Driving for safety and environmental goals

Over the years, ABB has earned itself an enviable reputation for safe working on its sites. There is no room for complacency, but a continuous drive over many years is having its effect: minimising accidents and strengthening adherence to safety procedures. Sitting right alongside this priority is a growing focus on environmental issues.

National Grid has introduced a new health & safety scoring system based on the accident triangle. Contractors are given negative scores for accidents and incidents happening on construction sites, but can regain positive scores for successful SHE visits and contacts.

The focus is not just on avoiding incidents but also staying on top of the preventative measures. Training and regular inspections play important parts in reinforcing the positive safety culture that ABB and National Grid regard as paramount.
The safety triangle is updated monthly and shows at a glance how people are performing. The scores of all key suppliers are compared and the best performers will be rewarded.

For an organisation the size of ABB, the level of incidents is remarkably low. There were no lost time incidents in one of the latest monthly reports. However, a total of 48 near misses were recorded and these reports have resulted in the removal of the potential hazards. Overall, there is clear evidence of growing safety awareness among ABB employees, which is reinforced by frequent training and effective management.

ABB pays great attention to environmental issues too. Below we look at some of the most recent examples of how the company is taking a positive approach to sustainability in its processes and on its sites.

You might expect the demolition of a large outdoor AIS substation compound to create large amounts of rubble for disposal by landfill. Not so at Norton, near Stockton on Tees, where ABB has constructed a new indoor GIS substation for CE Electric UK that occupies just one-sixth of the space taken up by its AIS predecessor.

After stripping the old mechanical and electrical parts from the old equipment, ABB removed and stored the concrete structures and bases and then brought in specialist plant to reduce them to crushed stone. This material was then utilised for subbases, back filling and other civil requirements across the site. Around 1,100 tonnes of concrete has been crushed and reused.

Excavation work for National Grid’s Stalybridge substation, being constructed by ABB, required the removal of contaminated ground water.

In order to minimise any effect on the environment, as well as meeting the conditions of the sewer discharge licence, and ensure that the groundwater was contained and treated before disposal, ABB brought in a specialist company to install a water control system.
In the excavation phase, a containment bund and rainwater drain pump feeding the treatment system oil and water separator was constructed. Water treatment equipment was installed to remove other impurities and a strict regular sampling and reporting regime put in place.

This attention to detail is being maintained during the construction phase.

Environmental matters are always to the fore at a National Grid substation in Leeds, which also hosts an environmental centre dedicated to sustainable development. When ABB carried out a major upgrade, the whole site team caught the recycling bug. A large amount of overgrown greenery was cut back and turned into mulch and then dug into the flower borders; some old concrete bases were crushed and used to supplement the top soil for land levelling.

Some trees which had to be removed were used to make flower tubs and decking for the environment trail, and even the packing cases in which equipment was delivered was recycled into shuttering for the new concrete.