Saipol and safety: A winning bet
The Saipol Le Mériot site is evidence of an advanced safety policy that is bearing fruit. Meeting with Jérôme Landréat, Site Manager, and Stéphanie Laforêt, Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) Manager.
Could you speak to us about the Saipol Le Mériot site with regard to its safety issues?
Jérôme Landréat: Our site employs a hundred or so people along with many external workers, service providers, and subcontractors. This represents a significant risk of major accidents: falls, collisions, and even fires. More than 300 trucks circulate on the site every day, with the presence of flammable and corrosive products, among others.
What actions have you implemented?
Jérôme Landréat: We devised a specific prevention roadmap. We are also one of Avril’s pilot sites under the We Care Assets program, designed to enhance the safety of our industrial equipment, with a target of zero serious industrial accidents, as part of a dynamic of progress measured site by site. In addition, we launched the SAIPROPRE program in early 2022. The challenge: mobilizing our teams to organize and maintain the cleanliness of the plant with a view toward preventing risks. Employees are now taking action on their own initiative in the most important areas: cleaning with dry ice, painting pedestrian walkways, and other measures.
What are the early results of this enhanced policy?
Stéphanie Laforêt: We received a Nourrir la Vie en 2021 award with the “Cap ou pas cap” challenge, in which employees displayed their safety actions both at home and at work, with photos. This initiative was a nod to the Playsafe training: Cooperation, Analysis, and Prudence (CAP). Employees also spontaneously came up with safety posters for Halloween and organized Safety Day. We observe a very strong and deliberate safety culture among all our employees. It is they who identify the risks, and who ask us to carry out Safety Field Visits (SFV).