Partner Article

Biffa awarded highest ever safety rating

Biffa, one of the leading nationwide integrated waste management firms, has been awarded its highest ever safety rating by the British Safety Council.

It retained its five star award for the fifth year in a row and, for 2016, achieving its record rating of 97.59% in the Council’s Integrated Safety, Health and Environment Quality (SHEQ) audit.

This audit provides a comprehensive and independent evaluation of an organisation’s entire SHEQ management system and benchmarks against current best practice techniques, providing an overall score and grading.

The British Safety Council spent a week at several UK Biffa sites and the head office in High Wycombe in December, examining its management systems and scrutinising its approach to occupational safety along with health and environmental issues. It also took a rigorous look at Biffa’s commitment to continuous improvement

Claire Odd, Biffa’s Group Health, Safety and Quality Manager, said: “We’re thrilled to receive this record rating because it not only recognises Biffa’s total commitment to this issue but also the hard work undertaken right across the business by our staff to make it a reality.

“This is the fifth year in a row that we’ve achieved a five star rating and we feel that our score was even higher this year because we were able to demonstrate to the auditors just how active and engaged our senior management team has been to lead and support this initiative. From the CEO down, we have been able to show the level of commitment and support needed to drive major improvements in Safety, health and the environment”

Biffa has more than 20 SHEQ coaches across the UK and Claire paid tribute to their diligence and tenacity. “We call them coaches rather than managers because they spend a lot of time with our employees helping them to help themselves rather than telling them what to do,” she said. It’s something that obviously works well.

The record rating comes at the end of 12 months in which Biffa has launched two high profile safety campaigns. Its People in Bins initiative saw it bring together leading private and public bodies in the UK waste industry to address the dangers of people using refuse containers for shelter. And, in December, it highlighted the risks to its employees and the general public from people Driving Recklessly on Pavements (DROPs) to avoid waste collection trucks.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Biffa .