Case study: How D&G promotes employee health and safety
Founded in 1999, D&G is a leading manufacturer and service provider of medium and large asphalt mixing plants in China, focusing on innovation and environmentally friendly production in order to provide customers with efficient, reliable, safe and environmentally friendly conventional hot-mix asphalt mixing plants and hot-mix asphalt mixing recycling plants. D&G endeavours to provide a healthy and safe working environment for all employees, and has embedded this commitment into its daily operation. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2019 Sustainability Report by D&G 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/ ESG/ 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
Adhering to a people-oriented operation approach, D&G has established various safety policies and measures, so as to enhance safety awareness in the workplace. In order to promote employee health and safety D&G took action to:
- establish the Safety Leading Group
- provide personal protective equipment and develop a safety culture
- carry out employee health checks
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) D&G has identified;
- How D&G proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by D&G to promote employee health and safety
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2019 Sustainability Report D&G identified a range of material issues, such as economic performance, quality assurance, air emissions control, compliance, hazardous waste management. Among these, promoting employee health and safety stands out as a key material issue for D&G.
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 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 D&G engages with:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Employees | · Quality / environmental / occupational health and safety management system training · Quality / environmental / occupational health and safety management system three-aspect audit · Employee meeting / satisfaction questionnaire · On-the-job training and physical examination |
| Customers | · Satisfaction questionnaire · Factory inspection · Site visit |
| Suppliers | · Study visit · Product technical standards exchange forum · Supplier capability survey · Supplier assessment |
| Education and research partners | · The 10th China Asphalt Mixing Plant Industry Summit · Teaching and technical sharing and exchange forum |
| Government and other public bodies | · Inspection · Factory exchange interview |
| Business partners
| · Seminar · Training session · Meeting and discussion |
| Social media | · Collaboration and cooperation · Advertising and promotion |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics D&G collected the opinions of a total of 251 stakeholders through questionnaires, asking participants to rate anonymously various economic, environmental and social issues.
What actions were taken by D&G to promote employee health and safety?
In its 2019 Sustainability Report D&G reports that it took the following actions for promoting employee health and safety:
- Establishing the Safety Leading Group
- In order to closely monitor the actual implementation and effectiveness of relevant policies and measures, D&G has internally established the Safety Leading Group (the “SLG”), which comprises the President, production manager and relevant department heads. The SLG helps to eliminate potential work hazards through measures such as risk identification, hidden trouble investigation and governance, and also ensures compliance with relevant laws and regulations. D&G has set safety production goals, such as: zero major accidents of fire, explosion and chemical leakage; zero occupational diseases; 100% validity of the certificate for special operations personnel; limiting production days affected by environmental protection or safety issues due to internal reasons to less than 15 days. Under the safety management framework, each department cooperates with one another, enabling D&G to comprehensively manage occupational health and safety, and thereby implement and oversee relevant measures effectively.
- Providing personal protective equipment and developing a safety culture
- D&G adheres to the people-centred operation approach and views protecting employees’ health and safety as its own responsibility. According to the employee’s job nature and the requirements of occupational health and safety management, D&G allocates relevant equipment and provides personal protective equipment and labour protection products for staff, such as fire extinguishing equipment, goggles and gloves, in order to eliminate occupational hazards. Additionally, D&G seeks to develop a safety culture in the production sites and arranges regular safety training for the employees, including fire drills and relevant courses, explaining the occupational hazards and safety practices in details.
- Carrying out employee health checks
- D&G has considered that it is possible for employees to get occupational diseases at work, including pneumoconiosis, eye, ear, nose and throat diseases, and chemical poisoning. In order to ensure the employees’ physical conditions are allowed to cope with the job position, and prevent the operational efficiency from disruption, D&G arranges body checks for employees before, during and after their discharge of job duties. The S&E (Safety and Environmental) Department is responsible for distributing the results to the person in charge or employees themselves, forming occupational health summary and keeping records. Without the approval of the management, the relevant information is not allowed to be borrowed or copied, in a bid to protect the employees’ privacy. During the reporting year, D&G has not noticed any record of health issues related to occupational hazards.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 403-9 Work-related injuries
Disclosure 403-9 Work-related injuries corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
- Targets: 3.6, 3.9
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.8
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Targets: 16.1
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by D&G, 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) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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