CONFERENCE DAY ONE - DECEMBER 4, 2024

7:00 am Coffee & Registration

8:00 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

MAXIMIZING BUY-IN TO YOUR SAFETY CULTURE

8:10 am Viewing Safety Differently: Shifting Perspectives on Safety, People & Excellence

  • Ron Gantt HSE Director - Americas, Yondr Group

Synopsis

  • Identifying how we define ‘safety’ in our organizations and in practice and how this affects our outcomes
  • Changing our focus from people being the problem to solve for, to creating the conditions for people to thrive
  • Creating processes that allow us to learn from and improve everyday work as a means toward proactive safety excellence

8:50 am Audience Discussion: Leveraging Return on Investment Calculations to Justify Investment into EHS Programs

Synopsis

  • Demonstrating the ROI for your executive team to ensure safety is prioritised from the top down
  • Addressing the business and people risks associated with evolving EHS strategies
  • Examining how integrating safety into business processes can help win more business and improve employee engagement

9:20 am Case Study: Maintaining Our Safety-First Culture Through a Time of Rapid Growth

  • Gerald McKie VP Environmental Health & Safety, T5 Data Centers

Synopsis

  • Evaluating the right rate to scale your team during a period of growth to ensure you have enough EHS professionals on the ground, while ensuring future business stability
  • Discussing how you can effectively integrate EHS staff into the wider organization to help maintain a culture of safety with all employees
  • Finding consistency across a global organization: How can you maintain high standards, consistently when onboarding lots of new team members from diverse backgrounds?

10:30 am Morning Break & Speed Networking

UPSKILLING YOUR TEAMS

11:10 am Becoming the Intentional Leader

  • Travis Lizar Mission Critical EHS Lead, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

Synopsis

  • Discussing the role of EHS as a facilitator and the soft skills required to maximize the cross-functional impact of your team
  • Working on the relationship not the problem to bring together more cohesive teams
  • Bringing discipline to what you do: How do you create the structures to succeed, but with the flexibility to be able to work effectively with different personalities

11:50 am Equipping All Employees With Adequate Safety Training & Materials to Stay Up to Date With Best Practice

  • Tammy Luther Global Environment Health & Safety, CyrusOne
  • Tammy Luther Director - Global Environment Health & Safety, CyrusOne

Synopsis

  • Effectively communicating the “why” behind safety policies and procedures
  • Creating work planning templates to reinforce best practice and combat employee complacency
  • Recognizing positive behaviours and reinforcing individual ownership as a way to improve engagement with safety training programs
  • Exploring the use of advanced technologies such as VR to help with complex upskilling in areas such as first aid and CPR, or areas of new risk such as equipment upgrades and hazards

12:30 pm Lunch Break

IMPROVING SAFETY STANDARDS IN CONSTRUCTION

1:30 pm Assessing Safety Programs of General & Trade Contractors to Align on EHS Standards During Construction

Synopsis

  • Ensuring trade contractors have the proper training and skill set to meet safety standards of mission-critical environments
  • Fostering relationships and mutual respect between diverse contractors
  • Developing materials to circulate in the pre-bid process detailing expectations, required training, documentation, safety plans, and policies

2:10 pm Case Study: Developing a Highly Co-ordinated Safety Program Across All Stakeholders to Maintain High Standards on a Tight Deadline

Synopsis

  • Spotlighting the added considerations of working on a large-scale construction site in a multi-contractor project
  • Utilizing development plans to build a robust talent pool of mature and professionally trained contractors
  • Managing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of qualified personnel in the construction industry as a whole and the number of incidents 

2:50 pm Afternoon Refreshments

3:30 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks