Nearly 5 mln hours of work at 40 building sites and only one minor accident – Echo Investment puts a lot of emphasis on health and safety of workers. Steve Iddon, health and safety director at Echo Investment, says that his goal for 2018 is zero accidents. Eight small incidents and one minor accident, followed by the employee returning to work quickly, took place at 40 building sites. Only 36 workdays were lost because of them.

“Safety of employees at building sites is an important element of Echo Investment"s social responsibility. Last year, the accident rate at building sites the investor of which was Echo Investment only amounted to 0.2. For comparison, the national index measured by the Central Statistical Office in the first three quarters of last year amounted to as much as 4.37. Although our indicator is low, our goal for this year is to eliminate accidents altogether. We want to have the maximum confidence that every employee returns safe and sound to their home and family after work,” says Steve Iddon. Achieving this goal is supported by the health and safety and environmental protection management system, which was implemented last year. The company has made its security documentation, best practices and guidelines available to all subcontractors. Requirements concerning safety, life and health protection have also become an element of pre-qualification of companies that would like to cooperate with Echo Investment. Participants of the construction process are also invited to weekly visits which involve the promotion of the health and safety culture. “Managers and supervisors have become leaders responsible for security. They set a good example and promote values related not only to health and safety but also to the broadly understood ethics, morality and ecological approach. We plan further activities in 2018: mandatory training for senior management and construction supervision, a risk assessment system at the project stage in cooperation with architects and designers as well as monthly health and safety meetings with production staff in all projects. This allows us to look into the real security culture in our company and constantly improve it. We can make a huge change together and make Poland a safer place to work in," says Steve Iddon. The first effects of the new health and safety policy could be observed last autumn autumn. Four construction projects of Echo Investment were awarded in the "Build Safely" competition of the National Labour Inspectorate. The construction sites of O3 Business Campus III in Kraków and Symetris II in Łódź came first, the Dom pod Wilgą II residential project in Kraków came second and the West Link office building in Wrocław came third.