Making the site safer together

Valmet collaborates with customers, suppliers and contractors to secure safety on shared worksites. We believe that effective planning, commitment to common goals and rules, clear responsibilities, good co-ordination and open communication are key to making sure everyone goes home healthy and safe.

Each year we hold several Contractor HSE days where we align safety commitment and expectations with our key site suppliers. In addition to the Sustainable Supply Chain policy, we require suppliers and other business contacts to recognize and comply with our HSE Policy.

“Contractor HSE days are an excellent forum for sharing good practices and learning from each other, supporting us in reaching the common target of zero incidents on our customer sites,” says Victoria Larsson, Valmet’s Vice President for Health, Safety and Environment (HSE).

Contractor HSE day at Metsä Board Husum site 

In February 2021, a Contractor HSE day was organized for the Metsä Board Husum site in Sweden. This time, the event was organized virtually due to the coronavirus restrictions. Modern tools and group discussions were used to enable effective collaboration. The advantage of a virtual event was that it enabled more participants than a traditional face-to-face activity. 

Participants from Metsä Group, Valmet and multiple supplier companies attended the event. Valmet introduced its latest HSE developments and encouraged discussions about developing the common safety culture. The contractors told that, for example, they had taken into use Valmet best practices like the two-minute pre-task safety checklist. Also, they had organized safety trainings for their personnel.

A virtual safety walk was also conducted in the event, and the participants listed HSE observations and improvements from the site.

Leading by example

In his greetings from Valmet management, Jussi Mäntyniemi, head of Recovery business unit in Pulp & Energy business line, told that leading by example is a powerful tool: leaders’ daily actions and behavior have a significant impact on a positive safety culture. 

When presenting the customer’s message, Ari Kiviranta, SVP Development from Metsä Board, stressed the importance of proactive and preventive safety approach in ensuring a safe and incident-free working environment. Both emphasized that while safety is created in cooperation of all parties, every individual must demonstrate through their behavior that safety always comes first.   ​  

To move words into actions and to remind how “it all starts with me”, all the participants made their safety promise at the end of the event. 

“The event received very positive feedback from the participants. People were actively collaborating to take safety forward, and a special thanks was given to the virtual safety walk and the virtual group work. A development topic for the future is to give more room for the contractor presentations. It was great to hear that our customer considered the event a success. This provides us a great basis for planning the future events,” says Suvi Reinikka, Global Category Manager, Valmet.