Celebrating HSSE success

Following the announcement of the 2012 APM Awards finalists, Project previews the three finalists battling it out to become the first winner of the all-new Shell HSSE Award.

 In the Association for Project Managements (APM) 40th year, a new category will make its debut at the APM Awards ceremony. The Shell HSSE (health, safety, security and environment) Award recognises HSSE excellence in an organisation or project.

APM collaborated with the energy and petrochemical giant to create the accolade, as HSSE is at the core of Shells ways of working. Shell has adopted a zero harm approach to safety among its employees.

Andrew Bragg, chief executive of APM, said: We all know that projects should deliver to time, cost and quality, with safety representing a vital component of the mix. Thats why APM is proud to partner with Shell for the new HSSE Award and publicly reward health and safety excellence. The importance of safety right across the profession is demonstrated by the wide range of organisations from different sectors that have entered for this new award. It is also reflected in the profile of the finalists.

Its been a big year yet again for APM, not only because it is our 40th anniversary, but also because of some key milestones achieved, such as the partnership with the Olympic Delivery Authority in its learning legacy event series, the refresh of the APM Body of Knowledge and the launch of the Higher Apprenticeship in Project Management. For it all to culminate at the Awards on 1 November 2012 with the profession celebrating project management success in all its different forms will be the best birthday present of them all.

This years finalists are: AstraZeneca Global Engineering, Royal Mail and Yorkshire Water. The winner will be announced at the Awards ceremony on 1 November at the Riverbank Park Plaza, London.

And the finalists are...

Project: Managing HSSE on Construction Projects in Emerging Markets
Company: AstraZeneca Global Engineering

As a global biopharmaceutical business, AstraZeneca says HSSE is central to what it does.

The companys Global Engineering department is made up a team of 60 professionals responsible for delivering individual projects in excess of $5m each. Its role is to act as an intelligent client between the business and the engineering supply chain and, until recently, it conducted the majority of its work in the UK, Sweden and USA.

As the business landscape began to change, the team began to work on more projects in developing markets. These projects were varied and included establishing new manufacturing sites. The shift was sudden and clear to see: in 2008, 100 per cent of Global Engineerings projects were in the UK, Sweden and the USA, by 2011 this accounted for just 13 per cent of the work. The other 87 per cent (approximately three million man hours every year) was based predominantly in China, India and Russia.

Brian Street, Global Engineering SHE manager at AstraZeneca, explained the companys entry to the APM Awards. He said: Over the past 15 years, weve developed a mature culture based on partnering with contractors and designers who we work with regularly.

Having established a proven mechanism for managing projects in the west, the challenge given to the engineering department in 2009 was to transfer the success and deliver major projects in emerging markets without compromising on the HSSE performance.

Brian explained that while a different contracting approach has been necessary in emerging markets, its still been possible, through strong and determined client leadership, to achieve commitment to building the strong team culture that encourages good HSSE behaviour.

He said: Our HSSE strategy for managing the new portfolio of work has been to adopt the same basic project process that served us very well on projects managed in the UK, Sweden and the USA. Fundamental to this approach is making the AstraZeneca HSSE standards very clear to the contractors and designers before they price for the work. This is captured in a project specific pre-construction information pack, exactly as we would do in the UK.

The results of the approach are very positive, with reduced accidents and ways of working that encourage good HSSE behaviours in countries where the prevailing culture to HSSE is extremely challenging.

Project: Esholt Thermal Hydrolysis Plant
Company: Yorkshire Water in collaboration with Morgan Sindall Grontmij JV (MSJV)

Part of Yorkshire Waters carbon and energy plan, the 32.5m Esholt Thermal Hydrolysis Plant (THP) project at one of Yorkshire Waters largest wastewater treatment works, represents a change in sludge strategy for the company.

The project is a first for the area as it will deliver Yorkshires only Thermal Hydrolysis Plant (THP) something the firm says will contribute towards Esholt becoming the countys first sustainable site by significantly increasing renewable energy generation and decreasing energy consumption. The change from incineration to thermal hydrolysis will also increase security of sludge disposal opening up new disposal opportunities.

Rachael Gruhn is the batch manager for the Asset Delivery Unit at Yorkshire Water. She said that the delivery of the project, in collaboration with Morgan Sindall Grontmij JV (MGJV), demonstrates excellence in HSSE. As a business, Yorkshire Water contributes significantly towards the regions carbon footprint. The largest contributor to this is energy, specifically electricity. Over the last 20 years, our energy demand has doubled.

This reliance on fossil fuels challenges our long-term resilience to power outages and security of supply. Yorkshire Water has recognised a need to change and has developed a carbon and energy strategy in order to reduce our significant carbon footprint.

The project strategy includes two phases investigation and delivery. MGJV were appointed to lead the investigation phase to ensure that the team bought into the drivers from an early stage.

As a result, the members of the team in the project have become strong advocates of its environmental goals. Its a culture aligned with the firms new vision of Taking Responsibility for the Water Environment for Good.

The project team has demonstrated best practice in health and safety, fully embracing the goals and initiatives of both MGJV and Yorkshire Water to achieve a strong safety culture and performance. Rachael said that this was achieved by developing a clear safety strategy aligned directly to the business plan.

These included hours worked, accidents per month, positive interventions and near misses, engagement with sub contractors, environmental near misses, pollution incidents and community engagement.

Rachael added: The overriding HSSE excellence of the project has resulted from transforming the vision and turning it into something beyond the legislative and political drivers for water treatment.

The project team has continued with this ethos and are leading with design and construction solutions which are driving continuous performance.

MGJV recently celebrated 500,000 man hours without a reportable accident. All members of the team have a genuine passion for HSSE and really believe that they all play a part in contributing towards the success of the project.

Project: Transformation Programme
Company: Royal Mail

Royal Mails Transformation Programme represents one of the largest change management programmes ever undertaken in the UK. The goal is to modernise all aspects of its operations, from the jobs of 130,000 postmen and women to the processes in which they operate in the 1,371 delivery offices and 49 mail processing facilities across the country.

Ian Jones, programme director for Royal Mail, said: Our 3.1bn programme has impacted on the service we provide to the 29m addresses across the UK and Northern Ireland. Its involved almost 2,000 installations, extensions and relocations of large sorting equipment; included major construction activity; fundamentally changed the working methods within the delivery arm of our operation; and introduced new technology to improve efficiency. Throughout this complex transformational change, safety excellence has been our number one priority.

In 2008, Royal Mail made a public commitment to build an unrivalled safety culture across the organisation. This was against the backdrop of one of the highest accident frequency rates across the UK and a historical legacy of ineffective safety management. The need to drive a positive cultural change and achieve safety excellence was key.

Peter Horsted, community and knowledge lead at Royal Mail, said: Reducing the number of accidents was one of the aims of transformation, but the team have gone a step further by embracing and promoting the principles of safety excellence as they deliver the programme.

Through the course of the programme, Royal Mail has reported a 47 per cent reduction in its overall accident frequency rate. This has been achieved by embedding health and safety firmly within its design development and business performance processes. The organisation has also designed a bespoke incident reporting system; delivered Institution of Occupational Safety and Health accredited training to more than 1,100 team members; revised their construction safety management model; and organised health and safety forums with stakeholders, contractors and suppliers. Peter said: We believe its our responsibility to continue to drive standards upward and not simply to stop at the limit of statute responsibility.

The team has had to overcome some strategic challenges to secure the results, not least the need to continue to deliver its services throughout the change. Peter explained that they have had to promote safety excellence as part of normal daily work pattern not as an extra.

Gerry Teggart, Royal Mail safety director, added: The programme has proven to be an excellent source of best practice and shown visible benefits in terms of safety performance. Programme director Ian Jones recognises that the success is a result of a true team effort. He added: Were absolutely delighted that the efforts of our people and our suppliers to deliver change safely and successfully have culminated in our shortlisting for this major award.

The APM Awards will take place on the evening of 1 November at the Park Plaza, London. Follow all the action from the event online at http://www.apm.org.uk/awards%20