October 22, 2020 Nutrien Takes the Lead on COVID-19 Contact Tracing

Nutrien has innovated a contact tracing solution to protect its essential workers against COVID-19 at its nitrogen and phosphate facilities.

Problem

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, agriculture was deemed an essential service. As a result, many Nutrien employees that manufacture essential crop protection inputs were required to continue working on-site. Some turnarounds at Nutrien’s nitrogen facilities require more than eight times the number of people to be on-site as compared to normal operations, making it increasingly difficult to remain six feet apart.

Solution

The question of how to better manage physical distancing and contact tracing at Nutrien sites became a top priority, especially because large turnarounds are still taking place. Nutrien innovated a solution to employ contact tracing tags.

These wearable tags have a sensor that visually and audibly alerts users when they are within six feet of another tag. They also capture how long they remain in that range and who each tag belongs to.

Result

By capturing this information, teams at the sites can quickly identify when and for how long people have been in contact. If someone comes down with COVID-19, they can easily determine who needs to isolate based on the data logged by the tags.

Contact
Maggie Rendulich
Maggie.Rendulich@nutrien.com

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