Occupational health and safety
We commit ourselves to developing a healthy corporate culture aimed at ensuring the health and safety of our employees and contractors
Our commitment to the health and safety of the people who work with us is formalized in the Health, Safety, Environment, Quality and Energy (HSEQE) Policy, which is aligned with the principles of our Code of Ethics. The policy is aimed at valuing and protecting human resources, which are our most valuable assets. In particular, we are committed to:
- Designing, building, operating and decommissioning facilities, constructions and activities, while respecting the protection of workers’ health and safety and the environment, aligning ourselves with the best available technologies
- Lead and manage our activities with a view to preventing accidents, injuries and occupational diseases;
- Ensure the information, training and awareness of staff for active and responsible participation in the implementation of the principles and achievement of the objectives.
To minimize incidents, we carry out various activities aimed at both our employees and contractors, such as, for example, safety awareness and discussion meetings that also involve contractors.
Our commitment to promoting the health, safety and well-being of our employees and contractors is an integral part of our Sustainable Value Creation Plan.
Our target for reducing incidents
In our Sustainable Value Creation Plan 2023-2029, we are committed to keeping the employee and contractor incident frequency index below 2 (target value for each year, in number of injuries recorded per million hours worked).
All our sustainability data and performance
Our initiatives to increase safety
We implement several initiatives to further improve safety, such as, for example:
- meeting times between management and employees to review organizational and operational aspects, with a particular focus on safety issues
- recurrent activities on safety issues and, in particular, accident prevention attributable to the activities of operations personnel.
The “Italgas Safety Trophy” awards recognition to people who have distinguished themselves in achieving a result considered of the utmost importance: the absence of accidents. The initiative takes into consideration not only the specific KPIs of accident events, but also the indicators that serve to contain them, such as near miss reports or nonconformities detected and remedied.
Training
We have updated our training program to meet both new health and safety regulations and operational needs. For this, we have introduced customized training paths, while also renewing existing ones.
Our commitment to human rights
Our rigorous management
We operate in complete safety and in respect of regulatory and compliance requirements, thanks to our internal policies and the application of a HS management system certified according to the new ISO 45001 standard and aligned to requirement of the Legislative Decree 81/2008 (Testo Unico sulla Sicurezza). Italgas subsidiaries Italgas Reti, Toscana Energia, Medea, Bludigit, Geoside, Italgas Acqua, Eda Thess, Eda Attikis and Deda are all ISO 45001 certified. To obtain the voluntary ISO 45001 certification, all the requirements established by standards must be met and exceeded.
In particular, we are committed to communicating and updating our undertakings and responsibilities to prevent accidents and safeguard health protection through our Health, Safety, Environment, Quality and Energy (HSEQE) Policy.
The document follows the principles of our Code of Ethics and governs the approach, management methods and commitments not only to health and safety protection, but also to the prevention of accidents, work-related injuries, illnesses, health and occupational diseases. The organizational tools (Service Orders and Organizational Communications) define the roles and responsibilities for the implementation of the Policy and to meet the requirements of the ISO 45001 standard and certification, including for example the prioritization and integration of internal emergency plans and the definition of procedure and actions to investigate work-related injuries, ill health, diseases, accidents and potential accidents. This process is an integrated and planned process involving constructive consultation and discussion with workers and their representatives.
In line with the requirements of ISO 45001, risks and hazards are assessed to identify potential harm in the workplace and actions plans are then defined to address such risks and hazards, including the identification of specific quantitative targets with the aim of defining actions plans to deal with emergency situations. Progress in HS management and in reducing/preventing health issues are constantly evaluated against challenging targets and objectives, with the aim of constantly improving. For example, Italgas is committed to maintain the work-related accident rate of employees and contract workers below 2. On a monthly basis, dashboards on Heath, Safety and Environmental performances are shared across the organization and discussed in the Operation Committee, grouping senior manager.
Internal organizational tools and training are integrated with the necessary actions to prevent such risks and hazards. Both health and saferty issues’ management and progress towards targets are evaluated and assessed through internal inspections and external verification audits.
For each accident type (like for examples injuries, potential severe events and near miss) we run an analysis implementing the return of experience (REX) methodology both in case of internal and suppliers related events. An investigation is carried out involving all relevant stakeholders leading to the identification of root causes of each event. As a result, an action plan is defined for improvements related to direct and root causes, setting deadlines for implementation. REX and lesson learned are shared in the monthly Operation Committee and with employees and suppliers in specific training sessions.
Our governance, together with important awareness initiatives, aims to actively promote accident prevention both inside and outside Italgas. 11 accidents occurred in 2023, less than in 2022. The number of accidents among contractors dropped as well to 6 versus 9 in 2022. Particular attention is also devoted to potential accidents. In 2023, meetings were carried over with the territorial poles devoted in particular towards raising awareness to injuries, the analysis of incidents, including near misses, and the definition of corrective actions to be implemented. Our suppliers are involved in HS training initiatives and to participate in the tender procedure, we require them to have ISO 45001 certifications on health and safety management systems. Italgas’ subsidiaries Italgas Reti, Toscana Energia, Medea, Nepta, Bludigit and Geoside are ISO 45001 certified by DNV (DET NORSCHE VERITAS). In addition to the above, also the Greek company Enaon EDA holds the ISO 45001:2018 certification.
To explore HS data in more detail, browse the following in-depth sections, or explore our company data in the Italgas’ Reporting Hub.