Safety is one of our core values at CHS and we strive to cultivate a safety-driven culture. We are committed to continually advancing our approach to safety, which is why we created the CHS Safety Excellence Award. This annual award recognizes employees who make significant contributions to safety that are exemplary of our safety value.
The second annual Safety Excellence Award presentation took place at the January Employee Town Hall held at CHS headquarters in Inver Grove Heights, Minn.
“The CHS Safety Excellence Award shines a light on those who identify a safety or health concern and help implement solutions that meaningfully reduce or eliminate exposure to safety hazards,” says Jay Debertin, president and CEO. “The actions taken by our 2025 Safety Excellence Award recipients demonstrate commitment to our safety value.”
The following employees and locations received the Safety Excellence Award for fiscal year 2025:
Individual and small team award recipients
- Jaxson O’Brien, leveraged his experience as a wildland firefighter to develop a one-day course for employees at the CHS refinery at Laurel, Mont., that equips them with tools and techniques to make sound safety decisions.
- Jânio Silva and Gean Moreira led the effort to install a remote-control electrical panel for the main circuit breaker at the CHS grain warehouse at the Ribeirão Cascalheira (Brazil) branch, which creates a safer working distance between the operator and the breaker when the panel needs to be accessed for maintenance.
- Robbie Neff, Chris Wallace and Denton Waller proposed repositioning one of the winches that move barges up and down the receiving dock at the CHS agronomy terminal in Melbourne, Kent., to help reduce the risk of injury or of a barge breaking away during offload operations.
Location award recipients
- The CHS ag retail team based in Rochester, Minn., redesigned their pesticide spray trailers in a way that better serves our customers, while also reducing safety hazards for employees.
- Employees at the CHS refinery in Laurel, Mont., updated the plant’s live electrical work procedures with practices that help employees work more safely.
Congratulations to all of our 2025 Safety Excellence Award recipients. We appreciate their positive impact on safety at CHS and look forward to recognizing employees who are making similar safety contributions during our current fiscal year with a 2026 Safety Excellence Award.
