FBA News
The Fibre Box Association's (FBA) Safety & Health Committee held its first meeting of the year on May 19, with its new chair, Chris Weber of Schwarz Partners / The Royal Group, and vice-chair Steve Ledford of Georgia-Pacific. The group covered a full agenda, including a presentation from ALL4 on Lockout/Tagout and the Minor Service Exception, a discussion of the Innovation in Safety Awards, updates on ongoing safety topics, and roundtable discussions on emerging technologies and industry best practices.
A highlight of the meeting was ALL4's presentation, which sparked strong discussion on energy control procedures, jam-clearing challenges, and the need for improved training frameworks. As a result, subcommittee was formed including Chris Weber of Schwarz Partners / The Royal Group, Jeff Van Thiel of Great Northern Corporation, Matt Wells and Scott Romagnoli of Veritiv, Kevin Wills of Hood Container, and Dana Greenly of Atlantic Packaging. This subcommittee will work with All4 to develop training materials for FBA members.
The group also discussed a new project to create machine guarding guidelines, which is expected to be long-term and encourages interested members to get involved.
In the coming month, the committee plans to organize a webinar to showcase this year's Innovation in Safety Award winners. For the next awards cycle, the submission portal will also open earlier, in November, to give companies more time to participate. FBA will feature past submissions during National Safety Month in June 2027.
Topics noted for future meetings include heat program best practices, leading indicators, and telemetric risk assessment.