A suicide prevention programme, a health and safety app, and a pioneering approach to removing asbestos are just a few of the innovative ideas being recognised at this year’s Site Safe Construction Health and Safety Awards.
The awards acknowledge people, sites and businesses that are demonstrating excellence in the areas of leadership, innovation and contribution.
Winners in each category will receive an award trophy, a $1000 gift certificate from the award category sponsor, and will have their case study published by Site Safe.
The finalists are:
The Vertical Horizonz Safety Innovation Award for Large Business (over 50 employees)
| Farra Engineering | Designed and built a modular lift hoarding system that allows natural light, equipment storage and ventilation in the lift shaft and provides a safe exit in case of emergency. |
| Fletcher Construction | Created a mobile platform which reduced the risk of falling and allowed for the safe removal of asbestos cladding and roofing during demolition. The platform was suspended from a crane, providing a safe working platform as well as allowing access to high and challenging access areas. |
| Fulton Hogan/John Holland joint venture | Developed a special weld band for water main pipes which kept the work site free of leak water and reduced the risks of welding near water. This innovation has become the standard solution across the project and has the potential to be deployed on any steel pipeline project.
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The Unitec Safety Innovation Award for Small to Medium Business (up to 50 employees)
| AGL Scaffolding & Rigging | Initiated scaffold awareness sessions to highlight what a safe scaffold should look like. As part of the events, AGL invited companies to compare non-compliant and compliant scaffolds and encouraged people to engage with best practice for working platforms and scaffolding. |
| Master Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers NZ Inc | Created a health and safety app for members to access from mobile devices. The app contains digital health and safety forms that can be completed online and sent to primary contacts at the touch of a button, making it easier and more efficient to keep up-to-date with health and safety requirements. |
The WorkSafe NZ Safety Contribution Award (individual or small team)
| Nancy Maessen of Altherm Taranaki | Put in place a range of initiatives to increase staff awareness of health and safety and celebrate success. These included encouraging apprentices to enrol in a safety challenge, improving health and safety committee meetings, setting up toolbox meetings and rewarding incident reporting. |
| Jo Prigmore and Neill Kydd of Fulton Hogan Marlborough | Together led a step change in quarry management practices by designing a “guarding wheel” which allows workers to calculate the safe distance for guarding machinery. They also created better access to safety information by developing a quarry management plan, handbook and audit tool. |
| Ray Patrick of Fulton Hogan | Nominated for contributing almost 50 years of leadership in health and safety. As an assessor of Fulton Hogan’s moving plant competency programme, his attitude and approach has inspired positive change across the organisation. |
| Peter Breakwell of Powerworx Ltd | For increasing the awareness about the dangers of arc flash, an electrical incident which can cause fire and burns. As well as seeking out extensive training, Peter has encouraged other managers to invest in safety equipment and labelling, reducing the risk to workers in the Nelson area. |
The Safety Leadership Award (small, medium or large business)
| Fulton Hogan/John Holland joint venture | For their dedication to creating a strong safety culture on the Hunua water main project, where they fostered a zero-harm culture with a number of initiatives including individual start cards, a spotter competency programme and the establishment of the “Golden Rules”. |
| Greg Wallace of Master Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers NZ Inc | For driving best-practice health and safety in his role as Chief Executive. Greg’s passion for raising the bar has seen the organisation undertake a variety of health and safety initiatives, including the creation of a health and safety app and a training roadshow on the new legislation. |
| Mackays to Peka Peka Alliance | For developing an innovative approach to managing health, safety and wellbeing. This included empowering staff to develop their own safety formula, encouraging staff to rate safety performance and fostering strong leadership. |
| NETcon | For being the first New Zealand company to introduce “Mates in Construction”, a workplace suicide prevention programme which heightens awareness of mental health issues and enforces the idea that suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility. |
The awards will be presented at Site Safe’s Evening of Celebration at Alexandra Park in Auckland on November 9, in conjunction with the 2016 Site Safe Certificate in Construction Site Safety graduation ceremony.
