regular activities. These programs aim to encourage and support employees in adopting a healthy lifestyle both at work and during their leisure time. To aid these efforts, a healthy living app (Moveeffect^®) designed for corporate use to accommodate the needs of Lenzing’s employees at the various sites was adopted and distributed to all employees for voluntary use. The app’s purpose is to motivate employees to become more active. 2,950 employees are currently registered in the app.

Contractors

[GRI 403-7]

A large number of workers who are not directly employed by the Lenzing Group work at Lenzing operating sites and premises. As a result, contractors are carefully selected, with due consideration given to the strict occupational safety criteria Lenzing sets for its own employees.

Most have certified management systems for occupational health & safety. Where this is not possible, the company expects its contractors to be part of the regional contractor competency schemes or to implement additional controls to monitor occupational health and safety if this is not possible. Lenzing also has a nominated person as a direct contact for these contractors working under its control. When it comes to landlord and tenant health & safety, responsibility is shared and managed appropriately.