The Health and Safety Awards 2023, which were organized for the 9th year under the auspices of the Hellenic Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, are for companies that stand out for their related performance in the workplace, as well as in the development of services and technologies that contribute to the reduction of accidents or illness and improve the quality of life of their employees.
The health and safety of our employees is a top priority for us. At the same time, we are fully committed to sustainable development and the production of green energy in the country, while offering a safe working environment in all our activities.
10 Years - Zero Accidents
We received the Gold Award at the Health & Safety Awards 2023, in the "Renewable Energy Sources" category for going 10 years with zero accidents.
We have been operating in Greece since 2008 and, despite the complexity, scope and objective difficulties for the construction and operation of our projects, our goal has always been the absolute safety of all concerned. The achievement of this remarkable result is thanks to a series of actions by the company, which has implemented a comprehensive health and safety program over the years. The program’s main pillars include:
- The proper planning, development and implementation of systems to foresee risks, taking preventive measures and continuously evaluating them.
- The comprehensive training of employees and contractors through compulsory sessions in order to understand the working context and the degree of risk in each area. At the same time, in collaboration with specialized bodies, we provide additional training sessions for people working in areas with increased risk. Furthermore, we implement the innovative "Contractors' Green Card" training program. This is in collaboration with SEV-IVEPE (the Institute of Industrial and Business Education & Training) for contractors' personnel, and ensures that they have adequate knowledge of health and safety issues during their employment at the company's facilities.
- Raising employee awareness concerning the essential importance of health and safety, by building a positive culture on these issues, through various actions, such as Safety Walks. At the same time, we have developed the "Open Safety Project" initiative with employee visits to other facilities as examples of best practices in health and safety, while the "Good Performance Awards" program rewards contractors for their responsibility and compliance with safety rules at power plants.
- Improving the monitoring of the proper implementation of the company's health and safety program through digital tools and applications.
- The implementation of innovative programs at the company's construction sites. This includes – but is by no means limited to – an advanced employee notification system, the installation of cameras on machinery to minimize blind spots, as well as the use of telematics for the remote control of equipment.
Awards for innovation and the implementation of advanced health and safety technological systems
We also received an award in the "Health and Safety Innovation" category for the use of advanced IT systems that control contractors' access to power plants and mobile app tools that monitor their performance.
The rapid development of our company, which now has 59 plants in Greece, presents a number of challenges. This is due both to the geographical location of the plants, which are often in inaccessible areas, and the implementation of maintenance and control work by contractors and subcontractors. This must be certified in accordance with health and safety legislation and internal regulations.
We successfully addressed this need by designing and implementing digital tools for the control and approval of employees, machines and documents (the HSE Database) before entering projects that were either under construction or in operation. With the use of an automated database, it was possible to simultaneously monitor more than 2,400 employees, 960 PPE and 250 HSE documents, in real time.
Another challenge we overcame with the help of technology was the immediate and real-time monitoring of contractors' performance in projects in terms of health and safety issues. The creation of an advanced mobile app significantly enhanced the continuous monitoring of contractors' activities to ensure their compliance with all health and safety protocols at our facilities.
Through the use of technology, we facilitate work in order to achieve our goal of zero accidents. The two important prizes that we received at the 2023 Health and Safety Awards highlight our long-standing commitment to providing a safe and secure working environment, employing the best possible planning and advanced technology systems in order to achieve this.
