Training is fundamental to continual improvement in our operations. Individual facility training programs, coupled with a company-wide annual training conference, promote an ethic that helps us to reduce our environmental impacts. We require each new environmental coordinator to participate in an internal certification program that must be completed within 90 days of date of hire. Annual recertification is required of all coordinators throughout their careers.
In 2008, we established our Facility Environmental Coordinator Training Program, a mandatory four-year cycle of environmental training and assessment courses designed for our environmental professionals. The goal of this continuing education program is to provide a standardized training program for the environmental coordinators at each facility. Upon completing a year of courses, which include tests, participants become Certified Environmental Coordinators.
Additional training in subsequent years keeps our environmental specialists up-to-date on regulatory compliance, pollution prevention, safe chemical management, safety, hazardous materials, emergency response, and other relevant topics. The first cohort of 29 employees began their fourth year of courses in 2011, and 17 more will follow in 2012.
Our annual training conference serves a key role in our training program. In September 2010, more than 100 facility managers, engineers, and environmental coordinators from all of our operations attended Smithfield Foods’ ninth annual Environmental Training Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. This year's theme was "Sustainability in Focus." New attendees were taken through an environmental “boot camp,” and employees made presentations on recycling programs and projects, Web-based software training, CSR management, environmental legal overview, incident notification procedures and requirements, wastewater treatment, and water conservation programs, among other topics.
Also in 2010, Smithfield Foods launched a Web-based training program to certify company wastewater treatment system operators. Much like comparable state-run programs, this process helps ensure that all company operators are adequately trained. The requirements for our program are rigorous enough that several states accept our courses for continuing education credits under their own programs.
