FCC Environment UK, one of the country’s leading resource and waste management businesses and a company known for its safety, health, environmental and quality initiatives, has won the prestigious British Safety Council International Safety Award 2020.

FCC Environment was honoured with the British Safety Council’s highest ranking in health, safety and wellbeing in the International Safety Awards 2020 for its work in Wychavon. The team was praised for its robust standardised training programme and effective behavioural-based safety programme. Other factors that the awards’ judges singled the contract out for included managerial staff’s behavioural observations, regular safety conversations and its electronic reporting system, SafeGuard.

The award was granted after the company provided evidence of how it recognises occupational health and safety hazards, what controls are in place to manage those hazards and reduce the risk of harm to employees and those who are affected by business activities, and how the company engages with its workforce to monitor effectiveness and manage change where required.

The award submission was graded against a robust marking criteria and was recognised with distinction, scoring in the top 15% of applications submitted for this renowned award.

Paul Stokes, FCC Environment’s Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) said “we work hard every day to do the right things across our business and all of our staff, whatever their role, are aware and engaged in our ambition to continually improve. But when our efforts are recognised externally then it spurs us all on to achieve even more. I am very proud of the team who worked on this project and the results they have achieved”.

FCC Environment has a five-year success record with its ‘Behavioural Based Safety Programme’ at Wychavon. First introduced in 2015, this continual improvement scheme drives improved health and safety with year-by-year areas of focus and positive results. In 2019, the emphasis of the programme was to reduce the number of vehicle accidents and incidents by at least 10 per cent in comparison to 2018.

Working on behalf of Wychavon District Council, FCC Environment undertakes domestic and municipal waste collection services and street cleaning operations. Some 70 staff are employed to deliver the services, including a large number of collections operatives such as drivers and loaders working across 25 different vehicles.