Safety at CoolSys: A Look Back — and Forward
December 20, 2022
This has been an exciting year for the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) team at CoolSys, with challenges, many positive developments and great strides toward laying the groundwork for a safer and healthier future for everyone.
“The work our frontline employees perform is physically demanding and technically detailed, and it is often remote or on rooftops in less-than-ideal conditions,” says Zach Bates, director, Environmental Health and Safety. “This operational structure requires a greater emphasis on communication and heightened safety awareness. Thanks to everyone’s efforts toward training, improving our safety culture and raising our overall standards, we are on the right track.”
Building a Platform for Increased Safety
Zach says CoolSys employees understand the overall safety goal of not just being able to go home every night, but going home smarter, better and safer. The groundwork for a safer 2022 and beyond was laid with the introduction of new regional safety managers (RSMs), updating of safety policies and implementation of the safety champion program, which positions the team to jump into 2023 with high expectations.
Those expectations include higher standards, more direct and efficient communication with the field, increased training, increased field support and engagement by the RSMs, and a commitment to universally sharing lessons learned.
“We will have monthly targets for injury and collision rates — as we did in 2022 — but the focus will be on an effective, consistent process in which all incidents, near misses and field suggestions will be addressed and investigated, and lessons learned will be communicated back,” Zach says. “Our safety champions will be able to assist in helping support the field, communicating safety policies, etc., but I believe that any employee or manager can contribute positively to others by sharing what they know. This is a tremendous opportunity that we will further develop in 2023 and beyond.”