SilTerra EHS Week 2003 was launched on 14 Oct 2003. This was the first ever event held in SilTerra. The Motto of this event is “Think Safety, Act Safely”. There was about 900 people visited SilTerra. We have participants from government such as DOE, Bomba, and Police for the exhibition during the 3 days of EHS Week. There were also activities and talks for employees such as:

 

•  Blood donation (155 donors)
•  Blood Screening
•  EHS Quiz
•  Coloring competition for primary schools’ pupils
•  Free T-shirt, safety vest and car sticker for employees
•  Health talk on “Stress Management” by Pantai Mutiara Hospital
•  Safety talk on “Road Safety” by Traffic Police
 

The EHS Week was well executed and successful. Employees learned about Environmental, Health and Safety through the exhibitions, quiz and activities. As token of appreciation, the management rewarded organizing committee and sub committee with certificate of appreciation.

 

Launching of EHS Week 2003		Tree Planting Ceremony		Exhibition Booth – Dept. Of Environment
Blood Donation Activity Coloring Competition

 

 

This is another project under the EHS Social Responsibility & Activities. The objective is to promote recycling habit and be environmental friendly. We actually kill two birds with one stone, because this project also benefits the Joblink center, a center for physically challenged people, including the visually impaired, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. We donated proceeds from the sales of tote boxes and recycled papers amounting to a sum of RM1300.00, where we bought Milo, creamer and biscuits. Apparently, Silterrians have good Samaritans spirits!!

 

JOBLINK Center

 

SilTerra Environmental Day was launched on 19 Oct 2004. The day stated with a coloring contest by school children from school around Kulim, Kedah. Then in the evening, tree-planting event was held with a catchy theme – A Greener Earth For Future Generations. 210 trees were sponsored by SilTerrians & vendors. The trees were planted by SilTerra’s employees around the premises.

 

 

On 26 May 2005, Mr. Bruce Gray, President/Chief Operating Officer (Acting CEO) of SilTerra launched Waste Recycling Program at Taman Hi-Tech Primary School. This is another community project organized by Facilities – Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS), the Green Team and CDEA. The objective of this program is to introduce the wastes recycling concept to the school and the KHTP community.

SilTerra donated 2 sets of recycle bins to Taman Hi-Tech Primary School to promote recycling habit among the school children. En. Khalid Salleh from PBT KHTP was invited to give a talk on waste recycling activity in KHTP area. Besides, coloring contest has been carried out prior launching ceremony to create awareness among young generations. Mr. Bruce Gray gave out prizes to the winners of coloring contest.

School students, parents, teachers, representatives from government agencies and industries in KHTP and SilTerrians joined to make the Waste Recycling Program a success.

 

 

January 16, 2006 - EHS organized a safety awareness program on eye safety from 16-Jan 2006 until 27 Jan 2006. The purpose is to instill safety awareness among employees and vendors on the importance of eye safety. EHS encouraged all to participate in the following activities below. 

- Daily video show in the canteen during break time
- Big screen video show in the auditorium 
- Soft-poster contest 
- Talk by Occupational Health Doctor on eye safety 
- Regular brief newsletter through email 

 

February 22, 2006 - In conjunction with Hand Safety Awareness Month, a short video concerning hand safety will be shown. Attendance is MANDATORY for all employees working in the fab or facilties and it is required to maintain Safety certification.

 

March 7, 2006 - In conjunction with Chemical Safety Awareness Month, EHS invited all Silterrians to attend a short video presentation on Chemical Safety.

 

March 14, 2006 - A special talk on chemical hazard, handling and emergency response by TCM, Silterra's in-house vendor. 

Course outline
· Objective & Introduction 
· Physical state 
· Route of entry 
· OSH Regulation related to chemical handling
· Classification 
· Effect of hazardous chemicals 
· Handling of hazardous chemical 
· Labeling 
· PPE 
· Emergency Response 

 

April 3, 2006 - Bird Flu Awareness Information slides where distributed  from EHS Steering Committee to all Silterrians

 

April 18, 2006 - In conjunction with Fire Safety Awareness Month, EHS has arranged a special session on fire safety with Mr. Jeva, the officer for Fire & Rescue Department of KHTP. All employees and especially the ERT members were strongly recommended to attend the fire safety talk. 

 

October 20, 2006 - Silterra is again competing in the Prime Minister's Hibiscus Award (PMHA) for session of 2006/2007. PMHA is an National Environmental Award given to industries which have significant contribution to the environmental conservation effort.

On the company wide effort, Silterra is embarking into a cost saving project which at the same time will reduce the impact to our environment. All employees are encouraged to participate in conserving the energy by switching off the computers and laptops before they go home, especially when they  go off for long festive breaks. There will be more of such environmental conservation activities being planned such as recycle program, donation drive as well as other community works.

Every computer when being left turned on overnight wastes between US $10 to $30 annually. This is equivalent to between 374 to 1122 square feet of forest being burnt down. 

 

November 2, 2006 - As Silterra embark on further operational excellence, Silterra feels that they should do better in controlling paper waste. This is inline with the company's attempt to reduce wastage which will result in further cost savings and at the same time, reduce the impact to the environment. And this is in tandem with Silterra's objective to compete in the upcoming PM's Hibiscus Award. Activities started were :
 
1. make copies on both sides on the papers.
2. recycle/reuse papers on printers & copy machines.
3. recycle/reuse papers for scribbles before throwing it away into the trash bin.
4. Print out only when necessary.
 
For those recycle/reuse papers which are meant to be used in copy machines & printers, they 
1. should be free from staples.
2. contain lows amount of  wrinkles.
3. contain dried blanko (not wet).
4. should only be used for internal use, not official use.
5. should not contain confidential information.

 

November 3, 2006 - As part of Silterra's continuous Environmental Conservation program, proper disposal of dry cell batteries is very critical.

Batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel, which can contaminate the environment when batteries are improperly disposed of. When incinerated, these metals might be released into the air or can concentrate in the ash produced by the combustion process. 
Dry-cell batteries include alkaline and carbon zinc (9-volt, D, C, AA, AAA), mercuric-oxide (button, some cylindrical and rectangular), silver-oxide and zinc-air (button), and lithium (9-volt, C, AA, coin, button, rechargeable). Handphone batteries are also considered as dry-cell batteries.

As such, Silterra have allocated one dustbin only meant for disposal of dry cell batteries. It is located at the Office Main entrance for everyone's convenience.

 

November 15, 2006 - In conjunction with Silterra Environmental Week which took place from 27 November 2006 till 1 December 2006, Silterra has organized a Colouring Contest for they employee's families. The event took place on 29 December 2006 in the Auditorium.

 

November 16, 2006 - As part of Silterra's Environmental Conservation program, 3 in-house recycle binds has been set up. These bins are for the employees to dispose paper wastes, aluminum cans and glass bottles. Each recycle bin is customized to collect different wastes as followings:

. Recycle bin with blue label - Paper Waste
. Recycle bin with orange label - Aluminum can
. Recycle bin with brown label - Glass

The recycle bins are located at the Car Pool Area. Proceeds received from selling the recycle wastes were donated to charity. This is part of Silterra's move to instill the habit of recycling. At the same time Silterra would like to be socially responsible and caring corporation.

 

November 29, 2006 - Information was shared to all employees on what is recyclable and the arts for recycling them. Additional information were distributed including what are not recyclable as well as contractors and places to drop off recyclables.

 

December 20, 2006 - Sahabat Alam Malaysia is organizing an environmental event to replant mangrove trees at Tsunami affected areas on the 26 Dec 06.  In Kedah, the areas to be replanted with mangrove trees are Sungai Merbok, Merbok and Kuala Tunjang, Kerpan.  Beside conserving the environment, the program will also help to protect the areas with natural protection mechanism in case Tsunami strikes again.  Sahabat Alam Malaysia is inviting all organizations and individuals to sponsor the trees.  The price of one tree is RM4.50.
 
As part of company's effort to continuously conserve our environment, Silterra is going to sponsor 1000 trees.
 
Sahabat Alam Malaysia will be in Silterrra from 21-22 Dec 2006 to coordinate any sponsorship from individual in Silterrra. 

 

April 27, 2007 - Thanks to Silterrians efforts in conserving the environment, Silterra have managed to collect an encouraging amount of waste that will be recycled for other uses. In this modern times, resources are scarce, and new technologies are being developed everyday to enable waste to be converted into something useful. Total weight collected 393.4kg amounting to RM64.75

 

May 28, 2007 - World Environment Day 2007 falls on 5 June. The slogan this year is "Melting Ice: A Hot Topic!" to reflect the impact of climate change to all regions in the world. In order to fight the climate change, Silterra has done its part finding out more about "ecological footprint".

Information such as this were sent to all Silterrians:

What is "ecological footprint"? (Source: Wikipedia)
The phrase "ecological footprint" is a metaphor used to depict the amount of land and area a human population would hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes, given prevailing technology. Ecological footprinting is now widely used around the globe as an indicator of environmental sustainability. It can be used to measure and manage the use of resources throughout the economy. 
Ecological footprint analysis measures the human demand on nature and compares human consumption of natural resuorces with the earth's ecological capacity to regenerate them. Ecological footprint analysis approximates the amount of ecologically productive land, sea and other water mass area required to sustain a population, manufacture a product, or undertake certain activities, by accounting the use of energy, food, water, building material and other consumables. The calculations used typically convert this into a measure of land area used in 'global hectares' (gha) per person.

It is a way of determining relative consumption for the purpose of educating people about their resource use and, sometimes, triggering them to alter their over-consumpttion. It can be combined with overpopulation concerns and stated as "the number of Earths it would take to support every human living exactly the way you do." Ecological footprints is used to argue that current lifestyles are not sustainable. For example, the average "earthshare" available to each human citizen is approximately 1.9 gha per capita. The US average footprint is 9.5 gha per capita, and that of Switzerland 4 gha, whilst China's is circa 1.5 gha per head.

 

On 25th Oct 07, Silterra 's ERT members were invited to participate in the Joint ERT Drill for Pre-SAREX (Pre Search and Rescue) Exercise coordinated by Kulim Hospital. This Pre-SAREX was an emergency preparation by the Kedah Ministry of Health to equip themselves for the LIMA (Langkawi International & Maritime Aviation) Exhibition to be held in Dec. 07. All KIPEHS (Kulim Industrial Park EHS) Committee members in which SILTERRA is a member, were called in to take part in this eventful exercise. 

SILTERRA having one of the biggest ERT team has been appointed to be the coordinator among the KIPEHS members and Mr. Shah Hazidi Hussein, the Facilities EHS Manager was selected as the chairman of the subcommittee. The exercise was considered as a platform for the participating factories to expose their ERT members to the real emergencies which involved external parties such as the Police, Bomba and the Hospital. This was also an avenue to enhance the rapport among the authorities.

A simulation was that two helicopters carried parachuters crashed in the air and landed in a lakeside area where a company was having its Family Day. Forty casualties were reported , 8 death, others ranges from critical, semi critical to non critical. Our ERT members who volunteered took part as the First Aiders , injured persons as well as observers.The exercise was carried out successfully and all parties which got involved managed to go back with invaluable experience which they can use at their workplace.

 

 

To ensure a safe and healthy workplace for all employees, visitors, and contractors, Silterra has engaged the National Institute of Safety and Health (NIOSH) to provide occupational health and safety (OHS) training and certification for all contractors performing physical work in the premises (referred to as Contractor Safety Passport system - CSPS). This is in addition to the in-house EHS briefing, which is designed to inform the contractors of the emergency preparedness and response procedures, housekeeping practices, as well as environmental conservation requirements.

By engaging NIOSH in OHS training and certification, a uniform standard among all participating industries can be achieved, at minimal cost to the contractors, but enormous returns by absence of liabilities arising out of untoward incidents. Contractors will be given an identification badge, denoting their certification in general and/or specialized OHS safety certification. Recently, with collaboration with NIOSH and other factories, Silterra has contributed to the upgrading of the CSPS program on as follows;

1. Certification duration extended from 1 year to 2 years
   
2. General OHS training and certification includes multiple disciplines, previously separated, benefiting the bulk of contract workers. Disciplines, elected are frequent scenarios observed in factories, are ;

• General Safety
• Material Handling
• Basic Chemical Handling
• Housekeeping
• Landscaping
• Catering

By ensuring all contractors equipped with basic knowledge on OHS, the workplace is secured from unwanted incidents that could lead to business liability. Silterra adopts this principle to ensure a productive workplace and a profitable organization.

As commitment on OSH aspects Silterra has gone through Sirim Audit certification on OHSAS 18001 in June 2008. OHSAS 18000 is an international occupational health and safety management system specification. Silterra has been certified as OHSAS 18001 compliance in September 2008. 




Pictures: Audit team together perform the audit at all areas

In August 2008 Silterra has conducted Fire extinguisher training to all employees as an effort to train employees to use fire extinguisher in emergency situation. This training is conducted once in 2 years.

Stating from March 2008 until August 2008 EHS department has arranged a refresher training on EHS orientation for all employees. This training is conducted once in 2 years as to increase employee awareness and enhance their knowledge on EHS aspects.

127 ERT members have undergone and passed the Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) to evaluate their capability in using Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus.

A new ERT program which is called ERT Subject Matter Experts (SME) was launched and completed. This program required all members to become a SME for one ERT apparatus.

The Green Team kicked off the composting project using waste food from the canteen. After ~2 months, the product was used as fertilizer for plants around the buildings

- EHS introduced the Lockout-Tagout (LOTO) Program to Manufacturing
- 313 identified personnel attended training

- Silterra engaged SIRIM to perform a gate-to-gate LCA study
- Results show that the environmental burden come from usage of electricity (54%) and fossil fuel (46%)

- After much effort from various parties, Silterra finally started to recycle TMAH drums through BASF
- Estimated cost savings to be USD 280K/year 

EHS Department with the help of other departments have organized a community project for the general public. The aim was to focus on creating awareness of the environment and its conservation. Our target crowds for this purpose were school children and the employees’ housewives. 
Tuan Hj Abu Bakar bin Md Ali who is the Education Officer of Kulim District had officiated the memorable event on the 11th Nov 2009 in our Auditorium. Sekolah Kebangsaan Tunku Abdul Malik, Kulim was given the honor to be the first school to participate in the program. About 130 pupils, 6 teachers and 2 housewives attended the inaugural function.


Picture 1 : School children pay attention at environmental talk presented by Green Crusaders

Two external speakers from Non-profit Environmental Group were invited by Silterra. They are the Green Crusaders who shared their knowledge and experiences on ways of recycling domestic waste, and Garbage Enzyme Team who enlightened the crowd with ways to making cleaning agent from food waste.
  
It is our heartfelt hope that this project will enhance the awareness for our ailing environment and also Silterra’s involvement in the matter. EHS team are hoping more Silterrian shall champion or participate in environment activities organized by Silterra or other NGOs in the future. We must have 3R mind in our daily activities ( Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)


Picture 2 : Talk by Garbage Enzyme


Picture 3 : Silterra Management with Education Officer of Kulim District & SK Tunku Malik teachers


Picture 4 : Audience pay attention and get benefit from the talk 

On 5th December 2009, Silterra had successfully completed another Environmental Conservation Project for the general public. This time we headed to Sedim River, a famous family recreation park 40km from Kulim. The Silterra EHS team headed by Amir Hamzah was leading all other factories under the umbrella of Kulim Industrial Tenants Association (KITA) to perform a cleaning activity at Sedim River area. The objectives of the program are to :

Take care of our rivers from contamination. 
To inculcate the volunteer work spirit.
To build in Gotong-Royong spirit that originated from kampong folks.
To educate our future generation to protect our environment from pollution.


Picture 1 : Mr.Mike brief his team on task distribution

In our goal to conserve the environment, KITA members together in hand with Sedim villagers, had performed a cleaning activity at Sedim River.  A total of about 17 Silterrians and 350 other participants took part in this activity driven by Silterra and was highlighted in two daily newspapers namely Kwang Wah Jit Poh and Harian Metro 
The activity was organized to create an appreciation and keenness to our rivers. By doing that, Silterra also hoped to foster awareness in the community so as not to abuse and contaminate our vulnerable rivers.  The activity was well received by Sedim folks and the same activity shall be organized by KITA next year as a quest to a better environment. 


Picture 2 : Cleaning activity start


Picture 3 : Villagers and KITA members work together to clean Sedim river


Picture 4 : Parts of activities 


Picture 5 : Cleaning activity finished in the afternoon

EHS Department working closely with Bomba Hi-Tech and Kulim Hospital executed the annual fire drill at our office building on 9th Dec 09. The objective of the drill is to check the response of our Emergency Response Team (ERT), Bomba and Hospital and to ensure that our system worked as designed. This year’s scenario included 3 “victims” to help us practice the rescue method and assess our capability.

What went right ? The evacuation of the building took less than five minutes, which met our target. Our ERT responded quickly and were on stand-by for Bomba’s arrival. Our 9 Office Fire Marshals did their job by sweeping their respective area and reporting to the ERT Incident Commander.


Picture 1 : Employees evacuating the Office Building & ERT Operation leader and Strike team ready to go

What went wrong ? The Fire Alarm automatic notification system (ABL) failed to notify Bomba . Our drill coordinator, Mr. Mike Foong, had to call Bomba directly. Bomba, with their siren blaring, arrived within five minutes after receiving the call.
The ambulance took twelve minutes, from the time of calling 999, to arrive as the system directed the call to Alor Setar who then forwarded it to Hospital Kulim. The badge scanning at assembly area was slow and employees were in long queues.
All the post mortems actions were discussed and shall be addressed as soon as possible to ensure that our emergency response system is always in the best working condition.


Picture 2 : Rescue activity


Picture 3 : Part of the activities

On 14th March 2010, Silterra partnership with Junior Chamber International (JCI) Kulim have participate in Karnival Sukaneka Naga Lilit, Kulim. Silterra & JCI set up a booth for fruit enzyme making demonstration and 50 bottles of enzyme have been distributed .Fruit enzyme is turning garbage into enzyme and use it for various application e.g. floor cleaning, fertilizer, perfume, etc. Many villagers visit our booth and enjoy the demonstration. 

We achieved our objective to educate kampung folks on the use of fruit waste which indirectly help to reduce domestic waste produce daily. 


Picture 1 : Silterra EHS & JCI Kulim work together to educate kampung folks.


Picture 2 : Fruit enzyme making demonstration     Picture 3 : Kampung folk join the demonstration


Picture 4 : Part of the activities shared among Naga Lilit community


Picture 5 : Short speech from Silterra representative –Mr. Amir and prize giving ceremony

On 16th March 2010 Silterra has involved in Environmental Community project with Komuniiti Bistari Mukim Keladi, Kulim. The program has been arranged by Komuniti Bistari Mukim Keladi Committee and supported by Pejabat Penerangan, Kulim. There are various activities have been conducted with kampung folks such as competition in use of recycle waste for tissue box creation, ‘kerabu’ making, kids coloring contest and environmental awareness talk.
Silterra has sponsored RM1000 in this program and deliver a talk on ‘Environmental Conservation’ with the aims to educate community on the environmental issue and enhance their awareness to conserve energy.


Picture 1 :Tissue box creation from recycle waste

Picture 2:'Kerabu' making

Picture 3 : Participant work hard to finish their creation

Picture 4 : Mr.Amir from Silterra judge the ‘kerabu’

Picture 5 : Continue judging the tissue box creation

Picture 6 : Mr. Khairul start to conduct the environmental talk

Picture 7 : Parts of Kampung Keladi folks join the environmental talk

Picture 8 : Mr.Khairul sharing his experience and knowledge on environmental aspects with kampung folks 


Picture 9 : Prizes giving to all the winners


Picture 10 : Appreciation to Silterra from Penghulu Kampung Keladi 

On 24th April 2010, SK Permatang Tiong committee have invited Silterra EHS to join their environmental day which involved school children and villagers. We have donated RM1000 to school PIBG for student activity fund. About 250 people have joined this program and all the activities conducted in this program should have any environmental values as the criteria. Parts of the activities are coloring contest,art creation, WAU decorations, etc. 
Silterra EHS representative has delivered environmental talk and sharing a few tips on how to conserve the energy with the audience. 


Picture 1 : The headmaster giving a short speech before program start; School children gather at the hall for Environmental talk 


Picture 2 : Part of the program activities


Picture 3: Silterra representative giving a talk on Environmental Conservation


Picture 4 : Prizes giving ceremony to all the winners