One goal: Save lives. With annual ERT competition, we’re all winners.
“This isn’t about competing against one another – it’s about saving lives.”
Ask anyone who hails from one of Nutrien’s phosphate or nitrogen sites and they’ll tell you without hesitation; the number one priority for each of them is that their colleagues go home safe every day, and that the communities where they live, work and play feel protected.
This concept isn’t just sentiment. It’s something ingrained in our teams, our culture, our identity. So, in situations where every second counts, preparation makes all the difference. The right training, the right decisions and the right teamwork all need to be in place – long before the moment arrives.
Firefighting is one of seven events that teams compete in at the annual ERT competition.
“We can’t be caught thinking or wondering if we are doing it right during an emergency, which is why we keep practicing and why we stay fresh,” says Mike Dirham, VP of Phosphate Operations. “What we do out in the field during an emergency must be inherent and must be precise. That level of commitment reflects something deeper than skill. It reflects who we are.”
Our robust emergency preparedness and training programs help our teams stay frosty, ready to react in the unlikely event of an incident. But nothing pushes the team to their peak quite like a bit of friendly competition, which was on display at our annual Nitrogen and Phosphate Emergency Response Team (ERT) Competition.
Held from March 17-19 at Gulf Coast Emergency Response Academy in Mobile, Alabama, seven teams from across North America worked through a series of high-pressure, real-world scenarios designed to challenge every aspect of emergency response.
From medical response and fire scenarios to hazmat, confined space and high-angle rescue, each event tested both technical skill and decision-making under pressure.
Adam Edwards and the Redwater, Alberta emergency response team.
Across Nutrien, Emergency Response Team members take on this responsibility in addition to their day-to-day roles – stepping up to support their colleagues and strengthen safety across operations.
“The importance of ERT is to make sure everyone gets home safe every day,” says Adam Edwards, Operations Lead and Redwater’s competition team coach. “Stuff happens, we have a lot of pressures, temperatures, chemicals, that can make for a bad day. So having an ERT makes that less stressful.”
That mindset extends across all teams and sites, reinforcing the role ERT members play in maintaining a strong safety culture.
Competing in like the high angle rescue help ERT members sharpen their emergency response skills.
“The ERT members really represent the best of the culture of care,” says Dean Perkins, SVP, Upstream Nitrogen & Proprietary Product Operations. “They’re stepping up to take care of their colleagues, protect our assets and protect the communities within which we operate.”
The competition also creates space for teams to learn from one another.
“It creates a healthy competition which drives the teams to further learn and build upon their capability, which they can then take back to the operating sites,” says Tim Dalheimer, SVP, Global Safety, Health and Environment.
The high-angle event tests teams skills in a simulated scenario.
The lessons learned and the skills honed at the competition don’t stay in Mobile – they’re carried back to sites across the network, strengthening emergency preparedness at every level.
While the scenarios may be simulated, the impact of this training is very real. Each exercise, each lesson learned and each moment of teamwork contributes to a stronger, more prepared response when it matters most.
Because at the end of it all, the goal is simple – everyone goes home safe, every day.
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