EnLink maintains the highest regard for the health and safety of our employees, contractors, customers, and communities where we operate. Our award-winning Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) program focuses on mitigating risk, increasing knowledge and skills, improving processes, and measuring performance.
We invest substantial resources to ensure the integrity and impact of our EHS efforts and follow comprehensive environmental and safety practices, in addition to all applicable laws and regulations.
Employee and Leadership Responsibility
EnLink is committed to providing safe, responsible, and ethical operations. As part of this commitment, companywide safety goals are included in EnLink's Short-Term Incentive Program via the Safety and Sustainability Scorecard (click here to learn more about our incentive program).
The scorecard promotes our safety-centric culture by measuring key performance indicators focused on risk management, compliance, process improvement, and employee knowledge and development. Progress is reported to employees during monthly safety meetings, discussed in quarterly all employee calls, and available via our employee intranet.
Our EHS team hosts safety training sessions each month, with attendance required for employees based on their job position. Employees are assessed against a set of established and measurable safety goals each quarter, and EnLink reinforces the power of all employees to ensure the safety of operations, as every employee on an active job site has stop-work authority to use at their discretion.
Contractors Safety and EHS Risk Identification and Audits
EnLink utilizes process hazard analyses, pre-job tailgate meetings, inspections, and incident investigations to identify and mitigate work hazards throughout each phase of new projects and existing operations. EnLink conducted over 500 EHS audits and inspections in 2021.
EnLink also expects those we partner with, including our contractors, to focus on safety. This starts with our contractor selection process, which assesses safety performance. EnLink also requires general and site-specific safety orientation prior to working alongside our employees and in our operational facilities.
Although EnLink’s contractors are responsible for their own safety and control over their work activities, EnLink expects all contractors to follow all Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations, as well as follow their own established safety protocols and procedures. EnLink also encourages and expects contractors to identify and communicate risks with EnLink.
In 2021, EnLink resumed in-person contractor safety summits and held contractor safety summits in asset areas with significant contractor activity. These summits allow EnLink and the contract community to share best practices, trends, and solutions to common challenges and safety risks facing the midstream industry. In addition to the contractor safety summits, EnLink also conducted monthly contract inspector safety meetings in active growth areas. Bringing the contract inspector force together to discuss incidents, near misses, risks, best practices, and solutions allows them to better assist the contract work force.
GoalZERO Program Launch and Safety Achievements
EnLink’s “GoalZERO” program provides tools and encouragement to help employees always strive for zero injuries, zero vehicle accidents, zero line strikes, zero fires, and zero spills. One of the most successful tools within the program is EnLink’s “Take 2, Ask 3” initiative, which employees have adopted as a regular first step to getting any job done. Employees start every job by taking just two minutes to ask three important safety questions: “What can go wrong? What precautions should I take? Can I do this job safely?”
The program has been highly successful, resulting in EnLink receiving national safety recognition by winning the 2021 Chairman’s Award for Safety Improvement from the GPA Midstream Association, an industry organization representing nearly 100 natural gas processors, for the second consecutive year. The award is given to select companies that have improved safety performance over previous years – a testament to EnLink’s commitment to continuous improvement and a GoalZERO mindset.
Additional 2021 GoalZERO achievements include:
- Achieved the lowest Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) in EnLink history of 0.44, which is a 6% improvement from EnLink’s 2020 TRIR and 38% better than the 2020 GPA Midstream Division One¹ TRIR average of 0.715
- Going 199 consecutive days without a recordable injury – a new company record
- Achieving EnLnk’s Lowest Preventable Vehicle Accident Rate in EnLink history of 1.11
- Debuting EnLink’s GoalZERO Excellence awards in which EnLink operating areas were celebrated for achieving zero incidents in key safety focus areas
Public Safety and 811
Pipelines have a safety record well in excess of any other mode of transporting petroleum and natural gas products. EnLink operates our pipelines and facilities safely, reliably, and with a focus on environmental stewardship. Through our Public Awareness Program, we provide information about EnLink’s operations and safety initiatives to community members who live and work near our pipelines and facilities. We develop and distribute customized information packets each year to local communities, schools, public officials, excavation contractors, and emergency responders. To promote pipeline safety, EnLink participated in over 100 virtual public awareness meetings in communities across our asset base in 2021.
EnLink also regularly promotes digging safety through our partnership with the Common Ground Alliance, an association of underground utility companies and organizations committed to underground infrastructure safety. The Common Ground Alliance promotes the national “811” call-before-you-dig phone number, which helps professionals and homeowners safely complete digging projects by connecting them with a local “one call center” that can identify and mark approximate locations of underground utility lines. Once lines are flagged, the project may be commenced, and underground lines can be safely avoided. In 2021, EnLink cleared over 127,000 tickets assigned to the company via the 811 system, with 99.99% of these tickets cleared on time.
On the road, we utilize control systems such as in-cab vehicle surveillance, telematics, overfill protection, and speed governors to promote and protect the safety of our employees and local communities. We also work closely with the National Safety Council to provide driver training to company drivers.
- The GPA Midstream Association classifies companies that complete 1 million or more midstream operational workhours in one year as Division 1. The 2020 industry average for GPA Division One companies, EnLink’s peer group, is 0.715. At the time of this report’s issuance, 2021 industry numbers were not yet available.
More in the "Responsible Operations" section:
- Responsible Operations Overview
- Energy Use and Emissions
- Environmental Performance & Stewardship
- Emergency Preparedness
- Asset Integrity Management
Other sections:
The information and data (collectively, Information) provided in EnLink’s 2021 Sustainability Report (Report) reflects content as of and for the period ending December 31, 2021, unless otherwise indicated. Such Information in this Report is for informational purposes only. EnLink does not make, and hereby expressly disclaims, any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the Information contained herein. This Report is being published on May 3, 2022, and EnLink has no obligation or duty to (1) update or correct the Information, (2) provide additional details regarding the Information, or (3) continue to provide the Information, in any form, in the future. EnLink reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify, update, change, delete, or supplement the Information from time to time without notice. The Information should not be interpreted as any form of guaranty or assurance of future results or trends. Unless otherwise provided, EnLink is not expressly incorporating by reference any of the Information into any filing of EnLink made with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or in any other filing, report, application, or statement made by EnLink to any federal, state, or local governmental authority. This Report contains information based upon EnLink’s role in the broader economy, environment, and society and for the purpose of responding to issues that are important to a wide range of interested parties. While events, scenarios, and efforts discussed in this report may be significant, any significance should not be read as necessarily rising to the level of materiality of the disclosures required under U.S. federal securities laws, which have distinct and specific concepts of materiality.