USA - AWEA takes first step in launching industry safety benchmarking

Benchmarking is a critical step toward measuring and ensuring the success of a company’s safety program. Until now, however, wind energy safety experts had nowhere to turn to for the industry’s safety statistical information.

To meet that need, AWEA and its Safety and Health Committee are collecting baseline safety data for the wind industry. The initial survey will collect data from all AWEA members interested in the effort; data will then be broken down by industry segment—i.e., for operations and maintenance, construction, and manufacturing.

To ensure the success of the data collection, the AWEA Safety and Health Committee requests that all AWEA members participate. The survey is open to AWEA members only. All participants will receive a CD and printed report. The CD contains applicable spreadsheets and a digital version of the printed report.

AWEA said that participation is easy and completely anonymous, with contributors entering the data into the survey via a secure Internet site. The information needed for the data collection can be obtained from OSHA 300 reports. Upon their entering the data, each company’s data is assigned a unique code to maintain confidentiality, and the report generated will be by company code, with individual companies the sole holders of their respective codes. Only those companies participating in the survey will receive a full copy of the report.

Access the survey from the AWEA website at http://awea.org/issues/health_safety/data_collection.cfm.

If members have any questions about the AWEA Safety Survey or the AWEA Safety and Health Committee, they should contact Michele Mihelic, manager of labor, health and safety policy.

For those who need specific assistance with entering data for the survey or concerning the data collection interface, a toll free assistance line is available: 800-745-4818.

Members can also contact Keith Williams, Intec, Inc., at 570-342-8464 with any questions. (Intec is a national safety and health publishing and consulting firm hired by AWEA to manage the data collection.) The data submission deadline is May 6.

For more information on this article or if you would like to know more about what www.windfair.us can offer, please do not hesitate to contact Errol Stryker (Sales Manager North America & International) at es@windfair.us

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