our People

Social Sustainability

TRT recognizes that people are the most important part of our business as customers and employees. We understand that our people play an essential role in sustainable operations and we rely on their high level of performance to be successful. The rights of employees, customers, and the entire community must be valued and protected by the industries that serve them. Every person employed by TRT is incorporated into a fair, safe, inclusive atmosphere that yields high performance outcomes. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at TRT operates to promote social sustainability in the community by connecting with different organizations and programs that raise socioeconomic status for vulnerable individuals or groups.

Community Social Development

Individuals, communities, and corporations should work in unison to achieve social goals, including the elimination of homelessness, food insecurity, diseases, discrimination on any basis, and the barriers to education. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a commitment to our employees and the communities they live and work in. Over the past three years, TRT has donated to CSR programs in Massachusetts that protect vulnerable individuals and families. This community assistance has been given to the Animal Rescue League, Cardinal Cushing Centers, D.A.R.E. program, Duxbury Senior Center, Father Bill’s & Mainspring Shelter, Friends of Wollaston Beach, Jimmy Fund, New England Aquarium, Road to Responsibility, Rosie’s Place, South Shore Leadership Scholarship, Quincy Public Schools, and Ward 2 Civic Association. Each year, our employees choose a new non-profit to support through donations of goods and/or monetary funds. In 2022, TRT continued to support this program in its budget.

Women in STEM / Internships – Changing the Face of STEM

In keeping with the program highlighted in the 2019 Sustainability Report, the Sustainability Committee proposes to formalize an internship program focused on supporting women in STEM (Science, Technologies, Engineering, Math) studies that are either from local colleges / universities or are children of TRT employees that are currently enrolled in a qualified program. This effort is intended to support women as a function of UN SDGs and to assess talent and develop relationships with potential candidates for future employment.

Women in STEM at TRT is intended to not only provide women with opportunities to grow professionally, but also to broaden and deepen the potential pool of talented individuals that make up TRT’s diverse fabric. The primary role of the intern(s) will be to assist in data collection and content creation for the Sustainability Program. The intern(s) will report to the STEM Intern Coordinator/Sustainability Committee Chair, who will be responsible for assigning and validating work completed by the intern.

TRT’s STEM internship will focus on candidates that have completed at least one year in college to help them develop their professional credentials and skill sets. TRT will reach out to local universities to find a pool of candidates and will secure three candidates, one per semester annually (Sept – Dec; Jan – May; June – Aug).

Qualified programs that have been discussed include:

  • Chemical Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Manufacturing Engineering
  • Occupational Health and Safety
  • Chemistry
  • Business
  • Sustainability

Employees

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Twin Rivers Technologies’ (TRT’s) Diversity and Inclusion program, is a key part of our Sustainability program. Our goal and commitment is to have TRT be a company where all employees are supported professionally in order to succeed and where there are no obstacles based on race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability.

Diversity is the presence of differences that make each person unique and can be used to differentiate groups of people from one another. In addition to race, gender, sexual preference, age, and socio-demographics, it also includes work experience, thinking style, and personality type. Inclusion is defined as the full engagement and development of all stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, communities and shareholders) associated with an organization. Inclusion enables individuals and groups to feel safe, respected, engaged, motivated and valued, for who they are and for their contributions toward organizational and societal goals. Inclusion only happens when the diversity of an organization is fully leveraged.

The goal of diversity and inclusion is to maximize the ability to identify and meet the most pressing needs our customers and communities face today. Making cultural change is challenging, but embracing diversity and inclusion will help pave the way for a bright and sustainable future by attracting and retaining the best and most talented people possible.

TRT’s vision is to be the preferred partner for Naturally Based Specialty Chemicals by consistently manufacturing and delivering high quality products through a sustainable and diversified supply chain. Our mission to deliver superior value to our stakeholders is partly achieved by fostering an engaged culture that empowers our employees to achieve goals and provide an exceptional customer experience.

As we continue to apply diversity and inclusion, TRT is committed to:

  • Form a diversity and inclusion (D&I) council
  • Train, educate and empower employees
  • Recruit and retain a diverse workforce
  • Work towards the greatest possible inclusion to fully understand and develop new ideas, viewpoints, and experiences
  • Achieve cultural growth in our business and within our communities

Health & Safety

TRT’s safety program is essential to our ongoing success. We recognize that the success of our operations is dependent on a healthy, high functioning workforce. The central focus of our organization is to ensure we maintain a safe workplace. To achieve this, we have a safety culture that includes multiple safety committees, continuous training, auditing and reporting, and a preventative maintenance program. Additionally, we share a monthly Wellness Bulletin and encourage our employees to take advantage of our onsite fitness center. All of these programs aim encourage good health and well-being, for individuals and for our company as a whole.

SAFETY PERFORMANCE TOTAL SAFETY INCIDENT RATE (TIR)
 

Training

We advocate for long-term success by investing in our employees. We provide various training methods and education opportunities to help employees specialize in new skills or maintain ones that have already been earned. All new hires go through an orientation training where they learn their roles and responsibilities as well as spend time in other departments to allow them to fully understand the business. Once orientation is completed, new hires are mentored in the system or skill that they will enter into at TRT. We offer a variety of different programming for employees that is encompassed in a number of categories including:

  • Operational Mentoring
  • Classroom Training
  • One-Point Lessons
  • Electronic Training
  • Contractor Safety Training
  • Offsite Certification/ Professional Development

All new hires go through in depth orientation training where they learn the basics of all roles and responsibilities within the facility as well as the expectations around safe practices. This allows each new employee to spend time in other departments; allow them to fully understand the business and begin developing working relationships with our team. Once orientation is completed, new hires begin mentoring under a sponsor in their respective system or skill before qualifying to enter the TRT production process.

Our training programs support and maintain safe operations, raise expertise and include: certification training for OSHA, Hazmat Response, First Aid-CPR-AED, Spill Response, Incident Command Training, Confined Space Entry & Rescue, Hot Work, Line Break - Lock Out / Tag Out, etc. Our managers deliver One Point L these topics and more on an ongoing basis to reinforce their importance and procedures.

Heath & Wellness

The Health and Safety program for 2021 continued to face many of the same challenges in relation to Covid-19. Twin Rivers Technologies is an essential business suppling products into the cleaning industry and therefore continued production at our Quincy, MA facility throughout the pandemic.

TRT continues to operate under our Pandemic Emergency Response Procedure to understand what new issues Covid-19 might pose to our people. In addition to proper PPE and safe, separate and clean work spaces for employees working in the plant, we continue to employ a remote work program for many of our office staff and minimize visitors to our site. These efforts allowed us to maintain social distancing through occupancy limits, while giving the management team the ability to support those employees who were required be on site to do their jobs.

Our non-essential personnel returned to the office full time by June of 2021, however, with the surge of the omicron variant towards the end of 2021, we have had to reassess and currently have non-essential personnel on a rotating schedule to have only a minimum number of people in the office each day.

We continue to have a team work daily to clean and sanitize both the offices and plant. Personnel are required to wear PPE when working within six feet of another person and working or walking through common areas, regardless of vaccination status.

TRT maintains a daily close contact log system, and a travel log system for employees that needed to travel outside the country. Many of these actions went beyond local and federal guidelines to protect essential employees but were necessary to support our 24/7 manufacturing facility.

Twin Rivers Technologies is in compliance with the emergency temporary standard outlined by OSHA’s Covid-19 vaccination and testing ETS.

In 2021, TRT participated in a virtual wellbeing fair, which is designed to help employers and employees learn more about holistic health. During this fair, all TRT personnel had the option to attend various workshop sessions that specifically focus on the six pillars of wellbeing: financial, physical, mental/emotional, social and community and career.

As with the rest of the world, TRT continues to review our current practices in an effort to ensure that our employees are safe, and the needs of our customers and shareholders are met

Our Customers

Customer satisfaction continues to be a top priority for us. Our commitment to sustainability is consistent with the sustainability commitments of our customers. We, along with many of our customers, have embraced the concept of environmental and social performance and will continue to drive this platform throughout our industry, from suppliers to finished goods.

Many of our customers are large global companies that have embraced the concept of environmental and social performance, and expect their suppliers to do the same. This reinforces the business value of our programs and involves all levels of the organization in the commitment to achieve our goals.

In 2018, to ensure that we remained competitive in the marketplace and are able to service our customers, we became REACH certified. REACH is a regulation of the European Union, adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals. It also promotes alternative methods for the hazard assessment of substances in order to reduce the number of tests on animals.

Our refined glycerin has been Safe Quality Food (SQF) Level 2 certified since 2015. We are recognized by the SQF Institute, a division of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), as a HACCP Based Food Safety Plan Supplier. In 2019, we worked to achieve SQF Certification for our Kosher and Halal Fatty Acids. This certification reflects the goal of our food safety management system to improve business processes, increase efficiencies and reduce risk. To receive this level of certification we must:

  • Meet a number of strict SQF safety and sanitation requirements
  • Develop and maintain a high level of sustainable Good Manufacturing Practice (GMPs)
  • Develop and follow a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HAACP) program to ensure food safety
  • Develop a food safety risk analysis while providing continuous SQF training for all its employees

SQF certification is recognized worldwide, informing customers that they are doing business with a company who adheres to the strictest food safety and sanitation standards. It gives consumers a sense of confidence knowing they are buying products from a company who is recognized for producing safe food products. This certification gives external validation to the internal safety commitment to which we have always adhered.

Being SQF certified builds confidence between TRT and our partners. Having a recognized single-audit system in place eliminates the need for duplicate, costly audits from other sources. The SQF program has been implemented by more than 5,000 companies operating in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, South America and in the United States. In addition, SQF Certification meets the safety standard of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).

Furthermore, to receiving this certification, we expanded our product line offerings to include coconut only products. These products are certified as being Palm Free, which is becoming an increasingly requested option during this widely controversial time. Many companies are choosing to eliminate non-sustainable palm oil due to the effects harvesting has had on the workers in the palm oil industry and the deforestation in the rainforests of southeast Asia. Because of this and the ever-evolving natural specialty chemical industry, TRT is also a RSPO registered site and offers Mass Balance product options.

Sedex is a not for profit membership organization which is dedicated to driving improvements in ethical and responsible business practices in global supply chains. In 2019 Twin Rivers completed a Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit or SMETA. The SMETA is intended to provide transparency for Sedex’s four governance pillars of Labor, Health and Safety, Environment and Business Ethics. TRT passed the SMETA with no findings or corrective actions and the outstanding comment in the SMETA about TRT was ...“Excellent environmental standards are maintained. A full and comprehensive sustainability program is in place”. The results of the SMETA are available to TRT’s customers.

OUR COMMUNITIES

Charitable Donations:

TRT is an active participant in the local and regional community. Our Charitable Donations committee works to ensure that we are able to give to local charities that are important to our employees.

In 2021, TRT’s Charitable Donations Committee agreed to partner with Interfaith Social Services for our annual holiday fundraiser. Founded in 1947, Interfaith Social Services is dedicated to improving life for South Shore families and individuals in need. Their current programs include:

  • Food pantry
  • Counseling Center
  • Homelessness prevention program
  • A program providing free professional attire to low-income job seekers
  • Seasonal programs bringing joy to the children of the food pantry clients
  • Thrift shop
  • Annaul 5k race to raise funds for counseling center
  • Gala to raise funds to feed the hungry

TRT donated a Yeti cooler filled with Yeti and TRT swag to be raffled off to employees. This was our first time hosting such a raffle and we are proud to announce that our employees raised $810, all of which was donated to our chosen charity.

Our Communities

Charitable Donations:

In 2021, TRT’s Charitable Donations Committee agreed to partner with Interfaith Social Services for our annual holiday fundraiser. Founded in 1947, Interfaith Social Services is dedicated to improving life for South Shore families and individuals in need. Their current programs include.
  • Food pantry
  • Counseling Center
  • Homelessness prevention program
  • A program providing free professional attire to low-income job seekers
  • Seasonal programs bringing joy to the children of the food pantry clients
  • Thrift shop
  • Annual 5k race to raise funds for counseling center
  • Gala to raise funds to feed the hungry
  • TRT donated a Yeti cooler filled with Yeti and TRT swag to be raffled off to employees. This was our first time hosting such a raffle and we are proud to announce that our employees raised $810, all of which was donated to our chosen charity.

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

TRT recognizes that people are the most important part of our business as customers and employees. We understand that our people play an essential role in sustainable operations and we rely on their high level of performance to be successful. The rights of employees, customers, and the entire community must be valued and protected by the industries that serve them. Every person employed by TRT is incorporated into a fair, safe, inclusive atmosphere that yields high performance outcomes. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at TRT operates to promote social sustainability in the community by connecting with different organizations and programs that raise socioeconomic status for vulnerable individuals or groups.

COMMUNITY SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Individuals, communities, and corporations should work in unison to achieve social goals, including the elimination of homelessness, food insecurity, diseases, discrimination on any basis, and the barriers to education. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a commitment to our employees and the communities they live and work in. Over the past three years, TRT has donated to CSR programs in Massachusetts that protect vulnerable individuals and families. This community assistance has been given to the Animal Rescue League, Cardinal Cushing Centers, D.A.R.E. program, Duxbury Senior Center, Father Bill’s & Mainspring Shelter, Friends of Wollaston Beach, Jimmy Fund, New England Aquarium, Road to Responsibility, South Shore Leadership Scholarship, Quincy Public Schools, and Ward 2 Civic Association. Additionally, we dedicated our 2019 holiday program to Rosie’s Place, which offers shelter and services to LGBT+ women in need. Over 12,000 women a year depend on the services and safe haven provided by Rosie’s Place, and we are proud to support an organization dedicated to diversity and inclusion. In 2019, TRT organized our corporate giving program to be an annually budgeted activity that will be able to focus on groups and causes that are in line with our mission and that are important to our employees and local communities.

TWIN RIVERS TECHNOLOGIES STEM INTERNSHIP PROGRAM FOR YOUNG WOMEN

In 2019, Twin Rivers Technologies created our first STEM internship for local women whose college studies focus on either Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math. Brianna Bennett was the first woman to enter the Twin Rivers Technologies STEM Internship Program for Young Women. Beginning in 2019, Brianna started an internship supporting TRT’s Sustainability Program and continued to work with TRT in 2020. In her role, she assisted on numerous aspects of the annual TRT Sustainability Report, the Ecovadis Corporate Social Responsibility assessment and the Sedex SMETA audit. Of these efforts, the most visible work was helping to draft TRT’s position statements on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and to frame our efforts to support them. TRT’s commitment to the UN SDG’s and associated project is on the TRT Sustainability webpage and part of our ongoing sustainability efforts.

Brianna is now a sustainability professional working for the Town of Cohasset’s Alternative Energy Committee (AEC) to bring reliable, resilient and clean energy resiliency and reliability to her local community. She received her Bachelor’s degree in the spring of 2020 from Merrimack College with double majors in Environmental Studies & Sustainability and Political Science plus a minor in Social Justice. As part of her studies, Brianna lived abroad for eighteen weeks in Merida, Mexico and Montverde, Costa Rica where she studied ancient cultures, environmental science, global climate change, international agriculture, and more. She is now taking classes at the Harvard Extension School in pursuit of a Master’s degree in Sustainability.

According to Brianna, the work she is doing now “is in pursuit of goals to achieve a high quality of life for all people through wide-scale, institutional, sustainable development”. TRT is proud to have had Brianna Bennett as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Program. She exemplifies the positive and hopeful attitude that all organizations look for in their people. TRT’s commitment going forward is to continue to seek out talented motivated women like Brianna to join our organization through the STEM Internship Program for Young Women to increase diversity and inclusion though opportunities of professional development.

EMPLOYEES

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Twin Rivers Technologies’ (TRT’s) Diversity and Inclusion program, is a key part of our Sustainability program. Our goal and commitment is to have TRT be a company where all employees are supported professionally in order to succeed and where there are no obstacles based on race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability.

Diversity is the presence of differences that make each person unique and can be used to differentiate groups of people from one another. In addition to race, gender, sexual preference, age, and socio-demographics, it also includes work experience, thinking style, and personality type. Inclusion is defined as the full engagement and development of all stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, communities and shareholders) associated with an organization. Inclusion enables individuals and groups to feel safe, respected, engaged, motivated and valued, for who they are and for their contributions toward organizational and societal goals. Inclusion only happens when the diversity of an organization is fully leveraged.

The goal of diversity and inclusion is to maximize the ability to identify and meet the most pressing needs our customers and communities face today. Making cultural change is challenging, but embracing diversity and inclusion will help pave the way for a bright and sustainable future by attracting and retaining the best and most talented people possible.

TRT’s vision is to be the preferred partner for Naturally Based Specialty Chemicals by consistently manufacturing and delivering high quality products through a sustainable and diversified supply chain. Our mission to deliver superior value to our stakeholders is partly achieved by fostering an engaged culture that empowers our employees to achieve goals and provide an exceptional customer experience.

As we continue to apply diversity and inclusion, TRT is committed to:

  • Form a diversity and inclusion (D&I) council
  • Train, educate and empower employees
  • Recruit and retain a diverse workforce
  • Work towards the greatest possible inclusion to fully understand and develop new ideas, viewpoints, and experiences
  • Achieve cultural growth in our business and within our communities

HEALTH & SAFETY

TRT’s safety program is essential to our ongoing success. We recognize that the success of our operations is dependent on a healthy, high functioning workforce. The central focus of our organization is to ensure we maintain a safe workplace. To achieve this, we have a safety culture that includes multiple safety committees, training, auditing and reporting, and a preventative maintenance program. All of these programs aim to reduce incident occurrence and severity. All of these initiatives were put to the test in 2020.

The challenge over the past year came directly to us as the global pandemic spread and our new lives under the COVID-19 response were created. The virus spread led to implementing TRT’s Pandemic Emergency Response Plan and spawned many changes from its original design as our new reality formed. This included new provisions for social distancing; PPE requirements; personal sanitation; area sanitation; emergency disinfection; remote work practices; employee and visitor screening and more ... so much more. In the end, TRT persevered by creating a safe workplace and continuing full operations without interruption.

SAFETY PERFORMANCE TOTAL SAFETY INCIDENT RATE (TIR)
 

TRAINING

We advocate for long-term success by investing in our employees. We provide various training methods and education opportunities to help employees specialize in new skills or maintain ones that have already been earned. All new hires go through an orientation training where they learn their roles and responsibilities as well as spend time in other departments to allow them to fully understand the business. Once orientation is completed, new hires are mentored in the system or skill that they will enter into at TRT. We offer a variety of different programming for employees that is encompassed in a number of categories including:
  • Operational Mentoring
  • Safety Reminders
  • Classroom Training
  • One-Point Lessons
  • Electronic Training Contractor
  • Safety Training Offsite
  • Certification/ Professional Development

Our training programs support and maintain safe operations, raise expertise and includes: certification training for OSHA, Hazmat Response, Asbestos Supervision, Spill Response, Incident Command Training and etc.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

The Health and Safety program for 2020 faced several challenges in relation to Covid-19. Twin Rivers Technologies is an essential business suppling products into the cleaning industry and therefore continued production at our Quincy, MA facility throughout the year.

Our first goal was the education of employees about Covid-19, the efforts of government to implement new rules and regulations and how the virus could affect our workplace. TRT began by implementing our Pandemic Emergency Response Procedure to understand what new issues Covid-19 might pose to our people. We immediately recognized additional PPE was necessary and started acquiring and providing the proper PPE for our people. Then we began creating safe, separate and clean work spaces for them. This not only required relocation of work areas but also the development of a remote work program for many of our office staff and eliminating visitors to our site. These efforts allowed us to maintain social distancing through occupancy limits, while giving the management team the ability to support those employees who were required be on site to do their jobs. To prevent transmission of Covid-19, personal screenings, notifications and contact tracing procedures were put into place. This was achieved by implementing a new screening station, a daily close contact log system, and a travel log system for employees that needed to travel outside the state. Many of these actions went beyond local and federal guidelines to protect essential employees but were necessary to support our 24/7 manufacturing facility.

TRT understands that no matter what role or job function a person has, the change of environment, schedules and requirements was not always easy and we thank and commend all of our employees for stepping up and staying safe so that we were all able to do our jobs in a safe and reliable manner and to continue to support customer demands.

While we were not able to offer in person fitness programs or wellness events in 2020, TRT did continue to provide resources to help employees deal with new health and wellness concerns related to these unprecedented times. The electronic wellness bulletins found many new topics such as virtual workouts and nutrition guidance, social distancing, children’s mental health, recreational therapy, heart health, breast cancer awareness, lung health, and last but not least, finding and maintaining your motivation. As the guidelines allow many of those who have been working remotely to return to the office, we hope that we will all find new ways to bring wellness into our lives.

OUR CUSTOMERS

Customer satisfaction continues to be a top priority for TRT. Our goal is to not only be the preferred supplier to our customers, but to develop a partnership with them as a method of growing and sustaining relationships long term. Our commitment to sustainability is consistent with the sustainability commitments of our partners. We, along with many of our partners, have embraced the concept of environmental and social performance and will continue to drive this platform throughout our industry, from suppliers to finished goods.

Many of our customers are large global companies that have embraced the concept of environmental and social performance, and expect their suppliers to do the same. This reinforces the business value of our programs and involves all levels of the organization in the commitment to achieve our goals.

In 2018, to ensure that we remained competitive in the marketplace and are able to service our customers, we became REACH certified. REACH is a regulation of the European Union, adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals. It also promotes alternative methods for the hazard assessment of substances in order to reduce the number of tests on animals.

Our refined glycerin has been Safe Quality Food (SQF) Level 2 certified since 2015. We are recognized by the SQF Institute, a division of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), as a HACCP Based Food Safety Plan Supplier. In 2019, we worked to achieve SQF Certification for our Kosher and Halal Fatty Acids. This certification reflects the goal of our food safety management system to improve business processes, increase efficiencies and reduce risk. To receive this level of certification we must:

  • Meet a number of strict SQF safety and sanitation requirements
  • Develop and maintain a high level of sustainable Good Manufacturing Practice (GMPs)
  • Develop and follow a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HAACP) program to ensure food safety
  • Develop a food safety risk analysis while providing continuous SQF training for all its employees

SQF certification is recognized worldwide, informing customers that they are doing business with a company who adheres to the strictest food safety and sanitation standards. It gives consumers a sense of confidence knowing they are buying products from a company who is recognized for producing safe food products. This certification gives external validation to the internal safety commitment to which we have always adhered.

Being SQF certified builds confidence between TRT and our partners. Having a recognized single-audit system in place eliminates the need for duplicate, costly audits from other sources. The SQF program has been implemented by more than 5,000 companies operating in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, South America and in the United States. In addition, SQF Certification meets the safety standard of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).

Furthermore, to receiving this certification, we expanded our product line offerings to include coconut only products. These products are certified as being Palm Free, which is becoming an increasingly requested option during this widely controversial time. Many companies are choosing to eliminate non-sustainable palm oil due to the effects harvesting has had on the workers in the palm oil industry and the deforestation in the rainforests of southeast Asia. Because of this and the ever-evolving natural specialty chemical industry, TRT is also a RSPO registered site and offers Mass Balance product options.

Sedex is a not for profit membership organization which is dedicated to driving improvements in ethical and responsible business practices in global supply chains. In 2019 Twin Rivers completed a Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit or SMETA. The SMETA is intended to provide transparency for Sedex’s four governance pillars of Labor, Health and Safety, Environment and Business Ethics. TRT passed the SMETA with no findings or corrective actions and the outstanding comment in the SMETA about TRT was ...“Excellent environmental standards are maintained. A full and comprehensive sustainability program is in place”. The results of the SMETA are available to TRT’s customers.