Health and Safety—Views From the Top: An Interview with Jacynthe Côté

Health and Safety: Views From the Top is a series of executive action briefings produced by the Conference Board’s Senior Executive Health and Safety Leadership Charter Initiative, whose objective is to promote health and safety in Canadian organizations and build senior leadership engagement. This issue focuses on Montreal-based Rio Tinto Alcan’s journey toward zero harm by choice—its goal of zero incidents, injuries, and occupational illnesses. In a sector that is extremely challenging and dangerous, and with operations spread around the globe, site safety and accountability is extremely important. Chief executive Jacynthe Côté talks about the measures behind the company’s superb safety record. These include putting trained specialists and line managers on-site, who assume full responsibility for the occupational health and safety performance of their teams; sharing lessons learned; and benchmarking against the company’s competitors.