Work-at-heights safety initiative wins top ICI sustainability award

Citation

(2006), "Work-at-heights safety initiative wins top ICI sustainability award", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 35 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.2006.12935cab.006

Work-at-heights safety initiative wins top ICI sustainability award

Work-at-heights safety initiative wins top ICI sustainability award

Keywords: Paints, Innovation

A programme by ICI Paints to help educate and inform its customers in the decorating trade in the UK and Ireland about safe working at heights has won the 2005 ICI Chairman's Leadership Award for Sustainability. The annual award is part of the scheme that recognises innovative and outstanding projects by ICI sites around the world in the areas of safety, health, environment, product stewardship and community involvement. Falls from heights by workers in the UK and Ireland decorating sector cost an estimated 250,000 lost working days and more than £30 million a year in lost earnings. New safety regulations were introduced in 2005 which decorators could have seen as detrimental to their business. ICI Dulux Decorator Centres, the store group of ICI Paints in the UK and Ireland, used the new legislation as an opportunity to help its customers, educate and inform them, and build on customer relations. It was also an opportunity to partner with the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE). A survey was commissioned by ICI and sent to 30,000 customers. Published jointly under HSE and ICI Dulux Decorator Centres branding, “Protecting the Fall Guy” presented findings that identified appropriate strategies to inform/educate decorators with a view to changing their safety behaviour. These strategies included newsletters for decorators on the risks of working at height, one-day events for decorators hosted by ICI and the HSE, working with access equipment suppliers to improve knowledge of alternatives to ladders, and radio and press campaigns. Dulux Decorator Centres was one of the five winners of the 2005 Chief Executive Leadership Award for Sustainability. Each winner was considered for the Chairman's award. In presenting the awards, ICI Chief Executive John McAdam said: “Each winner is an excellent example of initiative and achievement in the different categories. In the category of product stewardship, our Dulux Decorator Centres team embarked on an innovative programme which started in July 2004 and is continuing today. Through it, ICI has been differentiated as a leader in the market for information about the issue of “Protecting the Fall Guy.” The other winners of the Chief Executive's award were:

Environment: ICI Argentina

Restrictions in the supply of natural gas in Argentina prompted the ICI team at Palmira to invest in a new steam generation plant that uses locally sourced renewable fuels. The wine specialty chemicals site reuses biomass waste as fuel for the plant. These include spent grape seeds after the oil has been extracted (waste from wine production in the region), spent pomace (solid waste) from the Palmira operation, wood chips from the ICI forest adjacent to the site, and fruit pits from local farms. The steam generation plant cost $1.3 million and took a year to construct and bring into operation after expenditure was approved. It has brought environmental and economic benefits, saving the site $750,000 a year through the reduction in fossil fuel consumption. It is not only providing energy for the site but is also benefiting the local community by offering a disposal route for wastes that would have gone to uncontrolled landfills. Wood from the ICI forest is renewable and its use on the site helps land management.

Community involvement: ICI Paints, Sri Lanka

Child abuse is a growing problem in Sri Lanka, where UNICEF and the International Labour Organisation estimate nearly 40,000 children are used as prostitutes. Children and families are traditionally important in Sri Lankan society, but poverty has meant the increasing use of children for labour and denial of their right to education. In 2001, ICI Paints in Colombo reviewed its community activity and decided to focus effort on the issue of child abuse. It has extended its support for projects, charities and institutions that aim to help prevent abuse or to support the victims. In addition, in-house marketing skills are used to help raise public awareness of the problem. The company has established the Child Protection Trust Fund which has undertaken a range of activities including support for a children's home for abused girls, run by a missionary couple and where funds from the trust enabled the construction of a new building in 2005; sponsorship of a TV and press campaign to raise awareness among parents of the dangers of leaving children in the care of others; and a fundraising campaign in which the company donated 50 cents from each litre of ICI paint sold over a two month period.

Safety: National Starch, USA

The Indianapolis manufacturing facility of National Starch successfully introduced a behaviour change safety programme that resulted in the site's rate of Total Recordable Cases (TRCs) dropping from 1.81 to 0.84 over four years. TRC reduction was the main target set by the site, but additional benefits of the safety programme have also included reducing Lost Time Cases from four a year to zero, and achieving 4.4 million working hours without a Lost Time Case. The initiatives behind this success, started in 2002, include an annual Safety Day, when safety training is the theme for everybody on the site; a Near-Miss analysis initiative; setting up accident/investigation teams; and establishing hazard reviews which involve employees learning ways to recognise and prevent potential accidents. Daily safety audits, as a result of the programme, increased from 700 in 2001 to 4,600 in 2005. At the outset, employee involvement was identified as key to the success of the programme. The Safety Day is organised by employees, and the training programmes are led by people across the organisation; the Near-Miss programme is also led by employees and department supervisors.

Health: Uniqema, Holland

At Gouda in Holland, Uniqema's largest manufacturing site and global headquarters, a new programme to train users of display screen equipment (DSE) in its correct use has been introduced. The programme coincided with an upgrade of PCs in 2005 and involved workstation assessments by users with the aim of changing attitudes and behaviour. Good posture and the correct workstation environments for the prevention of health problems were at the heart of the programme. Each employee who received a new computer was asked to complete a checklist of items such as the working environment and ergonomics. If an employee had problems they could not resolve themselves, a trained colleague “ERGO coach” was available from each department. If needed, further help was available from a member of the specialist ERGO team. A total of 260 checklists were sent to employees and there was a response rate of 65 per cent. The team responsible for the training project, Uniqema ERGO, trained a total of 25 ERGO coaches.