journey to zero safety

Journey to Zero

Protect healthcare workers from becoming patients

Journey to zero healthcare worker injuries | stryker, invest in your staff. deliver for your patients..

The Journey to Zero program can help create a culture of safety that benefits your patients, nurses, and your organization. The program offers products and services to help improve safe patient handling and nurse safety while addressing staffing issues.

Building a culture of safety starts with reducing injury risk. Our goal is to achieve zero harm for healthcare workers – which helps improve retention rates and outcomes and makes hospitals a safer place for everyone.

The mission of the Journey to Zero program

Real stories about the importance of nurse safety, why aren’t we protecting our healthcare workers, services and products.

The Journey to Zero program includes customized services and specialized assistive devices to help reduce the risk of injury and improve outcomes.

Assessments and benchmarking

Prior to implementation, your dedicated sales representative will work with staff to accurately define current practices and determine goals.

Ongoing education and leadership workshops

In addition to product demonstrations, we offer educational opportunities to help staff gain knowledge and skills on a variety of topics.

Utilization and outcome tracking

Post-implementation, we’ll help you assess your utilization rates and patient outcomes, and track your return on investment.

Sage AirTAP LC Lift Compatible Patient Repositioning System

Advancing mobility with convenience and confidence

Sage Prevalon AirTAP Patient Repositioning System

Safe positioning for healthcare workers and patients

Sage Prevalon Turn and Position System (TAP) 2.0

Turn and position patients safely and reduce the risk factors for skin injury

Sage Prevalon Mobile Air Transfer System (MATS)

Safely and easily transfer patients

Sage Prevalon Seated Positioning System (SPS)

Promote early patient mobility and reduce risk factors for injury

Looking for solutions for the operating room? Visit  SafeOR.com .

Pain shouldn’t be part of the job

Healthcare is experiencing a nursing crisis. The national nursing shortage has put frontline workers at risk for injury while they struggle to deliver patient care. Many are leaving the profession and those years of wisdom can’t be replaced. A lack of workplace safety for nurses can directly impact patient outcomes.

1.8 tons is lifted by the average nurse every day 1

52% of nurses suffer chronic back pain according to an ANA survey 2

36% of hospitals reported an RN vacancy rate exceeding 10% 3

48% of caregiver injuries are caused by overexertion or bodily reaction often related to patient handling 4

Start your Journey to Zero today

Fill out the form for more information.

Sage Contact information

Journey to Zero brochure

Pressure injury and safe patient handling solutions brochure

Sage AirTAP LC brochure

Safe patient handling and mobility brochure

Safe patient handling and pressure injury brochure

Safe care during lateral transfers brochure

References: 1. American Nurses Association, Position Statement: Safe Patient Handling Movement. Retrieved from http://nursingworld.org/DocumentVault/GOVA/Federal/Federal-Issues/SPHM.html. Accessed July 19, 2017 2. American Nurse Today, Special Report: Preventing Patient-Handling Injuries in Nurses, 2016;11(5):37-44. 3. 2021 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report, Nursing Solutions, Inc. March, 2021. 4. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Worker Safety in Your Hospital brochure, 2013.

Zero healthcare worker injuries and zero doubt messages are not guarantees and are aspirational in nature.

SAGE-PVN-WEB-498450_REV-0_en_us

Project ZERO

Building a Safer Tomorrow: A Partnership for Zero Harm

Project ZERO represents our collective efforts with healthcare organizations around the world to implement evidence-based practices to eliminate preventable patient harm. In addition to providing blueprints, we empower healthcare organizations with the implementation science-based guidelines, encouraging clinicians to adopt the necessary steps to foster safety.

For over a decade, we have been working toward our vision of a healthcare system with ZERO patient harm. Project ZERO is designed to reinforce and reignite our mission to spread actionable evidence-based practices that can be integrated within healthcare systems worldwide with the aim of eliminating harm. In this video, 39 globally recognized thought leaders in patient safety, from patient advocates to healthcare administrators and medical technology executives, share their experiences and ideas on how we can create a culture of ZERO harm within healthcare organizations.

One message that was reiterated throughout is the need to engage with patients and patient groups representing those who have been harmed so that healthcare systems are designed around the needs of patients and their families at every stage. The video also addresses the reality that we cannot truly push for ZERO until there is full transparency in healthcare data. We still do not have an accurate figure for the full number of preventable deaths that occur in hospitals every year, but technologies such as artificial intelligence can help improve transparency through the mining of electronic health records.

Zero Harm Hospitals

Success Stories

Baylor Scott & White Health

The largest nonprofit healthcare system in Texas, Baylor Scott & White Health includes 51 hospitals, more than 800 patient care sites, more than 7,300 active physicians, and over 49,000 employees. Baylor Scott & White Health was born from the 2013 combination of Baylor Health Care System and Scott & White Healthcare.

Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC)

A pediatric healthcare system based in Orange County, California, Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) is a leading regional destination for children’s health. CHOC includes hospitals in Orange and Mission Viejo and a regional network of primary and specialty care clinics serving children and families in four counties.

CHRISTUS Muguerza

CHRISTUS Muguerza spans more than 25 hospitals, clinics, and health centers throughout Mexico, encompassing over 6,000 medical specialists in over 300 specialties and treatments to offer comprehensive care to families.

Clínica Anglo Americana

Clínica Anglo Americana (British American Clinic) is a leader in private medical care in Lima, Peru. The hospital has bilingual (Spanish-English) medical and administrative personnel who provide assistance during every step of the patient’s stay.

Hospital Español

Founded in 1842, Hospital Español is a 400-bed hospital located in Mexico City. Its 19-building campus includes more than 30 different specialty programs and is committed to clinical practice and education.

Hospital Los Cabos

Hospital Los Cabos is a private healthcare provider that supports the health needs of patients in Los Cabos, Mexico, and surrounding towns, offering medical and surgical services with accessibility 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Sistema de Salud GTO

Sistema de Salud GTO is a decentralized public health service committed to meeting the healthcare needs of the Mexican State of Guanajuato. Its services are accessed through more than 630 medical units in the 46 municipalities of Guanajuato.

Star Médica

Founded in 2000, Hospitales Star Médica is a private healthcare provider with hospitals and clinics throughout Mexico. Its VIVO family of hospitals located in Jardín Bicentenario and Ciudad Azteca seek to expand services to different sectors of Mexico’s population.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, UPMC is a global healthcare provider and insurer with more than 95,000 employees (including more than 5,000 physicians), 40 hospitals, and 800 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland, as well as in Ireland, Italy, and around the world.

The Journey to ZERO

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Each day you walk into the frontlines...

...relentlessly caring for your patients.

In a fast-paced environment littered with risks and hazards, you continue to rise and sacrifice your own wellness and safety to stay committed to your duty.

Your dedication and devotion to the welfare of others is the inspiration behind our drive to create solutions that improve your safety.

“If we’re not going to commit to zero harm now, then when? And if we’re not going to do it, who will do it?… If not us, then who? ”

– Mark Chassin, CEO Joint Commission 7

At Stryker we have had the privilege to partner with you for decades.

Through this, we observed the risks, challenges and unintended outcomes you encounter in the operating room.

We champion technologies that are designed to be a safeguard. As your trusted partner, we support your culture of safety measures and quality management by prioritizing zero harm.

You deserve to have zero doubt and total peace of mind knowing your operating room is safe for all patients, surgeons and nurses.

The journey to zero has been decades in the making.

We are guided by a strong commitment to build and emphasize a culture of safety. And together, we are on the journey to zero harm – for both caregivers and patients.

Together, our goal is zero™.

“Zero is possible. Zero harm is an achievable goal. Healthcare organizations give a lot of reasons for why they don’t want to commit to the goal of zero harm. But I have to say, if you are satisfied with just a couple percent better - how many patients is it okay if they suffer preventable infections. I think the only acceptable answer is zero. If we’re not going to commit to zero now - then when? And if we’re not going to do it, who will do it? If not us, then who?”

– Mark Chassin, CEO Joint Commission 7 (Citation source: 4:54-6:05)

You are at the heart of what we do and why we innovate.

We safeguard caregivers so you can bolster your operating rooms, reinforce your processes and protect your patients.

We are here to collaborate with you to meet your education, implementation and standardization expectations.

This is just the beginning. And together, we can achieve zero harm — for both caregivers and patients.

Where is my facility on its culture of safety journey to zero harm?

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Becker's webinar on the prevention of retained surgical items, follow the journey, what would you like to learn about, follow our journey to zero, see our latest stories @strykerfornurses.

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1. Hill D, O’Neill J, Powell R, Oliver D. Surgical Smoke - a health hazard in the operating theatre. A study to quantify exposure and a survey of the use of smoke extractor systems in UK plastic surgery units. Journ Plas Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2012; 65(7): 911-6. 2. Eisler, P. “What Surgeons Leave Behind Costs Some Patients Dearly.” USA TODAY. March 8, 2013. 3. Patel, R. “Findings of a Comparative analysis of Operating Room Fluid Waste Removal at Hospital for Special Surgery: A Randomized Study Comparing the Stryker Neptune Waste Management System to Suction Canisters.” 4.  Simmons, R. et al. “Nipple Sparing Mastectomy and the Advent of an Enabling Surgical Illumination. 5. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html . Accessed July 2017 ‍

6. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2011-123/pdfs/2011-123.pdf?s_cid=3ni7d2X_NSC_June2016#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Bureau,per%2010%2C000%20em%2D%20ployees ). Accessed June 8 2020 7. https://www.jointcommission.org/performance-improvement/joint-commission/leading-the-way-to-zero/zero-patient-harm-is-achievable/ 8. Andreasson S, Mahteme H, Sahlberg B, Anundi H. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Electrocautery Smoke during Peritonectomy Procedures. Journal of Environmental and Public Health. 2012: 1-6 ‍ 9. https://www.feedtrail.com/general/newly-released-holliblu-and-feedtrail-covid-19-nurse-survey-has-finger-on-the-pulse-of-nursing-professionals-nationwide-as-featured-in-nbc-nightly-news-with-stephanie-gosk/ Zero splash and spills, zero airborne contaminants, zero smoke, zero retained surgical sponges, zero blind spots, zero trips & falls, zero drug diversion, and zero doubt messages are not guarantees and are aspirational in nature.

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• Halliburton
• Sustainability
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Health and Safety

Safety is a Halliburton core value, which means that keeping our employees and contractors healthy and out of harm's way is our first priority. It is the only priority that takes precedence over solving our customers' operational challenges. We have established extensive, long-term safety programs and processes at Halliburton to ensure safety stays top-of-mind in everything we do. Our safety programs and processes are part of our Journey to ZERO and include Halliburton Critical Focus Areas, Life Rules, Stop Work Authority, Management of Change, Significant Incident Review, and Tiered Assurance. Please visit the Health, Safety, Environment, and SQ section on our website for more information.

Training and Development

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Human Rights

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Our Occupational Safety - Journey to ZERO Sustainability Commitment

• Target outperforming total recordable incident rate and lost-time incident rate in the International Association of Drilling Contractors sector benchmarking. 

• Achieve HSE training compliance >95%, driver competency >95%, and 100% completion of our annual Journey to ZERO strategic objectives.

Journey to ZERO

At Halliburton, Journey to ZERO is our vision to achieve ZERO safety incidents, ZERO environmental incidents, and ZERO non-productive time — every day, on every job.

The guiding principles below support and enable our Journey to ZERO progress. While specific focus areas evolve annually, these principles remain consistent each year:

• Oversight from the Board of Directors' HSE Committee
• Execution and robustness of the Halliburton Management System
• Training and education
• Identification and communication of personal and process safety risks
• Commitment to continuous process improvement
• Verification of our HSE and SQ performance

Risk Management

In 2022, each of the product lines built on our 2021 improvements to the Company's risk-management processes by expanding the content and utilization of the digital risk-assessment platform released in Q4 2021. This was supported by a new Risk Management Planning training module focused on job planning risk assessments. 94% of personnel assigned this module completed it during 2022.

Critical Focus Areas

Over the past 10 years, we have made tremendous progress in reducing total recordable injury rates. We have also made improvements toward reducing significant incidents; however, opportunity still exists to reduce the potential for serious and life-altering events. In 2022, we assessed our primary scorecard metrics and found an opportunity to bring our highest potential personal and process safety incidents to the forefront.

Our Critical Focus Areas (CFA) present the highest potential for process safety risks. CFA incidents have potential to result in catastrophic loss involving groups of people, whole processes, and the communities where we work. We mitigate these risks with our robust processes and systems as defined in our HMS. In addition to highlighting these on the frontpage scorecard in 2022, we updated our CFA supporting documents in HMS and published a new CFA video series. These videos featured product line vice presidents and geography product line leaders reinforcing why CFA awareness is vitally important to their business and methods for preventing potentially devastating impacts. Product line country or area teams utilized these videos to facilitate a series of extended safety conversations about how a given CFA relates to local activities, how the team uses HMS CFA one sheets and critical thinking to recognize and prevent CFA process safety events, and how we prepare for and respond to worst case scenario events to ensure personnel safety. The CFA video series had over 7,000 views in the second half of 2022.

Halliburton Critical Focus Areas:

• Well Barriers: Manage well barriers to prevent uncontained release of formation fluids
• Hydrocarbons to Surface: Control the well to prevent unintended flow to the surface
• Pressure Control: Control pressurized systems at all times
• Well Proximity: Plan and maintain non-intersecting drilling trajectories to avoid a collision
• Radiation and Explosives: Adhere to global and local regulatory safety requirements at all times

Leadership Visits

Our 2022 scorecard assessment also highlighted leadership visits as the primary leading indicator to reinforce desired behaviors and outcomes. As travel reopened in 2022, our leadership teams were able to resume field workshop and customer job site visits. This aligned with the introduction of a leading indicator that measures monthly operational leadership visit execution. Leadership visits are focused on engagement with frontline employees to ensure processes are working as intended and to gather process improvement feedback. Management Process Execution Assurance (MPEA) is a checklist tool that provides leadership with a question set designed to facilitate frontline conversations about the highest risk tasks and processes. In 2022, our product lines and Global HSE/SQ team conducted a systematic review of critical process risks and HSE/SQ program findings and refreshed the MPEA checklist question sets. This resulted in the creation of new product line-specific questions and refreshed critical HSE program questions with simplified terminology designed to foster two-way dialogue. During 2022, we improved by 256% in monthly leadership visits utilizing the updated checklists.

Incident Investigations

Learning from incidents with the potential for serious or life altering results remains a critical part of our Journey to ZERO. In 2022, we expanded our investigation training curricula to differentiate event investigation facilitators, investigation training facilitators, and subject matter experts. Within the investigation training content, we included a new Fair Outcome Model assessment for investigations that identify where our processes were not followed as intended. The Fair Outcome Model assessment allows for better application of our human performance principles when we assess what led to process variation. The assessment takes a holistic view of individual and supervisory behaviors to identify potential underlying conditions or systematic issues. To support this process improvement, and in collaboration with Human Resources, the Company hosted a series of Fair Outcome Model training sessions both globally and in each region. We also established monthly global investigation community calls to further collaboration and sharing of lessons learned across the regions.

Countries with API Q1-certified facilities in 2022

API Q1-certified facilities in 2022

Countries with API Q2-certified facilities in 2022

API Q2-certified facilities in 2022

Sustainability means serving our customers, employees, stakeholders, and communities in an environmentally, socially, and ethically responsible way.

Good corporate governance plays a vital role in building trust with our shareholders, customers, and employees.                                                                                                           

Environmental

Providing customers with safe, reliable, and efficient products and services is the core of our business.                                                

Table of Contents

The goal must be zero accidents, our five-fold safety formula, is zero accidents possible, the journey to zero.

Accidents are preventable and following these tips will help you reach the goal of zero workplace accidents.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right.” – Henry Ford

When I believed zero accidents was not possible, it was based on forty-one years of history with our factory. I was the safety officer for the world’s largest fluorescent light factory. It was a twenty-four-hour operation with 500 employees working with glass, high-speed equipment, and fire.

What I did not understand at the time was the power that can be harnessed when management and the workforce commit to safety. We had never in the plant’s history made a united commitment to protect each other: to establish safety as our number one priority and create a safety culture .

In 2009 we had a 50% reduction in OSHA recordable accidents and 75% in lost time accidents. In 2010 we continued to improve and saw one entire shift go the full year with no OSHA recordable accidents, and then a large department did the same, and another. They had proven to all of us that a zero accident was possible. I did some digging and found we had employees with over thirty years of safe work history!

We made race car safety t-shirts that had our safety slogan, “The Journey to Zero.” Our target each year was to reduce accidents by a set percentage over the previous year. But our goal was now: Zero Accidents!

On signs and bulletin boards throughout the factory you would see:

• Our Safety Target for this year is less than_____ OSHA RECORDABLE ACCIDENTS
• Our Safety Goal is ZERO OSHA RECORDABLE ACCIDENTS

The “targets” served as our incremental improvements on our journey to zero, like mile markers while running a marathon. Achieving targets gave us something to celebrate.

How many work-related injuries is an acceptable amount? When you think about it, the goal must be zero. When management and the workforce focus on making safety number one, amazing things happen. We become more aware of unsafe conditions and unsafe behavior. Like a light bulb vs. a laser, we gain intensity and a stronger desire to keep everyone safe. Zero accidents were everyone’s safety goal. We (the hourly staff and management) came up with a five-fold safety formula.

We focused on identifying the five leading indicators of accidents:

• Snap Decisions
• Complacency
• Unsafe Behavior
• Unsafe Conditions

Our entire workforce was actively seeking them out.

When workers identified unsafe behaviors or unsafe conditions, they used our Kaizen system to create a safety project and address the safety issues. Between 2009 and 2012, we had over 2000 completed safety projects.

We trained all employees in basic hazard assessment . We wanted them to understand and recognize hazards in their work area. They needed to understand the controls in place to protect them from each hazard.

Now when someone asks me if zero accidents are possible, I say "yes." Henry Ford had it right. When we changed our belief and embraced safety, we saw that zero accidents was possible.

What do you think? Are zero accidents possible? What do your management team and workforce believe? Based on experience, I can now say that zero accidents are possible.

Make Zero Accidents your goal. It begins with belief. Henry Ford had it right. If we applied Henry’s belief to worker safety, it would go like this:

“If you think you can achieve zero accidents, or believe you can’t achieve zero accidents – you're right.”

What do you believe?

Related Terms

• Accident Investigation
• Accident Prevention
• Accident Rate
• Accident Causation
• Total Loss Approach
• Safety Slogans
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Safety of Workers
• Safety Survey

Written by Bryan McWhorter | Lead Safety Advisor, Author, Writer, Speaker

Bryan McWhorter is a safety professional with eight years of experience in driving and teaching safety. Bryan gained his knowledge and experience as the safety officer and Senior Trainer for Philips Lighting. Philips is a strong health and well-being company that promotes a safety first culture.

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Safety culture: A journey to zero

Interprofessional collaboration drives culture change..

• To effectively eradicate serious patient harm, an organization needs to aspire to be a high-reliability organization (HRO) by cultivating and sustaining a culture of safety.
• An HRO demonstrates dissatisfaction with the current level of safety and strives for a goal of zero serious patient harm.

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SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Health, Safety and Risk

An investigation into the effectiveness of “Journey to Zero” programs

October 15, 2021 by Admin 5 Comments

Setting goals and measuring performance – an investigation into the effectiveness of “Journey to Zero” programs

By Karoly Ban Matei – First published here

I have collected the data for organization A with their consent. To say thank you, I have sent them a copy of the report. To my surprise, none of the senior managers did acknowledge receiving it or asked any questions about the results or methodology.

Executive Summary

The goal-setting theory is considered one of the most important management theories, and this essay discusses if setting a goal of zero injuries has produced the expected results.

Journey to Zero (JT0) programs have been promoted and pushed down the supply chain, and, for this reason, the study compares the industry as a whole, one of its major players and a smaller supplier down the supply chain that performs work for the major player.

The most common finding across the study subjects is that, at a first sight, their safety record constantly improved, a fact generally attributable to JT0 programs. However, this data is generally self-reported and the criteria for reporting are set by the organizations themselves, making the validity of the data questionable. For all other industries, a direct correlation between the number of recordable injuries and fatalities exists, with the notable exception of O&G.  Since fatality rates are substantially more reliable and using the ratio between recordable injuries and fatalities common to other industries, as well as other available data, it has been concluded that, indeed, the self-reported data is inaccurate. All subjects have under-reported injuries to show an improved safety record.

In summary, it has been shown that JT0 programs are conducive to hiding or ignoring recordable injuries, and the existence of such a program is not correlated to an improved safety record. Additionally, by hiding and ignoring injuries, JT0’s are detrimental to continuous learning. A lack of awareness about past their own incident history leads to unrealistic goals.

The O&G industry should abandon JT0 programs and slogans (for more about slogans, please see my article about them here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/drop-safety-slogan-embrace-learning-karoly-ban-matei/ ) and focus on leading indicators and continuous learning. The regulatory body should be reframed, to standardize reporting and incentivize organizations to continuously improve.

While this study focused on the O&G industry and the organizations gravitating around this industry, some findings could be generic to all industries and further study is recommended.

Project Statement

Project topic.

From its early inception, the oil and gas (O&G) industry in North America had a poor reputation for health safety and environment, but it went unaddressed for a long time (Total Safety, 2019). With the advent of high volume hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, steam-assisted gravitational drainage and surface exploitation of oil sands, its importance in the US and Canadian economy grew dramatically, and its health and safety record started to get attention.

To improve its image and record, the O&G employers in Canada organized themselves in the Oil Sands Safety Association, OSSA (Energy Safety Canada as of 2018), and started to promote occupational health and safety training and programs. One of the most important developments was Organization B Energy’s “Journey to Zero” a program that all OSSA participants embraced under different names, and which stated that all accidents are preventable. Organizations working in the oil sands had to embrace this philosophy in order to work in the O&G industry.

This seemed to produce results as their injury rate continuously declined in the last 10 years (BLS, 2014; Halliburton, 2019; Organization B,2019), to a level lower than the construction industry. However, according to Witter et al (2015) and BLS (2014), the industry fatality rate is 2.5 times higher than the construction industry and 7 times higher than the general industry.

Organization A, due to its ties with the O&G sector, and a shared belief system developed through years-long cooperation with the major players in the industry, embraced this program under the name “Target Zero” and, according to Organization A’s internal injury statistics, its record also seemed to improve.

Purpose of the research

Under the assumption that a goal is a target we hope to reach before too long (Senge et al, 1994), the purpose of the research is to analyze if setting a zero injuries goal is a good leadership practice and if this is conducive to reducing the number and severity of workplace injuries. Based on these findings, the research will provide recommendations for the adoption, rejection or improvement of zero injury programs.

Research methodology

Though originally as a comparative analysis of the oil and gas (O&G) industry and Organization A approach to the JT0 programs, as common with the holistic approach the research shifted to a larger scope (Yin, 2014). The research method is a multiple case study, including the industry, Organization B and Organization A.

Organization B, a large O&G player in Canada, frequently awards work to Organization A, so including Organization B in the study increases the number of cases and supports the case for literal replication (Yin, 2014).

Additionally, the relationships between the industry and a major player (Organization B) and the larger player and Organization A, further supports literal replication with predictable similar results (Yin, 2014), and shows how the JT0 programs, slogans and ideology trickled down the supply chain.

It has been considered that the three replications and the other examples provided in the literature review are sufficient to make the case since the case study is not excessively complex (Yin, 2014) and does not require a precise quantification of the relationships.

Finally, a multi-case study based on literal replication has been selected because, as seen in the literature review, it seems that in recent times researchers and practitioners seem to agree (Yin, 2014) that zero injury programs are not producing the expected results (Quilley, 2018).  The case study intends to verify this assumption and uncover why such an ethically positive goal repeatedly and constantly resulted in failure.

Data collection

Each case (Industry, Organization B, Organization A) will be presented separately (Yin, 2014); the tiered approach reveals an interesting aspect: despite these programs being pushed from the top of the supply chain down, data availability, quality and visibility is scarce at the top (industry) and increases towards the bottom (Organization A).

All data used in the case study is secondary data, to minimize the time and resources needed for completion (Vartanian, 2011, cited by Saunders, Lewis & Tornhill, 2016). 

Most case data is multiple source longitudinal data available through industry and government statistics, while a limited amount of text data has been collected and compiled from internal databases and newspapers (Saunders, Lewis & Tornhill, 2016).

Industry data:

As the number of players in the Canadian O&G market is relatively small and dominated by US and international shareholders (Shrivastastava & Stefanick, 2015), the secondary quantitative data (compiled) for the O&G industry has been sourced from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, 2017), which is available online. Additional data has been sourced from ISNetWorld (2019a and 2019b), a major statistics and qualification portal used by O&G companies.

Organization B data:

Secondary quantitative (compiled) data for Organization B Energy has been obtained from the following sources:

• Information self-published by Organization B. 
• Alberta Labor website (Alberta Labor, 2019) – longitudinal data on the largest Workers Compensation Board (WCB) account Organization B Energy maintained in Alberta.
• Various text data from 2013-2019 local publications.

Organization A data:

Alberta Labor website (Alberta Labor, 2019) – secondary data on the two Workers Compensation Board (WCB) Accounts Organization A maintains in Alberta.

• WCB account summaries (WCB, 2019).
• Internal annual injury statistics (compiled data)
• Third-party audit (Name withheld, 2019).

Literature review

What is journey to zero (jt0).

Journey to Zero is an artificial construct, similar in concepts and values with the program with the same name launched by Organization B Energy (Organization B, 2019) and reproduced or adapted by most O&G companies in the US and Canada, that states that all injuries are preventable. Furthermore, contractors working for the O&G companies have to subscribe to this idea and demonstrate a near-perfect safety record to be allowed to bid and win contracts for the O&G companies. The O&G sector has defined safety as the absence of accidents and rates its contractor on lagging indicators. (Barnetson & Foster, 2016). Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy (2015) list zero recordable and lost time injuries as possible organizational goals.

Origins of JT0

It is unclear when the first JT0 program appeared, but Clements (2005) notes that Dollard was discussing the demoralizing effects of zero goals as early as 1939, and more recently Edward Deming analyzed the efficiency of zero-goal practices in his 1986 edition of the Out of the Crisis.

In the O&G industry, JT0 programs appeared in early 2000 and Organization A’s first “Target Zero” branded documents appeared circa 2006. The elevation to prominence of the JT0 programs coincides with the poor O&G health and safety performance coming under public scrutiny. Arguably, at least from this perspective, JT0 programs are an offshoot of the corporate social responsibility, these organizations not willing to appear shunning their moral responsibility towards their internal stakeholders, their employees (Gorny, 2014).

The theory and practice of JT0

Judging by the reducing rate of injuries reported by the O&G companies and several studies (Hinze & Wilson, 2000), it seems that while not reaching zero injuries the JT0 programs are still conducive to safety performance improvement. 

Marilatt (2015) points out that the proponents of the zero injuries argue that a zero goal is the only ethically justifiable goal, anything different meaning that companies accept injuring workers as the cost of doing business. From this perspective, a JT0 program is not only justifiable but should be embraced as best practice by all organizations (Roughton, Crowley & Firestone, 1999).  In theory, zero injuries seems a great representation for ethical leadership: doing “the best for the greatest number of people”, following the “highest principle of duty” and abiding by the golden rule of doing “what you want others to do to you” (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2015).

Robert Krzywicki, global practice leader for employee safety at DuPont Sustainable Solutions (EHS Today, 2013), agrees and says that DuPont, a company of more than 60,000 employees and dozens of plants, has been striving for zero injuries for over 200 years and that some plants have achieved zero for extended periods of time.

Halliburton has its own JT0 program and states on its website (2019) that all unplanned events can be prevented and that there are many areas within Halliburton where this is happening now.

And practice…

While Krzywicki states that some of their plants have reached zero, the reality is that the vast majority of their plants have not, even for short periods of time, despite DuPont’s 200 years focus on process improvement, proving that the system is not replicable and zero results are likely a product of chance rather than a system that works (Clemens, 2005). Despite Krzywicki’s claim, OSHA placed the organization in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program after the death of 4 employees at one of their Texas plants (OSHA News Release, July 6 2016).

Halliburton, the largest oilfield service company, despite its success claims, has the highest number of severe injuries in its industry group (Soraghan, 2017).

Organization B Energy, another proponent of the JT0 program (Organization B, 2019), appears in Alberta’s newspapers frequently with employee and contractor fatalities.

  This reality is not only placing a question mark on how success is measured and if zero is achievable, but also sends the message to their contractors that you can have injuries and fatalities and still claim a perfect record if you are creative with your recording.

A major obstacle in determining the success of JT0 programs is the lack of a common industry definition (Diggory, 2017; Simon, 2019). Therefore, each organization is free to define its own programs and success criteria, making any claim that the goal has been reached subjective. Soraghan (2017) points out that until 2015 employers were required to report to OSHA only fatalities and accidents where three or more employees were hospitalized, making most of the workplace injuries opaque to the government and the industry. 

The case of under-reporting

Marilatt (2015), Hollnagel, Wears and Braithwaite (2015) as well as Conklin (2012) concede that a zero goal incentivizes employees and employers to underreporting injury data. The problem is so prevalent that Richard E. Fairfax, OSHA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary (US Department of Labor, 2012), issued a memorandum to its regional administrators and whistleblowers program managers highlighting the extent and methods used by employers to suppress reporting.

The suppression of the reporting is, among others, conditioned by the fact that in the O&G industry the awarding of contracts is tied to the safety performance.  Since past results cannot be changed and performance cannot be improved fast enough to allow the companies to bid, the only way a company can survive is by lying (Johnson, 2012).  Deming (2000), speaking about zero targets, said: “Fear invites wrong figures. Bearers of bad news fare badly. To keep his job, anyone may present to his boss only good news “.

Under-reporting is obvious when comparing the self-reported injury rate, which is lower than the general industry, and the fatality rate, which is substantially higher than the general industry (Soragham, 2017; Witter et al, 2015). This statistic anomaly is in conflict with modern interpretations of Heinrich’s (1931) accident pyramid, which states that for a given company the number of injuries decreases as the severity increases. 

The state of JT0 today

While most O&G companies have policies stating that all injuries are preventable and zero injuries is an achievable target, only 45% of safety professionals and 35 percent of the workforce believe this is realistic (Ivensky, 2016), a view shared also by Sheratt (2014).

Diggory (2017) summarizes the state of JT0 programs considering that (for pipeline industry), zero injuries is rather an abstract concept, more akin to the ”pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”, a desirable but unlikely outcome.  He argues that for zero goals to be achievable, the O&G should be heavily regulated and investigated, similarly to the aviation industry and to openly share all their learning from accident investigations, which is not likely under the North American political climate and the lack of a common framework.  No major O&G company has claimed yet they have reached their target (Ivensky, 2016).

According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory, workplace safety is a hygiene factor and therefore a sine qua non for employee satisfaction and retention (Noe et al, 2017); Maslow considers security needs among basal needs, just above physiological needs, that if not satisfied would impede the employees attempting to satisfy higher-level needs that are desired and beneficial for the employer (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015).  As such, it comes as no surprise that employers have a vested interest to promote and aspire to an injury-free workplace.

While fatality rates for the O&G industry are certainly high, Wirfs-Brock (2014), Mason et al (2015) and others make the argument that the fatality rate is going down, despite the number of employees increasing during the boom periods. Though that is mathematically true, the variation is insignificant (BLS, 2017). What is lost is that when superimposing the fatality graph (BLS, 2019) and the oil price fluctuation graph (Macrotrends, 2019) we notice that the “best safety record” matches almost perfectly the periods of low oil prices, when employment in the industry decreased dramatically.

This suggests the reduced fatality rate has nothing to do with the JT0 and other safety improvement programs and is strictly correlated to low employment numbers (Klaiber ,2018; Shrivastastava  & Stefanick, 2015).

According to the BLS statistics (2017), the non-fatal injury rate of the O&G industry was 1.5, while the same rate for the construction industry was 3.1, statistically making the O&G safer than construction by a factor of 2. However, the BLS statistics (2017) fatal injuries rate for O&G is 12.9, while the construction fatality rate is 9.5, making O&G performance worse by a factor of 1.4.

This anomaly is further accentuated by the fact that, when arranged based on their non-fatal injury rate (Appendix 1), the industries list will be similar to the list resulted from arranging them based on the fatality rate (Appendix 2). This supports Heinrich’s (1931) and later researchers’ findings that there is a ratio between minor injuries, severe injuries and fatalities.

The O&G is the one notable exception, which is explained by a chronic under-reporting of injuries (Foster & Barnetson, 2016).  Using the same ratio of fatalities /injuries as in construction, we can calculate that the real injury rate for the O&G sector is around 4.2, one of the worst among all industries and certainly far from the stated goal, zero.

Furthermore, the real disparity is certainly higher, since there are 21 states where companies report to state agencies, and not to OSHA (Soragham, 2017). Though this is true also for the construction industry, among these 21 states there are some large US O&G producers, such as California, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming (Soragham, 2017). 

The  ISNetWorld statistics for 2017 (ISN Analytics, 2019a) show a Total Recordable injury Rate (TRIF) for NAICS code 211, O&G extraction, is 0.53, suggesting that zero is achievable. However, the fatality rate is 15.71, even higher than reported by BLS, underscoring the under-reporting problem noted above and the unreliability of self-reported data. 

The same database uses different codes for the O&G industry in Canada, making benchmarking impossible. Despite that, we can see the same low TRIF contrasting very high fatality records for some O&G sub-industries (ISN Analytics, 2019b).

Organization B

ISNet data for Organization B is not available – Organization B is one of the over 600  “hiring clients” operating on another similar platform, Avetta. As a “hiring client” they can see small contractors performance and set health and safety qualifications standards for these contractors, but the subcontractors cannot see Organization B’s performance.

According to self-reported performance (Organization B, 2019) it seems that the TRIF for the organization is very close to zero, allowing Organization B to claim that JT0 is coming to fruition.

This is contradicted by the Alberta Labor data, which shows a disabling injury rate 3-4 times higher than what Organization B’s reported TRIF (Alberta Labor, 2019). The difference has to be in reality even higher, since the disabling injury rate includes only lost time (LTI) and modified work injuries (MWI), but does not include medical aid (MA) injuries, which frequently are the most prevalent type.

The difference between the self-reported LTIF and the LTIF shown on Alberta Labor website (2019) is even higher.

It is also notable that 2016, a year characterized by low oil prices (Macrotrends, 2019), shows also a reduction in the injury rate, further strengthening the conclusion that apparent improvement in safety performance is credited to low employment rates in the O&G industry.

However, as shown below in the Organization A analysis, Alberta Labor, due to the limitations shown above, shows substantially fewer injuries that the WCB record, which is a better representation of the injuries for which an employee had to seek medical attention. For organizations such as Organization B, even that number (not available to third parties) could be gamed, because they have their own on-site medics and employees’ injuries do not appear in the public record.

Organization B does not publish any fatality data on its website, but Alberta Labor shows a number of fatalities in 2014.  Though later years show no fatalities for Organization B employees, its contractors working on Organization B sites sustained fatalities, supporting Barnetson’s (2010) claim that some companies subcontract hazardous work as a means of decreasing their own injury rate at the expense of their contractors. Gaille (2014) determined that 16% of all fatalities in the O&G industry are contractors working on O&G sites not operated by the company that pays them.

Organization A

According to self-reported performance Organization A’s TRIF (Organization A, 2019) averages around 1, which is a number good enough to keep the company on the bidder list for most major clients in the O&G industry. 

However, for a specific client, Organization A’s TRIF was still too high to be allowed to be awarded the contract (Company A, 2019). The client suggested Organization A only reports the injuries related to the scope of work to be executed. By ignoring the injuries from another side of the business, Organization A artificially reduced its injury rate.  After doing that, the contract was awarded to Organization A, reinforcing the idea that the industry knows and accepts the manipulation of injury data and plays the “zero injuries” game with full knowledge of the system being gamed by their subcontractors.  From this perspective, we can also argue this is a classical example of destructive leadership, where the job got done at the expense of ethics, and the need to get the job done offers the moral justification to tip the scale (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2015).

This shows that JT0 programs, designed to improve safety performance, only make data less accurate (Barnetson, 2010).

Alberta Labor (2019) numbers are aligned with Organization A’s internal reporting, or lower, because, as stated above, Alberta Labor only includes in its statistics MWI and LTI.  This is obvious from the discrepancy between these numbers and the WCB recorded injuries for Organization A (WCB, 2019), where only one year, 2015, shows an alignment between WCB, Alberta Labor and self-reported data. For all other years researched, it appears that the self-reported injury numbers and rates have been generally halved when compared to WCB numbers, in order to maintain a low TRIF and keep the organization competitive when bidding for contracts. A third party auditor stated that the organization has improperly categorized recordable injuries as non-recordable.

A motivator for not including all the injuries that appear in the WCB record into the self-reported numbers is, for all organizations, not only Organization A, the “perpetuation of the careless worker myth” (Barnetson, 2010) by the Government of Alberta and other regulatory bodies. The organizations feel it would be unjust to lose bidding opportunities because of workers’ carelessness, and, as such, accidents that are felt to be the worker’s fault are removed from the record. A third-party auditor (2019), in the review of Organization A’s incident investigations, concluded that in certain cases employees have been blamed for the accidents, likely explaining the removal of the injury from the records.

The auditor (2019) noted that though Organization A had a target zero goal, no other health and safety corporate goals and supporting programs have been identified, highlighting the major shortcoming of TJ0 programs – most of them are not programs, but mostly a leadership vision unsupported by leverage-able leading indicators. Real programs have not only ‘wildly important goals’, but also a strategy for execution with leverage-able leading indicators, visible scoreboards and a schedule of accountability (McChesney, Covey and Huling, 2012).

Finally, a quick look at Organization A and Organization B’s externally verifiable data shows that there is not a gradual progression towards zero, but that performance varies up or down from one year to another.  Fluctuations in oil and gas prices are one explanation for these swings (Klaiber ,2018; Shrivastastava  & Stefanick, 2015). The second explanation is that long term zero injury periods seem to be the result of simple randomness and not connected to the JT0 programs (Clemens, 2005).

Conclusions and recommendations

Conclusions.

Jimm Pitts of Northrop Grumman stated: “you begin with the end in mind… and then figure it out how to make it happen” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007).  It can be argued that the O&G industry always had the intent to achieve zero injuries, but failed to identify the means for doing this.

First, zero is a misleading goal, because: “the absence of something (injuries) is not proof of the existence of something else (safety). Zero does not mean an organization is safe, only that a specific event did not happen (Quilley, 2018), or it has not been reported.

Second, this failure may arise from the employer’s skewed frame of reference. Employers, such as Organization A or Organization B, invest in occupational health, expect a return on investment, and equate investments with being safe. Under these conditions, from the organization’s perspective, any accident can only be explained by blaming the employee. This ignores any improvements that could be made by the organizations. Alberta’s government “Stupid” and “Bloody Lucky” campaigns focus strictly on worker’s behaviour (Barnetson, 2010), reinforcing the employer’s opinion that only if the employees would be more careful incidents would not happen.

Third, the organization’s management is subject to role conflict (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015). While most organizations state that safety is their first priority, the reality is that management is responsible to shareholders for turning a profit (Noe et al, 2017). Arguably, the more we invest in safety, the safer we are, but also the less profitable, so a cost-benefit approach is often adopted by management (Foster & Barnetson, 2016). In a cost-leading strategy, frequently employed in O&G, controlling the costs, including safety costs, is a path to competitive advantage (Noe et al, 2017).

Finally, zero is not a SMART goal, as defined by Noe et al (2017). Zero is not specific, achieving “0” does not provide any direction on who should do what to get the result.  It is not measurable since we can’t track our progress toward reaching the goal.  It is not achievable since nobody has yet achieved zero injuries for an extended period of time (Ivensky, 2016).  It is relevant to the organization, but metrics do not drive performance in employees (Kouzes & Posner, 2007), because safety is a hygiene factor and is not motivating for employees (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2015).

More than anything else it is not timely; without a clear, achievable deadline there is no urgency for the organization or the employees to reach it (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2015). Leaders that are fully aware of the past substantially increase their time horizon for reaching the goal (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). The fact that many organizations do not know or acknowledge their real past performance might be the most important single contributor to management holding the view that JT0 programs will achieve expected results within a short timeframe (Senge et al, 1994).

Recommendations

The most important recommendation of this study can be best summarized by citing Deming (1986): “Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce asking for zero … Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes … belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the workforce”.  As such, the government and organizations should stop JT0 programs and associated slogans.

Susca (2019), further develops the idea that many accident causes are beyond employees’ control, suggesting that organizations focus their energy into identifying organization-wide system weaknesses. This approach should finally put to rest the myth of the “careless worker” and place the onus for employee safety on the organization.

JT0 programs are focused on the end result – zero injuries. This is a lagging indicator and its achievement or failure is confirmed at the end of the reporting period, transforming the organization into a spectator that has no ability to influence the outcome. To become a player, each organization needs to identify, collect and analyze meaningful leading indicators that can be leveraged to achieve lower injuries. This additional data will allow them to react to the variability inherent to work activities before accidents happen (Hollnagel, Wears & Braithwaithe, 2015). Generating, organizing and distributing knowledge is instrumental in becoming a learning organization (Waddell et al, 2017), which is essential for being proactive, and is indicative of better safety performance.

In masculine, individualistic, indulgent and short term oriented societies, such as the US and Canada (Hofstede Insights, 2019, annex 3), employees will hide injuries to conserve perfect performance and be rewarded for it. Organizations should stop rewarding perfect performance and reward proactive reporting to increase the organization’s opportunities to learn. Shifting to collective rewards would also increase internal accountability.

Regulatory bodies should standardize the most common leading indicators for the industry and normalize them (such as number of inspections/site, frequency of certification inspections/equipment, number of audits/year, etc) to create equal frames of reference among organizations. These bodies should externally audit these organizations, based on this set standard, make these audits public to be used as selection criteria in bidding processes, to eliminate data manipulation and make evaluations fair and easy.

Linking claims cost to insurance premiums creates incentives for employers to hide or under-report accidents (Barnetson, 2010). To eliminate the incentives for under-reporting, WCB insurance premiums should be set per industry and not based on individual performance, since performance pricing did not result in better performance (Barnetson, 2010).

Regulatory bodies should substantially increase the fines for willful safety violations, to ensure the fine is higher than the cost of compliance, thus enticing employers to comply proactively, not after recording an injury.

All injuries should be investigated with the participation of an external body, such as in aviation (Diggory, 2017), and the accident, findings and effective corrective actions should be published on an industry-wide platform to transform them in explicit knowledge and to help all organizations learn and continuously improve (Noe et al, 2017). Injury databases, such as WCB, Alberta Labor, etc, should be synchronized to eliminate data gaming by employers.

Having a Zero injury goal by itself it is not conducive to better safety performance and in the absence of a substantial leading indicators program, it is likely conducive to a poor safety climate that is inviting the hiding and underreporting of accidents, which can hinder organizational learning and continuous improvement. 

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Reader Interactions

Chiara Acciano says

October 15, 2021 at 10:05 AM

I’m wondering if any feelings of “shame” come into these “masculine, individualistic, indulgent and short term oriented societies” if they don’t “meet targets” – given how society pushes success in life as being accomplished in your job / work…change the narrative and you change what “success” looks like…

Rob Long says

October 15, 2021 at 10:35 AM

Chiara, any organisation that loves zero starts the process of brutalism, it can be the only trajectory from an ideology of absolutes framed for fallible people.

October 15, 2021 at 10:03 AM

Of course zero never remains a number or target but quickly becomes an ideology meshed in belief in the impossible. The global zero movement demonstrates this in their language and videos. Perfection is impossible, fallibility is real, zero is a delusion and safety perpetuates zero mythology which is a mental health disorder. As much as I admire this research, you can’t just take to zero with evidence-based data because it is a belief system not a science-based construct. No amount of demonstrated research like this will shift belief because belief/faith doesn’t need evidence to maintain its belief. Zero is infused with religious power and so is a cult.

Dave Paul says

October 15, 2021 at 9:08 AM

I am wondering of all the companies striving to “0- Zero”, how many actually have come close or achieved it. I do mean with legitimate data. I am sure there are those who come close to it who may have influenced the data by effectively managing their reporting numbers. So is the data correct? Is it actually possible, is it examined externally?

October 15, 2021 at 9:25 AM

Good question! Most cannot even define harm – imagine if they included mental health issues. Some choose to exclude contractor injury. How many “work from home” following an injury?

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• Book Launch – Everyday Social Resilience, Being in Risk
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• Workshops Dr Nippin Anand – Hong Kong, Singapore, Canberra, Melbourne
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• Global Conference in SPoR – 13-17 May 2024 – Canberra
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Journey to Zero-Harm: 4 Key Safety Management Processes to Continuously Improve

We were at a conference for safety leaders recently and one of the most important topics of discussion was ‘Building a Safety Culture not only for Zero-Incidents but also Zero-Harm’.

So, you may ask, what’s the difference?

The goal of ‘Zero Incidents’, sometimes called Zero Accident Vision (ZAV), is all about doing whatever it takes to eliminate accidents and safety incidents at the workplace. It revolves around building a safety culture that spreads across the organization. To truly achieve zero incidents, one must ensure all key safety management processes including documenting a robust safety policy, safety training, agile incident handling, proactive risk management, regular safety audits, inspections, and risk management workflows are robust.

To truly deliver on safety performance, one must have an engaged workforce that believes in taking the necessary precautions to be safety-first.

So, then, what’s ‘Zero Harm’? It’s something beyond just eliminating safety incidents. It is all about proactive risk management- eliminating risks quickly and effectively. It is about ensuring that nothing that harms people (workers, contractors, suppliers, anyone) or the environment is planned.

In this blog, we emphasize the importance of four key safety management processes that must be tightened and consistently made better to achieve ‘Zero Harm’.

Process #1 - Risk Assessments and Risk Mitigation

Earlier, we published a blog titled 'Risk Assessment Matrix to Proactively Improve Workplace Safety Efforts'. In the blog, we highlighted the importance of implementing a risk matrix that

• Provides safety leaders with a visual representation of the risks
• Helps them prioritize risk mitigation efforts, based level of risk and urgency
• Implement controls and check if they’re effective
• Use data at the core of all risk management decisions

DO THIS → If you’re working towards a vision of ‘zero harm’, a good first step is to spot gaps in your risk assessment and risk management workflow, and address those gaps.

Process #2 - Incident Management

In one of our eBooks titled ‘ Incident Management: A Comprehensive Guide for Safety Leaders ’ we wrote:

“To proactively reduce accidents and embrace a zero-harm vision: processes must be set to increase reporting of near-misses, safety observations, and minor injuries, while also proactively implementing risk mitigation actions after an incident.” 

One has to look at all safety data - near-misses, safety observations, incidents - holistically and use this to identify warning signs and precursors. The journey to zero harm revolves around identifying and acting on these early warning signs.

DO THIS → Implement an EHS tool with data at the core. Ensure the right people are looking at safety data and spotting insights from analytics. Spot the early warning signs and act!

Process #3 - Safety Inspections

A workplace is filled with several hazards that can cause injury or harm to the employee or damage other assets of the business. Perhaps, certain processes are bad for the environment. By conducting inspections periodically, businesses ensure the safety of their operations by identifying potential unsafe acts/conditions and taking corrective action.

This is captured in a Findings Report, which is shared with relevant stakeholders for further action to proactively address and eliminate hazards or mitigate the risks. A well-designed safety inspection process will enable the following:

• Inspections are used to proactively detect and eliminate unsafe conditions and unsafe acts
• It is a critical part of ongoing workplace monitoring
• Focused inspections are run to check specific aspects covering the following: People, Environment, Physical conditions, Machinery/Materials and Equipment

When inspection findings are documented and acted on, you’re well on your way to achieving better safety and zero harm.

DO THIS → Automate, streamline and run a data-driven safety inspection process. Plan corrective actions and close the loop on inspection findings.

Process #4 - Behavior-Based Safety

Unfortunately, the most common source of workplace injuries or accidents is ‘human error’. How do we minimize and eliminate this? How do we prevent workers from engaging in high-risk tasks without taking necessary precautions? How do we build a culture where safety training is taken seriously and workers/contractors truly embrace what they learn?

Often, workers end up with injuries or cause accidents, because they resort to shortcuts, are distracted, or operate machinery with overconfidence. The key is to schedule safety inspections that are dedicated to eliminating bad, risky behavior. Data from safety observations must be analyzed to see how human error and behavioral flaws caused it.

DO THIS → Identify and document unsafe acts by people. Document “behavior changes” needed to achieve zero harm.

Broadly speaking, steps must be taken to do the following:

• Train and communicate (about the criticality of better safety) with all employees, through proper channels.
• Hold team leads, plant heads, and other key stakeholders accountable for better safety and get them to build a safety-first culture. Talk about the vision to build a zero-harm culture.
• Reinforce and reward good behavior, and inspire other workers to follow suit.
• Employee participation lies at the core of better safety. The question to answer is - how do you keep your people across locations truly invested in the safety agenda of the organization?

As senior management leaders, one must walk the talk, and being out on the shop floor to promote "better safety" sends a strong signal of management commitment to workplace safety and catalyzes employees to act safely.

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"Vision Zero" for no traffic deaths has a long way to go in Massachusetts

By Kristina Rex

Updated on: March 28, 2024 / 10:19 PM EDT / CBS Boston

BOSTON - Imagine a world where Massachusetts has zero traffic deaths or serious injuries each year.

It's not easy to picture it – because right now, we're far off. In 2023, there were 2,735 traffic crashes that resulted in either death or serious injury in the state. That number was actually an improvement from 2022, when the state reached a peak of 2,923 crashes that were deadly or caused serious injury. 

The term "Vision Zero" made its way to the U.S. from Sweden more than a decade ago and has been a term used in Boston's transportation industry since it first launched here in 2015.

What is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is "a big, overarching goal to eliminate serious injuries and fatal crashes on roadways," explained Brendan Kearney of WalkMassachusetts. 

"It's really a change in philosophy, in terms of how we approach roadway design," added Mike Knodler, the Director of the UMass Transportation Center in Amherst. "We know human factor is a big part of [crashes] and we know humans are going to make mistakes, so given those two things, let's design a roadway system that recognizes that."

As described, Vision Zero is a multifaceted approach to road safety that includes education, enforcement, and improved car and roadway design with the goal of eliminating roadway fatalities.

However, it's not yet working. According to a CBS News investigation, traffic deaths are on the rise nationwide despite $2.4 billion spent federally on Vision Zero programs.

In Massachusetts, that spending number is around $53 million, and traffic deaths aren't on the rise – but have plateaued at high numbers, nowhere near zero. 

"Compared to other places around the U.S., we are doing pretty good," said Kearney. "We are not doing good though."

"We have a pediatric crash, where a kid is struck by a vehicle requiring an EMS response on an average of every four days in Boston," added Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston's Chief of Streets. In fact, a four-year-old girl was killed by a car in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood this week. 

Boston has been a leader in implementing changes to the roadways, like permanent bike lanes, extended sidewalks, and raised crosswalks. While the number of fatalities has not gone down, Franklin-Hodge says they have decreased drastically in places where these safety measures have gone into place – like Tremont Street in the South End, for example. "There's still more work to do," he said.

The town of Brookline is on the beginning of its "Vision Zero" journey. While Brookline has had a safe streets program for a number of years, it just began meetings with its Vision Zero Coalition, and will soon seek input from residents about dangerous hot spots as it comes up with a plan for town streets. "We will be having an interactive Web map for residents to input the locations where they just qualitatively don't feel safe," said Sam Downes, Brookline's Transportation Engineer helping run the program.

Vision Zero isn't only about safe streets for bicyclists and walkers – it's for drivers, too, and sometimes, that can mean narrowing streets down to one lane to forcibly reduce speeds. "Our goal is not congestion," explained Franklin-Hodge. "Our goal is for streets that are slow and steady. They can move people, but they can move them at reasonable speeds."

UMass driving simulator helps with safety improvements

Part of the research that can help with state – and national – roadway and car technology improvements happens right in our state, at the UMass Amherst Transportation Center, where faculty and student researchers develop studies using a driving simulator. 

"We can put people in somewhat potentially dangerous situations, but be able to study comprehension, behavior in a laboratory-controlled setting," said Director Mike Knodler. "So, before we try something out on the roadways, we can try it here in this virtual setting to have some confidence as to whether or not something is going to work before we put it on the road."

For example, the team at UMass first studied and developed the blinking yellow arrows we now see at traffic lights that signal to yield before a left turn. Recently, they received state data "that showed there's a huge safety pay off in terms of the implementation of the flashing yellow lights," Knodler explained. 

Currently, the group is testing out simulations with e-scooters. "A lot of the work we are doing will focus on things like complete streets, the emerging trends of things like e-bikes and e-scooters and different pedestrian crossing treatments sort of what those might look like in a real-world setting," he said.

Advocates for safer streets say they want to see cities and towns take more action rather than waiting for federal dollars to get streets safer. "Over 75% of those [pedestrian] crashes happen to local roadways, roads that are controlled by cities or towns," Kearney said. He encouraged municipalities to use their Chapter 90 funding to launch a Vision Zero program.

Kristina Rex is a reporter for WBZ-TV News.

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April 02, 2024 76 °F PBS Passport .st0{fill:#0A145A;} .st1{fill:#5680FF;} .st2{fill:#FFFFFF;} UH Search for: Search MENU CLOSE News & Information Features Hello Houston inDepth Topics Local News Statewide News Business Education News Energy & Environment Health & Science Immigration Politics Transportation All Stories >>> Arts & Culture Arts & Culture Main Classical Music Music Opera & Musical Theater Dance Visual Art Literature Theatre & Film Voices and Verses: A Poem-A-Day Series Awareness Hispanic Heritage Pride Month: Better Together! Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Black History Women’s History Education Programs & Podcasts Local Programs Party Politics Houston Matters with Craig Cohen I SEE U with Eddie Robinson Texas Standard UH 100 Years of Houston Bauer Business Focus Briefcase Engines of Our Ingenuity Health Matters UH Moment Features Dead and Buried Career Frontier Podcasts Below the Waterlines: Houston After Hurricane Harvey Party Politics Skyline Sessions Encore Houston All Podcasts >> About About Us Meet the Team Join the Team Contact Us Ethics and Standards Reports & Financials Press Room Support Membership Update Payment Method Upgrade Your Monthly Gift Give a Gift Membership Giving Programs Affinity Council Studio Society In Tempore Legacy Society Innovation Fund Volunteers Foundation Board Young Leaders Council Mission Ambassadors Donations Giving Opportunities Vehicle Donation Employee Match Program More Ways to Give Partnerships Corporate Sponsorship Listen Watch Donate Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Linkedin Mastodon googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1488818411584-0'); }); Traffic

Houston deemphasizing commitment to ‘vision zero’ traffic safety initiative under new mayor john whitmire.

A spokesperson for the mayor said Vision Zero, a nationwide movement that aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries, will be “one of many tools” utilized in transportation planning instead of the “sole determining factor for everything roadways.” According to the Vision Zero Network, the shift in philosophy could reverse the progress the city has made in traffic safety and hinder its ability to receive federal grant funding for infrastructure projects.

The City of Houston has been awarded more than $100 million in federal grant funding in recent years for transportation infrastructure projects aligned with the "Vision Zero" commitment it made in 2020 under then-Mayor Sylvester Turner. His stated goal was to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Houston by 2030 by prioritizing safety for motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and public transit users, largely through road redesigns that aim to reduce collisions as well as vehicle speeds.

The city has completed a handful of related street projects since then and has more in the works, and the effort has so far yielded a modest measure of success. Houston saw a small year-over-year decrease in traffic deaths and severe injuries in 2022 , and further declines during the first nine months of 2023, according to information released by Turner's office in December.

But now, under new Mayor John Whitmire, the city is deemphasizing Vision Zero. His spokesperson, Mary Benton, said in an email this week that whereas Vision Zero was "previously used as the sole determining factor for everything roadways," moving forward the initiative will be "one of many tools" the city utilizes in transportation planning.

A one-foot-in, one-foot-out approach does not align with the spirit of the effort, according to Tiffany Smith, the program manager for the nationwide Vision Zero Network, who said such a stance also could hinder Houston's chances of receiving future grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The federal agency has made its own pledge to Vision Zero and awarded Houston more than $28.8 million in 2022 through its Safe Streets and Roads for All program.

"They received funding because of how great their plan was and how robust their safety plan was going to be, and so I do think this scaling back will actually hinder them from being able to take advantage of the Safe Streets and Roads for All program," Smith said. "If they apply again, I think that would hurt them."

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which is part of the Department of Transportation, indicated in a statement that communities do not necessarily need to be committed to Vision Zero, which is a voluntary initiative adopted by municipalities and other governmental agencies, in order to qualify for safety-related grants. Applicants must meet the specific requirements and criteria associated with each grant funding opportunity, the FHWA said.

Since 2020, Houston also has received federal grant awards of $43.4 million for sidewalk improvements in the Gulfton and Kashmere Gardens communities, $21 million for a Telephone Road redesign and $10.1 million for pedestrian improvements on multiple thoroughfares.

“The safety of those both in and outside of vehicles is of paramount importance to the Federal Highway Administration,” the agency said in its statement.

Benton, who did not respond to follow-up questions seeking more details about the other transportation planning tools the city intends to use under Whitmire, said his administration believes "we will still be able to receive grants with a broader view on saving lives and providing safe options."

Along with potential financial implications, backing away from the Vision Zero commitment could reverse Houston's gains in roadway safety, according to LINK Houston executive director Gabe Cazares, whose organization advocates for equitable transportation options. Benton said earlier this month that a recent bikeway project on 11 th Street in the Heights area is among multiple street projects being reviewed for their effectiveness by Whitmire, who shortly after being sworn in this year decided to reverse a pedestrian safety initiative on part of Houston Avenue near downtown, because of concerns about how it was impacting traffic flow and emergency response times.

Meanwhile, while eight fewer people died on Houston streets last year compared to 2022, there was a total of 323 fatalities in 2023 along with 1,592 more serious injuries among vehicle drivers and passengers, pedestrians and cyclists.

"It is a frustrating time for pedestrian advocacy in Houston," said Cazares, who previously worked for Turner in the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. "It took a lot of hard work and a lot of convincing to make the gains that we did over the last eight years, and it's frustrating to see city leadership ignore data, ignore proven methods that work and go back to the status quo, because the status quo is killing people every day."

Shifting vision

Committing to Vision Zero is not the only way communities can improve street safety, Smith acknowledged, and she also said cities do not need to be recognized by the 8-year-old Vision Zero Network in order to use the "Vision Zero" terminology. Houston is among 59 cities across the U.S. and one of four in Texas, along with Austin, Laredo and San Antonio, to be recognized by the national nonprofit.

The idea behind Vision Zero is to make a mindset shift and take a holistic approach to roadway design along with prioritizing safety over vehicle throughput, according to Smith. A variety of strategies can be implemented under that umbrella, she said, such as reducing vehicle lanes, expanding bike lanes, sidewalks and crosswalks, lowering speed limits, adjusting the timing of traffic signals, behavioral education and increasing enforcement of traffic laws.

Whitmire has said since taking office that he thinks increased traffic enforcement can improve street safety, but Smith said that can be a cost-prohibitive approach and is not as effective as focusing on the built environment for roadway users. Also, the Houston Police Department is stretched thinly as it is, with it recently coming to light that the department suspended the investigation of more than 264,000 cases in recent years because of a lack of personnel .

And while eliminating all traffic fatalities might seem like a pie-in-the-sky goal, working toward that end is resulting in progress, Smith said. The Washington D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, which has more than 150,000 residents and adopted Vision Zero in 2017, announced last month that it had no traffic fatalities in 2023 .

"Many might say Vision Zero communities are not far along or not far enough along, and not seeing the kind of reductions we hoped," Smith said. "I'd say these things: One, it takes time, and we're kind of dealing with a bit of a culture change around roadway safety. Historically, roadway safety is maximizing the throughput of vehicles, but now we're designing in ways that people moving inside and outside of vehicles are safer."

Smith said she's surprised to see Houston moving away from that philosophy, and Cazares called it "disheartening." Doing so "means you're then shifting to vehicle throughput, which we know does not have safety at the forefront," Smith said.

Benton stressed that Vision Zero is not "being abandoned" under Whitmire, adding that Houston's new mayor has said the city should try to reach the initiative's goals "today and not wait until 2030." She also said Whitmire "strongly believes Houstonians need access to a variety of safe and reliable mobility options."

"Actions speak louder than words," Cazares said in response to that statement, "and I think the actions the administration has taken have proven the opposite of what they are saying."

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Delta’s work to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 while delivering a more sustainable future of travel is year-round and focuses on what we fly, how we fly and the fuel we use. While we’re making changes that are within our control today, like reducing single-use plastics and reducing fuel consumption, Delta is also working on long-term solutions to fully decarbonize its operations and the industry. During Earth Month and beyond, there are a number of ways Delta is making progress on its path to net-zero and bringing the Delta people and customers along on the journey.  

THIS MONTH 

Delta teams will celebrate Earth Month through a series of engagements and activations that unite its people with Delta’s bold vision for a more sustainable future of travel.  

CHaRM CORPORATE CHALLENGE: Throughout April, GREEN UP, Delta’s sustainability focused business resource group, is partnering with Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM), to facilitate an Atlanta-based corporate recycling challenge – in which Delta placed first last year for the highest number of recycled materials.  

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: April is also Global Volunteer Month with many volunteer opportunities throughout the month available to Delta employees, including a garden cleanup in ATL, a beach cleanup in MIA, a park cleanup in NYC and more. 

EMPLOYEE TRAVEL GUIDE: Throughout the month, Delta’s social media channels will feature a new Employee Travel Guide highlighting a Delta employee’s first-hand recommendations for traveling more sustainably and more sustainable travel experiences.  

EARTH MONTH COLLECTION ON IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: Travelers on Delta can explore our planet from the skies with a curated “Earth Month” collection on Delta Studio. Enjoy a selection of documentaries and content designed to educate and inspire on Delta’s industry-leading in-flight entertainment. 

A year ago, Delta outlined our short, medium, and long-term aspirations to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. As we continue to work toward each, 2024 will see progress in a number of areas: 

EMBEDDING SUSTAINABILITY ACROSS THE BUSINESS: Teams across every division have a significant impact on Delta’s sustainability goals because every employee can impact fuel, weight, and waste. This is why Delta introduced new operational sustainability KPIs to engage every employee and unify efforts in driving toward Delta’s sustainability goals. This includes key metrics like APU run-time between flights, which currently averages 65 minutes. Just one minute of run-time reduction systemwide could save ~1.2M gallons of fuel annually. It also includes weight efficiency through thoughtful adjustments to on-board service weight. 

DRIVING FUEL SAVINGS: Delta’s Carbon Council continues to make strides in fuel savings initiatives toward the airline's strategic decarbonization goals. Delta teams have collaborated to drive impact through reduced weight, enhanced landing procedures, and optimizations to flight routing and speed. This year, Delta’s Carbon Council plans to build on more than 20 million gallons of fuel saved in 2023. 

SCALING SAF: SAF is the most promising lever known today to accelerate the airline’s decarbonization goals. However, there isn’t nearly enough available to meet global demand, which is why Delta is doing its part to advocate with state and federal stakeholders for policies to increase production of SAF. This year, Delta is specifically advocating for SAF incentive programs in Michigan and New York, as well as working to support the Minnesota SAF Hub dedicated to scaling the SAF industry in Delta’s hub state of Minnesota.  

MODIFYING EXISTING FLEET: Over the last several years, Delta has been working on adding enhanced winglets and lightweight landing gear to its fleet to make them as efficient as possible. Throughout 2024 and 2025, Delta will finalize its modifications of the split-scimitar winglet upgrade on the 737-800 fleet. This milestone will mark the completion of Delta adding the most advanced winglet technology available to all existing fleets that can be modified.  

REDUCING SINGLE-USE-PLASTICS IN FLIGHT: Delta began testing a transition to paper cups on board transcontinental flights in December 2023 – a milestone that would, when fully implemented, eliminate nearly 7 million pounds of single-use plastics onboard annually and bring Delta one step closer to minimizing single-use plastics on board by 2025. Pending the results of the testing, the paper cups would begin rolling out across the Delta network by the end of 2024. 

THIS DECADE 

2030 and 2035 are milestone years in Delta’s strategic roadmap to meet all of its sustainability goals. Efforts and milestones that Delta is making progress toward over the next decade include: 

THE RISE OF EVTOL: Delta’s goal to have five strategic partnerships with revolutionary tech players by 2025 was kicked off by its investment in Joby Aviation, a company pioneering home-to-airport transportation with its eVTOL aircraft. Delta and Joby are looking to the Delta hub airports in New York and Los Angeles where this service will be offered to Delta customers. We imagine that this decade, Delta passengers will be able to book an eVTOL ride from Manhattan to JFK, bypassing congested New York traffic as they travel to the airport by air with Joby, before boarding their Delta flight. 

IMPLEMENTING SAF: As we continue to build on our momentum in advocating for government incentives to scale the SAF industry, Delta hopes to see the SAF market continue to scale as collaboration across the value chain continues to grow. With policy to support the production of SAF and to offset the green premium, Delta would be able to use SAF more broadly throughout the operation, and to meet the goal of 10% SAF by end of 2030 and 35% SAF usage by 2035.  So far, Delta has signed offtake agreements for more than 200M gallons of SAF, which is about halfway to the 2030 goal.  

FLEET RENEWAL: Every new aircraft that is introduced into the Delta network is more fuel efficient than aircraft being retired.  For example, Delta’s recently announced order for 20 next-gen A350-1000s that will start taking delivery in 2026 for international operations will be up to 20% more fuel efficient than retiring widebody aircraft.  As Delta plans to take delivery of new aircraft over the next decade, these aircraft will contribute to even more fuel savings.  

THIS CENTURY  

Next year, Delta will celebrate its 100-year anniversary. As the company gears up to celebrate this milestone, Delta is also looking forward to the next 100 years of flight. That’s why Delta is partnering with technology and innovation leaders throughout aviation to re-imagine the future of flight through Delta’s Sustainable Skies Lab. Beyond just financial investments, Delta is pairing its operational expertise with innovators to inspire new ideas and spur industry advancement – the Lab is a place to showcase advancements and a movement to galvanize everyone with a stake in creating the more sustainable future of flight. 

HYRDROGEN POWERED AIRCRAFT: Delta has partnered with Airbus in their ZEROe program, which is working toward the world’s first hydrogen powered commercial aircraft. The partnership includes exploring hydrogen technology as well as understanding airport infrastructure realities and the full ecosystem required to produce and supply hydrogen as a safe and reliable potential fuel source.  

REVOLUTIONARY AIRCRAFT DESIGN: Delta has also partnered with Boeing and NASA on their Sustainable Flight Demonstrator program to explore a Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW), which would revolutionize aircraft design and provide step-change fuel efficiency improvement. Delta is partnered to ensure the longer and more aerodynamic wing design is still operable and reliable.  

“Sustainability is a business imperative at Delta, and while Earth Month is a moment in time to galvanize around sustainability efforts, Delta works year-round to set the company up for a more sustainable future of flight,” shared Amelia DeLuca, CSO of Delta Air Lines. “I am so inspired by the people at Delta who work every day to help make a better, more sustainable Delta for futures to come.” 

Read more about Delta’s sustainability strategy.

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Creation, review, implementation of a Health & Safety framework whether in the form of a Health & Safety Manual, Safe Work Procedures, or the entire Health & Safety Program/Management System. 

What We Offer

We pride ourselves in getting to know your organization, culture, history and vision in order to develop custom-made programs that suit your specific needs. The intent in our precision to not to get you a “cookie cutter” solution but it is to ensure that we build a solution which works specifically for your organization.

Program Building

From program inception to implementation, our team is there to support you. Our team are experts in the OHS laws & regulations and based on your business type & sector, we will ensure that your Health & Safety Management System/ Manual is equipped with everything that you need to create a strong culture & to prove your due diligence.

Procedure Development

  We develop Policies & Safe Work Procedures including, but not limited to, -Lock Out Tag Out -Confined Space -Working at Heights -Workplace Violence & Harassment -Respiratory Protection Program -Contractor Safety Management etc.  

Risk Assessments

We conduct mandatory risk assessments in the workplace such as Workplace Violence & Harassment, Confined Space, Chemical Safety, Ergonomics, Industrial Hygiene etc. 

We also build risk assessment tools custom for your needs and regulatory requirements. In addition, we will train your team on their use. 

Benefits of Using Journey to Zero Safety Solutions Inc.

Enhance your internal responsibility system (irs).

The programs are designed to be understood by everyone at all levels within the organization i.e. from the CEO to the new graduate. By so doing, you will be able to clearly communicate roles and responsibilities and the need for commitment to reach H&S objectives i.e. clear understanding of the Internal Responsibility System (IRS).

Enhance Safety Culture

The programs will emphasize prevention and will work to shift workplace cultures into one of commitment and accident prevention. Overtime, a culture of “zero injury” will foster increased commitment in other functional pillars of your organization.

Reduce Direct/Indirect Costs of Injury

The programs can help set standards which would help to reduce the incidence and prevalence of workplace injuries or illnesses. In addition to driving a positive culture with “zero injury”, elimination of injury will evidently help your organization drive down indirect & direct costs of injuries.

Clear Resource Allocation

The programs will set a clear definition for resource allocation as they pertain to health & safety within your organization. By so doing, you will help promote efficiency within your organization.