FCC Environment celebrates health and safety successes
FCC Environment is celebrating a number of health and safety successes over the past month, which has seen its industry leading health and safety team pick up numerous awards, demonstrating the company’s commitment to ensuring all staff go home safely at the end of each day.
The leading recycling and waste management company won two awards at this year’s International Institute of Risk and Safety Management Risk (IIRSM) Excellence Awards with its partner Site Zone Safety, and its Landfill and Quarries division achieved Five Star grading following an audit from the British Safety Council.
This audit involved FCC Environment undergoing a comprehensive, quantified and robust evaluation of its occupational health and safety policies, processes and practices. The audit process included documentation review, interviews with senior management, employees and other key stakeholders, together with sampling of operational activities.
At the IIRSM Excellence Awards, FCC Environment came out top and won the ‘Barry Holt Award – Outstanding Risk Management Practice’ and ‘Most Impactful Risk Research Project’. For both awards, the company was credited for its work in developing the smart loader system with SiteZone Safety. This is the second time FCC Environment have picked up the Barry Holt Award, after winning it in 2021.
In February 2023, the two companies collaborated to establish whether SiteZone’s proximity warning system could be adapted to provide additional protection to FCC employees loading Refuse Collection Vehicles (RCV). A month later, a working prototype of RCV Smart Loader was fitted to a RCV to prove the concept.
The trial proved successful, evidencing that the equipment did not impede on working practices, improved operator behaviour, and enhanced existing controls.
Less than a year after the initial research project, the first full deployment has taken place at FCC Environment’s Wychavon contract. As well as colleagues being safer - given there is a greater degree of protection from serious injury and the risk of them being lifted - the new system is re-enforcing long-term behavioural change as crews quickly adapt to the new way of working.
The research project also has implications for operatives working across the industry, as the system is already being trialled by other waste management companies and local authorities.
Commenting on their recent successes, FCC Environment’s Head of Safety, Health, Environment & Quality, Paul Stokes said: “We’re extremely proud to have won two awards for our smart loader system, and coupled with our five star grading for our Landfill and Quarries division, it is a great recognition for the work our different teams do to ensure that the right behaviours are encouraged and everyone gets home safe and sound.”
Mike Robinson, CEO British Safety Council, said: “The award of a five star grading following our occupational best practice Health and Safety Audit is an outstanding achievement and is reflective of a proactive organisation which is committed to continual improvement in its health and safety arrangements and managing risks to workers’ health, safety and wellbeing. FCC Environment should be very proud of this achievement. “