Why safety is important for Siltronic

For a company with highly complex production processes that also involve the use of chemicals, the issue of safety is of the utmost relevance. Protecting employees and neighbors is therefore one of the focal points of our business activities.

Of the six strategic non-financial performance indicators in the area of sustainability, two relate to the topic of safety. This shows the importance of the topic for Siltronic. Our Code of Conduct also emphasizes the importance of focusing on safety and health protection.


Organization of Safety

The Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) department and the Corporate Responsibility department are primarily concerned with monitoring and analyzing the impact of our wafer production on the environment and safety. These areas define the systems and guidelines that apply throughout the Group. Both report directly to the Executive Board. Specially trained employees are also responsible for environmental protection and safety at the production sites.

Management system for safety and environmental protection

Safety is one of the most important pillars of our sustainability concept. To achieve our long-term corporate goals, we regularly define targets in the areas of occupational and process safety at all our locations. We measure progress using concrete figures.

In order to achieve our targets, the sites implement individual programs tailored to the respective local conditions: We continuously identify the need for action to improve safety in order to increase the protection of employees and neighbors.

Our Integrated Management System (IMS) meets the requirements of various international norms and standards, including ISO 45001 for occupational safety.

Our safety targets

In the area of safety, our aim is not to exceed a defined number of safety incidents on an ongoing basis over the years, while we are working towards "zero incidents". The safety targets are as follows:

  • The rate of occupational accidents with lost days is a maximum of 2.0 (specific per 1 million working hours).

  • No work-related accidents involving chemicals occur.

  • A maximum of two safety-related plant incidents occur ("process safety incident" PSI as defined by CEFIC and ICCA).

The Management Board receives regular reports on the frequency of accidents, accidents with days lost and other relevant accidents, including the results of root cause analyses and corrective measures.

Occupational safety – prevention as the first requirement

To ensure safety, we focus on prevention. With our safety program, we are continuously working to improve the safety of the working environment. This includes, in particular, the appointment of safety officers, safety tours, training, discussions with the operating team and emergency drills. The aim is to recognize and avoid unsafe actions – whether when operating equipment, handling chemicals, in the factory, in the office or on the way to work.

The occupational health and safety standard ISO 45001 has been defined as a Group-wide standard and certified at our locations.

Tailor-made programs contribute to increasing safety at site level. These can be, for example, communication and idea management campaigns for more safety in the workplace or targeted training for topics and areas identified as relevant.

To prevent accidents as far as possible, we have set up a global system for reporting near-miss incidents. By systematically processing these incidents, we aim to avoid actual accidents at work as far as possible.

Plant safety – for the protection of employees and neighbors

We take our responsibility towards our employees and our neighbors very seriously. The safe operation of our production facilities is therefore a key element of our EHS management system. To ensure the safety of production, we analyze the risks of our systems from conception to commissioning and derive the necessary improvement measures from this. Through extensive maintenance checks, ongoing inspections and audits, we try to ensure the highest possible operational safety at our production sites. We also ensure that products and auxiliary materials are stored and transported safely.

Siltronic attaches particular importance to the training and further education of safety experts and regularly trains all employees in the safety topics relevant to their respective workplaces.

Through our management of change process, we ensure that all new installations or changes to existing installations comply with safety requirements and that the relevant safety experts are involved. We use systematic safety analyses to identify risks. Among other things, we analyze the impact that possible individual errors can have on a chain of events leading up to an incident or accident and define protective measures.

Despite the utmost care, plant incidents cannot be ruled out. In the event of damage, emergency response plans regulate the cooperation between internal and external emergency services and with the authorities at every Siltronic site.

Product safety – for safe use by customers and consumers

Our silicon products meet all the requirements of global legal regulations. When manufacturing our hyperpure silicon wafers, we take into account environmental and health protection criteria as well as safety at all stages of the product life cycle. Although safety data sheets are not required by law for our products, we provide our customers with corresponding safety data sheets on request.

Since 2007, the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation has governed the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals in the European Union (EU). All raw materials and auxiliary materials used by Siltronic as well as all Siltronic products fulfill the requirements of the REACH regulation and contain neither Conflict Materials nor Substances of Very High Concern. Our high-purity monocrystalline silicon products also contain none of the substances that are banned and/or restricted under EU Directive 2011/65/EU (RoHS). In addition, our products comply with the Sony standard SS-00259.

Health protection

Protecting the health of our employees and preventing the transmission of infection are of great importance to us.

We support preventive healthcare programs for our employees, such as health check-ups, health competitions, participation in prevention programs and on-site flu vaccinations.

In particular, our pandemic protection plans include protecting our workforce through defined hygiene concepts in the workplace, home office regulations, vaccination offers, crisis management team meetings, site-specific response plans and close communication with suppliers.

Annual report

Audited information and key figures on sustainability at Siltronic can be found in our current annual report.



Relevant downloads

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