Green drilling in the deep blue

-time winner
For Hydro Polymers in Aycliffe, winning the
President’s Safety Award for the second time
is a stepping stone, not a pedestal
H
Aluminium Metal
Kurri Kurri,
Australia
ydro Polymers in Aycliffe, UK,
won the President’s Safety
Award for 2006, but it wasn’t
the plant’s fi rst brush with greatness –
the plant won the award in 1997, and had
been nominated in 2002, 2003, and 2005.
“We can safely say that Aycliffe is a worthy
winner,” says Jack Simensen, Hydro’s vice
president of Health Security Safety and En-
vironment and head of the award jury.
It’s a great achievement, people at the plant
acknowledge, but safety performance is an
ongoing process, not one that ends with an
award.
“It’s a great accolade to be selected for the
award from the whole of Hydro,” says John
Edmondson, health, safety and environment
manager at the Aycliffe plant.
“We thought we were good when we won
the award 10 years ago, but since then we’ve
gone from strength to strength. It’s all about
continuous improvement, and that means
today’s performance might seem relatively
unremarkable in say 2017.
“We’ve learned a lot and need to go on
learning and to put the lessons into practice.
Therefore, it’s a stepping stone, not a pedestal.
“Each year, our safety targets get tougher. I
have a saying posted on my office wall, which
Aluminium Metal
Deeside,
UK
reads, ‘If you want some things in your life
to change, you have to change some things
in your life.’
“So we keep changing – not replacing,
but building on what we already do well. For
example, in 1995 we introduced Dupont STOP
program. That greatly reduced our accident
rate and helped us win the 1997 President’s
Safety Award,” John Edmondson states.
“Each year we continued to develop the
program with STOP throughout, leading on
to Behavior Based Safety. We continue to
develop both the quality and quantity of
Behavior Based Safety observations, and
this goes hand-in-hand with effective team-
work. Within the teams I’d like to see more
Behavior Based Safety observations between
colleagues.”
The Aycliffe site is a “people-based” organi-
zation, Edmondson says: “We are recognized
as individuals, supported and developed
through our employment with the company.”
This is demonstrated by long service among
the staff (30 percent of the workforce have
been here 25 years or more), low sickness
absence rate (2.5 percent) and activities such
as a health program.
“Being healthy for work helps improve our
private lives as well, so health promotion and
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La Roca,
Spain
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Hydro Building
Systems, Germany
Oil & Energy
Ormen Lange
Offshore, Norway
President’s Safety Innovation Award hi! 7
Some companies just talk about safety, but Hydro
puts the words into action, says operator Mick
Anderson (right), conferring with safety manager
John Edmondson.
health care is a win-win activity,” he says.
“On the process safety side I think we enjoy
being regarded as the site with the greatest
hazard but lowest risk in the area. We put
a huge amount of effort into managing risk
and most this work normally goes unnoticed.
But it gets recognized in the President’s Safety
Award.”
hi! > Tom K. Andersen
photos > Terje S. Knudsen
Oil & Energy
Oseberg East,
Norway