Shanks achieves 8% reduction in accidents

Published yesterday (June 17), the report shows that the reportable accident rate in 2013 of the Group was 2,400 per 100,000 employees. Reportable accidents are defined as those where an employee accident results in an absence of more than three days.

It states that the rate has improved by more than 20% since 2009 and that the company is on course to meet its 25% target reduction in reportable accidents by 2015. Furthermore, the days lost to absence per accident reduced by 25% over the year.

According to the report, the improved health and safety figures follow Shanks re-shaping of its Group Health & Safety Committee, which has introduced a range of new guidelines on the likes of mobile phone use and non-permanent worker induction.

Last year, Shanks also introduced a new traffic safety initiative, improved its safety measurement and launched a Group-wide safety award, which was won by Dutch-based subsidiary Reym. Next year, the Group is focusing on fire prevention and employee engagement in safety issues.

In addition, the report also gives an overview of the firms waste and recycling performance during 2012/13 and shows that it has reduced the amount of waste it sends to landfill in the UK from 0.79 million tonnes in 2011/12 to 0.64 million tonnes over the last year.

Shanks also says it has achieved 1.21 million tonnes of carbon avoidance through its recycling and recovery and is aiming to reach 1.3 million tonnes by 2015.

However, recycling rates at the Group as a whole have now stabilised at 78% following a one percentage point increase the previous year.

Shanks claims it is still on track to achieve its recycling rate target of 80% by April 2015, pointing to the gains made since its reported 70% recycling rate in 2009.

Financial performance

The improvement in Shanks safety performance and stabilisation of its recycling rate comes amid a difficult financial period for the company, which last month posted a pre-tax loss of 35.3 million in the year ending March 31 2013, citing very challenging solid waste markets (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, the new Corporate Responsibility Report highlights a resilient financial performance in 2012/13 with a lower than expected core net debt of 177.3 million. It also states that total costs savings of 17 million have been delivered across the Group, along with a headcount reduction of 310 full-time employees.

Peter Dilnot, Shanks Group chief executive, said: Given the ongoing macro-economic downturn, this year has been a challenging one for Shanks yet it has also been a transformational one. We have repositioned the Group for growth through a major reorganisation that focuses more on our customers.

We have also continued to make strides with our corporate responsibility goals. This includes investments in further recycling and green energy capabilities, meeting our annual safety targets, developing our team and building better relationships with local communities.