From amongst the record 30 Queensland entries that were submitted for this year’s Cement Concrete Aggregates Australia (CCAA) Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Awards, Holcim Australia and Wagners Cement were selected to receive the program’s top honours.
{{image2-a:r-w:200}}At a recent industry dinner in Brisbane, the Health and Safety Innovation Award was presented to Holcim Australia for the design and introduction of a sled that could be safely lowered into a quarry screen for maintenance and screen deck change-outs.
“Holcim would like to thank the CCAA for recognising our innovation of the screen change safety sled at Mount Cordelia quarry,” Holcim Australia senior safety advisor Robyn Pass said.
“Since its inception, the screen change sled has become a welcome addition to managing screen change activities on-site as well as reducing the likelihood of manual handling injuries, working at heights safely and reducing screen change-out times.”
Wagners Cement won the Environmental Innovation Award for the installation of a vertical roller mill that reduced electrical energy consumption by 35 per cent during general purpose cement production. The roller mill additionally increased the cement production rate and provided further electricity savings by operating during off-peak periods.
Holcim Australia also received a high commendation in the environmental innovation category for the stormwater handling system it implemented at its Mooloolah sand plant, while Sunstate Cement was highly commended in the health and safety innovation category for its implementation of an employee-driven safety program.
Lessons for industry
Commenting on the awards, CCAA Queensland director Aaron Johnstone said, “There are a lot of great lessons to emerge from the innovations and programs championed in these awards – not just for our industry, but for other industries right across Queensland.
“Over 130 entries have been received for these awards since they commenced in Queensland in 2011. It shows what great work our industry is doing on environmental and safety management, as well as working with their local communities.”
The two innovation award winners will be considered for the national EHS Awards, which will be presented at next year’s Construction Materials Industry Conference in Melbourne.
The winners
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