John Wood Group PLC

Health, Safety & Environment

We're doing our utmost to achieve excellence with respect to health, safety and environmental issues.

Wood Group Louisiana offshore workerLooking out for the safety and well-being of our employees and meeting environmental initiatives are at the very heart of Wood Group's core Values. Not only are these critically important to us, but achieving and maintaining high standards of performance in health, safety and environmental matters play an integral role in the sustainability of our long-term reputation and success.

For many years, our Board of Directors has recognised the achievement of our HSE goals as critical to attaining our wider business objectives. Obviously, meeting these goals is a work in progress; Wood Group companies worldwide continually strive to improve their performance.

At Wood Group, the health and safety of our people are standards by which we measure our success. And we will only be truly successful as long as no one is hurt, others follow our lead by imitating our safety standards, and we remain committed to continuous improvement.

Concern for our planet is extremely important to Wood Group. We strive to always look for ways to minimise adverse environmental impacts, and support our customers in doing so through the services we offer. We continually look for new ways to minimise our carbon footprint, energy consumption and waste generation.

Caring for our communities is important to us. We encourage all our people to engage in community projects at a local level.

At Wood Group, we believe in supporting our communities. We believe in making a difference–in ways large and small–in those communities where our businesses operate and beyond.

We support an extensive range of local and international charities spanning health, education, the arts, medical research and the prevention and reduction of poverty. We have a well-established Employee Community Fund supporting charities and fundraising efforts involving our employees.

Kids playing with K'nexIn the UK, we have an active community programme including sponsorship of the North East Scotland final of the national Junior Engineer for Britain K'NEX challenge, a programme designed to introduce primary school children to engineering. We are a long-term supporter of the annual Aberdeen International Youth Festival, the world's premier participatory youth arts festival. Wood Group is also a long-term supporter of the Grampian-Houston exchange which provides opportunities for student nurses to experience health care in the UK and US.

In the US this past year, we were involved in a number of initiatives, including the annual MS150 bike ride to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis, as well as new partnerships with the Alley Theatre in Houston and a high school robotics programme that encourages students to pursue careers in maths and sciences.

In Australia, we supported Melbourne Citymission in helping homeless young people re-enter society. In India, a team taking part in the Mumbai Marathon 6k Dream Run helped raise money for Children in Pain ('CHiP'), supporting the public school system. This past year, children in Equatorial Guinea enjoyed receiving Christmas presents thanks to a toy drive organised by employees in the Malabo and Rebola areas.

In 2010, we look forward to maintaining and further developing the partnerships that we have established with various charities and community programmes. We encourage our employees to support their local community, and through them broaden our approach and identify more projects where we can offer longer-term commitments to the communities in which we live and operate.

We consistently seek to enhance quality by application of continuous improvement practices. This is critical for the satisfaction and confidence of our customer base. By delivering high-quality services to our customers, we provide more than a service; we play a valuable role in assuring integrity for the products and services which we provide.

Three guys talkingAs part of our commitment to quality, we integrate quality principles in all aspects of our business processes and have established extensive and risk-sensitive monitoring and control measures. As a Group, we embrace formal quality standards and promote and monitor external certification of our businesses. Typically, Wood Group businesses initially secure ISO 9001 certification, then move to ISO 14001 and 18001 certification.

Wood Group's Engineering division businesses all operate Quality Management Systems ('QMS') which conform to the principles of international and national standards and are typically certified to ISO 9001. In addition, as part of a continuous improvement process, an Engineering Excellence programme has been established by the Division, for the Group.

Wood Group PSN division comprises a number of national and international businesses, contracts and projects which are bound by a common Management System. This system, and its local application, embraces all of the principles of the three recognised standards for Quality, Health & Safety and Environment

Wood Group GTSdivision maintains a global programme to improve delivered quality and service excellence, thus customer satisfaction, through business process efficiency improvements and the deployment of standardised work practices. Its QHSE Management System meets the requirements of international standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001

The above are detailed in the key quality documents maintained by each business, but there are other documents (such as the ‘Group Integrity Management Guide’ and the ‘Group Engineering Excellence Guide’) which provide testimony to the penetration of the quality ethos across the Group.

Equally important to our success as an organisation, Wood Group strives to be a good corporate citizen.

At Wood Group, we seek to minimise any adverse environmental impact of our operations. Working together with our clients, suppliers and third parties, we can do a world of good by turning our intentions into positive actions and remaining focused on continual improvement.

Every day, we work hard to be more energy efficient and environmentally responsible. We actively take steps to measure and reduce our carbon emissions. In 2008, we introduced a carbon footprint pilot programme to help us better understand carbon management and identify ways to reduce carbon use throughout our operations. The programme has been expanded year-on-year and we now have all of our three divisions active in this initiative. Learning from the programme is shared across the Group. We also submit our environmental performance to the Carbon Disclosure Project and report via the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency scheme.   

We not only look at our internal controls of carbon emissions, but also work with our customers to develop alternative energy projects. Wood Group offers a range of services in the renewable energy sector that enable our customers to plan and develop wind, tidal and carbon capture projects. We have provided front-end engineering and design for carbon capture and storage in the United Arab Emirates, engineering and management services for wave energy projects, and engineering, procurement and construction for onshore and offshore wind farms.

Environmental Initiatives

We are committed to minimise the adverse impact of our businesses and to positively improve our communities around the world for future generations. Our goal is to make a real difference by encouraging more efficient energy use and striving to modify the behaviours of our employees and businesses to conserve resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Wood Group ensures that HSE Policy commitments are translated into real action, and our year-on-year commitment to a Group-wide environmental event is a great example of this.

During these events and other environmental activities, we focus our efforts around education and awareness, carbon reduction and energy efficiency along with local action initiatives such as area restoration or clean ups. Regional offices are encouraged to plan and conduct programmes in their communities that involve specific activities designed with a local perspective relevant to that community. Our initiatives are exemplified by some of the following achievements.

Education & Awareness

Wood Group encourages employees and their families to participate in various activities as a means for raising awareness and improving the environment for future generations. One event on this theme was a contest entitled 'Postcards from Around the World,' which promoted environmental awareness for employees' children. The contest included children from five different regions around the world and four age categories.

Carbon Reduction & Energy Efficiency

While Wood Group's Carbon Footprint programme is progressing well toward improving our energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption in global locations, we take the opportunity annually to reinforce the message. In previous years we have encouraged local offices to implement 'switch it off' initiatives. Wood Group businesses are asked to explore ways to reduce electricity use, which have included automatic reminders for employees to shut down workstations and monitors before leaving work, and encouraging employees and families to reduce electricity use at home whenever possible.

Local Initiatives

Local initiatives are encouraged and some of our businesses have adopted local parks, forest areas, creeks and beaches and conduct regular clean-up efforts. Wood Group employees from Aberdeen to Abu Dhabi; Ireland to Iowa; Algeria to Australia, have scoured bays, beaches, highways and forest reserves to remove debris and rubbish.

Making a Difference

Wood Group is fully committed to continuing its focus on making a difference every day. We strive to remain proactive in raising awareness within our organisation to promote our core values of minimising the impact of our businesses on the environment and positively improving our communities around the world for future generations.