Over 8.3 million working hours at 30 construction sites, which are run in line with the Health Safety & Environmental (EHS) Management System adopted in the company. “We are responsible for the life health & wellbeing of employees at our construction sites, which is why we attach so much importance to these issues,” says Steve Iddon, the director of health and safety at Echo Investment.
16 accidents and 13 minor incidents occurred on 30 construction sites in 2018. In total, because of them 226 working days were lost on construction sites.
“We ended the year with an accident frequency rate of 1.9 percent which is lower than the industry average of 2.5 percent. The growing number of construction sites has resulted in more hazards and risks than in the previous year. Our goal is to have accident-free construction sites. We want everyone to be able to come back home to families after each working day at a construction site. This year, Echo Investment’s great success was achieving ISO 14001 and OSHAS 18001 standards. This is further proof of our commitment to develop the safety culture on our company’s construction sites. For more than a year our company has been operating under the Health Safety & Environmental (EHS) Management System, and in 2018 we conducted obligatory trainings. Over 80 Echo’s employees took part in training sessions that we have concluded in Warsaw, Kielce, Kraków, Wrocław and Poznań. In three-day meetings, all elements of the management system were discussed” says Steve Iddon.
The developer has also developed a special document “Echo Investment – EHS Best Practices”. It is available at all our construction sites in the printed version.
“We want to show in the most transparent manner and based on the examples from our construction sites that adapting construction sites to our requirements is possible. During our visits we have seen many examples of great EHS solutions which are worth sharing with colleagues from other construction sites,” adds Steve Iddon.
In 2019, the developer will continue to take further steps in the field of safety on construction sites – including developing a risk assessment system at the project stage in cooperation with architects and designers as well as further staff trainings.
“Our organizational structure, management systems, procedures and training plans ensure compliance with all relevant laws, regulations and standards. Since environmental performance is one of our high priorities, it is integrated into core business processes and plans of our company. In a spirit of continual improvement, we involve our employees, subcontractors, partners and other interested parties in the process of health safety and environmental management,” adds Steve Iddon.
Last year, more than 8.3 million hours were worked at Echo Investment’s construction sites – over 60 percent more than in 2017 (5 million).
