World Demolition Awards shortlists - Safety and Training

According to Cantillon, the past year safety performance hit an all-time high, as the demolition firm completed more than two million hours without a single reportable accident, and achieved an AFR of zero.

This £35 million (US$47.8 million) Blossom Street project is the company’s largest to date, and incorporated the demolition of six buildings, a 22,000 cu m (776,000 cu ft) bulk excavation, and major substructure works.

Achieving these milestones was only possible due to Cantillon evolving its health, safety, and wellbeing standards to a level usually reserved for tier one contractors.

The company’s standards have been benchmarked with no fewer than 15 accreditations, and coveted awards from British Safety Council, and RoSPA, among others.

Cantillon’s enhanced capability was cemented, when, in a landmark deal, Morrisroe Group acquired a majority share in the business, stating that Cantillon is a “highly respected market leader in demolition”.

Despe
Country Italy

In the Emilia Romagna region of Italy there have been a number of emergencies due to earthquakes, while the collapse of the Morandi Bridge meant the fire brigade has became involved in the more technical aspects of demolition.

Despe has been a very important company during some of Italy’s most critical moments and emergencies, serving the community free of charge when disasters happen, the Bologna fire brigade asked for a specific three-day training programme with Despe.

The training session was to explain the use of demolition equipment in disasters and emergencies. Firefighters usually do not have large excavators and their expertise with this type of equipment is limited.

At Despe, a theoretical and technical training course was prepared for the entire operational team of the Bologna fire brigade.

In addition to the theoretical side, a workshop survey was arranged to demonstrate how the machines can be set up and used under such delicate conditions as an earthquake.

Erith Contractors
Country United Kingdom

The skills, commitment and loyalty of the company’s employees are fundamental to Erith.

The company’s strategic goal is to embed health, safety and wellbeing into the ethos of its business. The past year has seen a further increased focus and investment into training provision and wellbeing of employees. A proactive response to the Covid-19 pandemic ensured that innovative measures were implemented across all offices and sites ensuring that, following government guidelines, they were able to remain open throughout and minimising the number of staff placed on furlough.

Support was provided to those able to work from home and regular updates provided to all employees directly from the company chairman. Throughout the Covid crisis the company has striven to protect the safety and wellbeing of our employees as well as safeguarding the business for the future.

New innovations in health and safety have been rolled out, including the Step Up Reward Scheme and Buildsafe App, alongside training and continuing professional development, using alternative methods of online classes where possible.

Grupo Mitre
Country Argentina

Grupo Mitre’s history of security, training and permanent qualification began by positioning the company in a role as a talent trainer, which progressively evolved to take on the role of generating professionals who adopt continuous learning as a philosophy of life.

This made it possible for each person in the company to be a reference in matters of safety, hygiene and environment in the different fields of labour action, and in turn take the knowledge acquired in the company to the rest of the areas in their life.

Being important for Grupo Mitre to safeguard the health of its workers, through generating policies and direct actions in prevention, it is in a stronger position for the future. Even in the current world situation, Grupo Mitre says it is committed to a long-term vision, based on the permanent training of our people.

The most important thing to ensure good practices in the company is to know that we transform our workers into agents of change in their own areas of influence, achieving a positive impact with a multiplier effect.

Ward Demolition
Country New Zealand

Ward Demolition incorporated a responder app safety management system called BWARE from July 2020 and since then, has been driving the use of the system throughout the organisation for continued improvement in health and safety.

The company realised that to keep ahead of what is happening in its industry relating to all health and safety matters required moving away from paper-based health and safety management to an online “live” system.

Ward has trained all its managers and supervisors on how to use the system and corresponding mobile app with all available functions to provide robust and encompassing health and safety engagement within the entire organisation.

Senior management has been able to use the system to create exemplary Site Specific Safety Plan (SSSP) that can be printed and provide evidence of training and competencies, risk registers, incident investigations and more.