Case study: How BEWG promotes workplace safety
As a leading provider of professional, all-inclusive water environment services, whose business fields include urban water services, watershed water services, industrial water services, seawater desalination, environment sanitation and solid waste, clean energy and technological services, BEWG (Beijing Enterprises Water Group Limited) attaches great importance to workplace safety.
This case study is based on the 2016 Sustainability Report by BEWG published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Abstract
BEWG’s employees are its most valuable asset. As a consequence, respecting and protecting employees is, for BEWG, a top priority Tweet This!. In order to promote workplace safety BEWG took action to:
- clarify safety management responsibilities
- identify and eliminate safety hazards
- organize safety training and awareness raising activities for employees
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) BEWG has identified;
- How BEWG proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by BEWG to promote workplace safety
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2016 Sustainability Report BEWG identified a range of material issues, such as environmental protection awareness raising, business compliance, product and service quality, offering environmentally friendly products and services. Among these, promoting workplace safety stands out as a key material issue for BEWG.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups BEWG engages with:
Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
Shareholders and Investors | · Shareholder conferences · Regular reports and announcements · Investor communication meetings · Official website |
Government and Regulators
| · Routine Reports · On-site inspection · Supervision of the products and services · Policy advices through industry associations |
Customers
| · Customers satisfaction survey · Executives visits · Face to face interviews in communities · Hearings |
Employees | · Congresses of staff · Employee satisfaction survey · Communication mechanism about career development · Employees’ caring activities |
Value Chain Partners | · Open tendering · Cooperation within industry · Industry seminars · Sharing and promoting research achievements |
Communities | · Face to face interview in communities · Public benefit activities · Social impact evaluation |
Environment | · Environment impact assessment · Public investigation of projects’ environmental impacts · Environmental public welfare activities · Connections with environmental NGOs |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritize material issues BEWG carried out a stakeholder survey, using an online survey platform. As a result, BEWG received 377 pieces of stakeholder feedback, from 19 provinces.
In its 2016 Sustainability Report BEWG reports that it took the following actions for promoting workplace safety:
- Clarifying safety management responsibilities
- BEWG urged senior management staff in charge of business units to sign a safety responsibility letter, which clearly identified safety accountabilities and established safety objectives. In addition, BEWG conducted surveys regarding the safety management team composition of each business unit, requiring them to create dedicated safety management positions with clearly defined job descriptions and accountabilities.
- Identifying and eliminating safety hazards
- BEWG believes that “Hazards are accidents”. As a consequence, BEWG conducts regular, specific, all-inclusive, periodic inspections, along with special inspections before special events or holidays, to detect and eliminate safety hazards.
- Organizing safety training and awareness raising activities for employees
- BEWG organizes the Safety Month event, focusing on raising the safety alertness and safety accident preparedness of its employees through, among others, training and education, safety hazard screening and elimination and emergency drills. Additionally, BEWG uses on-site electric displays, a safety knowledge competition and safety education videos to help employees develop safety knowledge and a stronger safety awareness. Moreover, to improve employees’ awareness of fire hazards and help them better protect themselves and put out fire in case of a fire accident, BEWG collaborated with the local fire brigade and financial institutions and implemented a series of fire safety education programmes. These programmes included fire hazards inspections and fire emergency drills, and employees were provided with fire safety tips, fire alarm information, fire distinguishing skills and safe escape tips.
Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?
The GRI indicator addressed in this case is: G4-LA7: Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation and the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-3 Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by BEWG, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page
3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx
4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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