The British Safety Council awarded the winners of its 2019 Sword of Honour and Globe of Honour awards, bestowed for exemplary management of health, safety and environmental risks, in a glittering luncheon at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in the City of London on Friday 22 November.
For 39 consecutive years, the British Safety Council has awarded the Sword of Honour for health and safety management excellence and, for the past seven years, the Globe of Honour for excellence in environmental management. How does British Safety Council’s Five-Star Audit, Sword of Honour and Globe of Honour Awards work? We spoke to Policy and Technical Director David Parr to find out.
This year saw 86 companies winning a Sword of Honour and nine securing a Globe of Honour. Each of the winners have demonstrated, to an independent adjudication panel, a proven track record of excellence in managing risks to workers’ health and safety and/or to the environment from the organisations’ activities.
Opening the awards ceremony, Mike Robinson, Chief Executive of the British Safety Council, said: “The Sword of Honour and Globe of Honour awards are the most prestigious accolades in our industry. They recognise and reward the organisations from all over the world that have reached the pinnacle of health and safety, or environmental management, or both, in the case of a very small number of companies.
“I feel very privileged to celebrate with them their truly tremendous achievements in the knowledge that they set the standards for the rest of the world in terms of health, safety and environmental management, and increasingly also workplace wellbeing. Importantly, they are committed to continual improvement of their already excellent record.”
Lawrence Waterman, Chairman of the British Safety Council, said: “In many organisations around the world, change is the new normal, a more common state than business as usual. This is the case in the UK at the moment. During periods of change we need to maintain consistency and certainty for our workforce, our stakeholders and our families. We can do this best by holding on to our core values.
“The winners of Swords and Globes are ready to face the future because they have the right values, putting the health, safety and wellbeing of their employees and the future of our planet at the heart of what they do. They are an example to us all, in how to look after their employees, how to engage them in health and safety and how to strive to make our organisations places where people can thrive.”
The winning organisations came from a wide range of industry sectors in the UK, mainland Europe, India and the Middle East, including construction, education and training, energy generation and distribution, food and drink, leisure, logistics, manufacturing, retail and transport.
The British Safety Council also paid particular tribute to the nine organisations that won the double: both the Sword of Honour and the Globe of Honour. These were: BAE Systems Naval Ships, UK, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, UAE, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) UAE, Milaha – Container Shipping, Qatar, Milaha Internal Audit, Qatar, Qatargas Operating Company Ltd Commercial & Shipping Group Shipping Department, Qatar, TECOM Group, UAE and Unipart Logistics.
For the first time, the British Safety Council also presented two special awards. The Outstanding Practice Award has been created to recognise organisations that during the course of their Five Star Audit have demonstrated outstanding practice. This year, the winning organisation, selected for their approach to risk communication and use of technology, was Aston Martin Lagonda.
DLF, a leading commercial property developer in India, received the Special Recognition Award for their commitment to health and safety and for maintaining consistently high standards of customer satisfaction. DFL received the highest number of Sword of Honour awards achieved by a single organisation in each of the past two years, i.e. 11 awards in 2018 and 13 in 2019.
The full lists of winners are can be found here.
