Can I Merge Safety, Quality and Environmental as One, and Is This Effective?

Construction sector is the backbone of any country. It has the significant contribution in reshaping the country’s GDPs but like any other sectors; it has remarkable chances for any incident which can lead to injury or any irreversible effect on the surrounding. There is always a risk for the accidents or near misses in this sector as mostly work is being done manually by the workers except destruction, loading or unloading and transportation of the material which is being done with the help of machines operated by the human operator.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), United States Department of Labor, there are around 5,333 construction industry workers who died on the job in 2019 which is equivalent to 3.5 per 100,000 full time employees. While in Europe, 3,332 fatal accidents occurred in 2018 among which one fifth were related to construction sectors, which is approximately 9.5 per 100,000 full time employees. Both human and environmental safety needs to be addressed.

Human safety means the fitness of mind and health while environment safety is related to no harm to plants, animals, human, air, land, water and natural resources due the activities of the concerns.

Construction industry is one of the major contributors in the environmental degradation, around 23% of the air, 40% of the drinking water pollution and 50% of the landfill pollution is due to the construction sector. Similarly, quality of the construction work is one the most important factors which if not considered can lead to the high financial loss as done in the number of construction projects in the past. Like Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China cost increased from $8.35 billion to $37 billion due to improper planning and unexpected issues, similarly, in the case of the International Space Station (ISS) cost increased from $17.4 to $100 billion and Panama Canal construction project is another example of such type of cases which is due to lack of proper planning.

After the United Nation, Sustainable Development Goal 2030 and Paris Conference in 2015; the world is showing too much concern toward safety, quality and environment. There is a significant increase in the construction companies which adopted these ISO standards in order to comply with these requirements. Like only in Hong Kong, there has been an increase of ISO 14001 Environment Management System certification in the last decade. As per Environment Protection Department of Hong Kong 33% of the total ISO 14001 EMS Certifications are issued to the construction sector.

But now companies are more focused on integration of these standards based on Annexure SL structure as clauses are the same but the requirements are different like in the case of Quality Management System requirements. While in the Environment Management System, it is more focused on environment safety due to operational activities and throughout the life cycle of the product and in case of occupational health safety. Therefore it is more concerned about the workers, operators and visitors safety who are working or pass by in the vicinity of the project domain.

Safety, Quality and Environment are the major concerns of this era. There were different regional standards that existed in the past decade like European followed British Standards (BS), Americans and Japanese have their own standards in order to ensure the safety, quality and environment in construction sectors but from 2010 onward these standards have started to become uniform. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is working on the development of these standards through its Technical Committees (TC) consisting of all members’ representatives. ISO 45001 OHS, 9001 QMS & 14001 EMS standards have been developed by the ISO for safety, quality and environment.

With a new structure of standards which have been revised after 2010, now the merging of these ISO 45001 OHS, 9001 QMS & 14001 EMS standards become easy due to annexure SL. These standards are followed by the annexure SL structure having 10 clauses; starting from Scope, Terms & Definitions, Normative References, Context of the Organization, Leadership, Planning, Support, Operations, Performance Evaluation and Improvement.

In all developed or developing countries where some legal bodies exist, these bodies have their own requirements related to compliance of employee’s safety, environment safety and documentation works. Although ISO 9001, 14001 & 45001 standard is not mandatory in most of the countries, implementation of these requirements in any construction industry is noteworthy to fulfil the requirements of regional regulatory bodies. Especially in UK, Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) requirements along with the health and safety regulations endorsed by the UK regulatory bodies are fulfilled, if any of the company get ISO 9001, 14001 & 45001 certification.

As per research conducted in the 302 construction companies of Spain; integration of these QHSE standards have a positive benefit both internally and externally. Internal benefits include the processes of the organisation while external benefits include commercial gain in the market. Similar research has been conducted by the British Standard Institute (BSI) in one of the renowned British construction companies; integration of the quality and environment safety in the company leading to the market growth of 34% along with the 5-10% reduction in the cost of project.

So, based on the above facts; it is concluded that the integration of safety, quality and environment as one in the construction industry is the smartest way to deal with all interested parties which not only help companies to improve its internal and external processes but also increases the customer satisfaction by helping in the reduction of the cost.