Babies benefit from safety at work

Mar 20 2009 by Chris Knox, The Journal

SAFE working practices at one of Europe’s biggest bio-refinery’s has led to a donation of £20,000 for a North East baby hospital.

The engineering team working on the construction of the Ensus Bioethanol Plant on the Wilton International site in Middlesbrough have donated the cash to Zöe’s Place, also in Middlesbrough, as part of a scheme that rewarded staff for completing one million hours without losing time through an accident.

Almost 1,000 people are currently working on the final stages of construction of the plant, including employees of Ensus and Simon Carves, part of the India-based engineering, procurement and construction contractor Punj Lloyd Group.

The £250m plant, which has also seen around 20 firms sub-contracted to it, was commissioned earlier this year and is due to be operational by next year.

The donation is the second one to be made by the engineering team, after the safety incentive scheme raised a further £20,000 last year after half a million hours without an accident.

Hugh Gillies, construction manager at Simon Carves, said: “Maintaining a safety culture on a project of this size is a full-time job and requires everyone to stay alert to the potential for accidents and behave in a safe manner at all times. The workforce decided at the outset that, rather than receiving anything themselves in commemoration of any achievements they made, they would prefer to donate the money they raised to a local cause and there’s none more deserving than Zöe’s Place.”

The Ensus Bioethanol Plant will produce around 400 million litres of ethanol each year.

It will eventually supply around a third of the UK’s bioethanol needs, with the greenhouse gas savings generated by blending the ethanol with conventional fuel equivalent to taking 300,000 cars off the road each year.