We are committed to conducting our business the right way, by establishing intentional and robust governance systems, and promoting transparent communications and reporting. We continue to refine our comprehensive, coordinated, and proactive approach to sustainability issues, which we believe underpins ongoing performance improvements.
Employees and contractors are required to report safe and unsafe behaviors and conditions through our Good Catch program, which we use to identify trends, eliminate hazards, and prevent incidents from occurring. Everyone on a WES site has stop-work authority, regardless of seniority or role, and we expect anyone onsite to stop work if they have safety concerns.
Our asset integrity efforts are managed by three expert teams, one focused on pipeline integrity, one focused on facilities integrity, and a third focused on corrosion prevention. This helps us effectively dedicate resources to the key areas of midstream integrity management across WES. Employees in multiple functional areas participate in our asset integrity efforts, and we have training and certification requirements for key personnel.
Our centralized Tactical Operations Center (TOC) at our headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas plays a central role in the 24/7 monitoring of our operations for asset integrity and other operational parameters to help optimize performance and to proactively identify and address potential issues.
Our Crisis and Emergency Management (CEM) team manages the preparation and response to emergencies, including potential operational issues, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and cyberattacks. The CEM team works closely with our HSE&S and Operations team to reduce risk, provide operational consistency, and enhance regulatory compliance.
We follow a systematic preparedness planning process focused on continuous improvement across an ongoing cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action to ensure effective coordination during the response to an incident. Risk assessments, response plans, and training are conducted collaboratively across relevant business functions to ensure a coordinated and effective response.
We understand the threat that cyberattacks present to our industry and the stability of the nation’s energy supply, and as such, we have implemented a rigorous approach to protecting enterprise information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems. We work to continuously strengthen these systems through an Architecture Review Board, which evaluates the cybersecurity posture of WES’s new IT projects. Information security is overseen by our VP, Chief Information Officer (CIO), who also serves as our Chief Information Security Officer.
Our commitment to HSE&S is rooted in our operations, community involvement, and dedication to continuous improvement. This approach in how we operate is detailed in our HSE&S Policy.