Author: Berufsgenossenschaft Rohstoffe und chemische Industrie (BG RCI), Langenhagen
The global lime industry is represented by the International Lime Association (ILA). ILA was founded on 27th November 1970, in Paris/France, by national lime associations and manufacturers of lime products from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom and the USA. Throughout the decades, ILA has strongly expanded and today consists of members from 35 countries in all continents and connects the industry with machine suppliers as well. At the ILA Information Exchange Forum, ILA Secretary General Thomas Stumpf welcomed China and Chile as the latest new members. As mostly national associations are members of ILA, the organization globally represents more than 2,000 lime-producing companies with a workforce of about 200,000 people.
The purpose of ILA is the exchange of information and experiences on all subjects that are of interest to the lime industry worldwide. These are the fields of environment, health and safety, economy and international co-operation, science, technology, research and standardisation.
As main topics of the 2018 meeting, “Safety and Health Performance of the Industry”, “Innovation by IoT (Internet of Things)” and the “CO2 Footprint of the Industry” had been chosen. More than 120 delegates from 22 countries attended the conference. The Secretary General of ISSA Mining, Helmut Ehnes, had been invited to give a speech on “VISION ZERO versus Digital Work – Risk or Chance?”.
After his contribution, Ehnes invited the representatives of ILA – newly elected President Paul Ellis from Malaysia, the Leaving President Wayne Brown from South Africa and the Secretary General Thomas Stumpf from Germany – to come on stage to sign (Figure 1).
Fig. 1. From left: Helmut Ehnes, Secretary General ISSA Mining, Wayne Brown, former President of ILA, Paul Ellis, new elected President of ILA, Thomas Stumpf, Secretary General of ILA. // Bild 1. V. l. n. r.: Helmut Ehnes, Generalsekretär ISSA Mining, Wayne Brown, bisheriger Präsident der ILA, Paul Ellis, neu gewählter Präsident der ILA, Thomas Stumpf, Generalsekretär ILA. Photo/Foto: BG RCI
Ellis clearly confirmed the importance of the Safety and Health topic for the industry and committed all ILA members to the VISION ZERO strategy. He stated unmistakeably that safety goes hand in hand with product quality as well as sustainability and the reputation of the industry. He called upon all ILA members to strengthen the commitment of their CEO´s and their management teams to health and safety. ILA and ISSA Mining agreed to cooperate closely in order to reach the aims of VISION ZERO, in a next step developing an action plan to create a positive impact of the agreement.