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Health, safety and security

We are committed to maintaining a comprehensive, effective and consistent health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) management system across all projects. Our HSSE objectives and performances are monitored and evaluated in internal and external audits and annual management reviews.

Management approach

At the core of Scatec’s vision for health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) is working together to achieve zero harm. We aspire to achieve zero harm from the impact of our business to the health and wellbeing of all our employees and stakeholders, the environment and society at large.

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All our business activities are conducted in accordance with applicable labour standards and fundamental human rights norms as prescribed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Scatec is certified to ISO 9001, 45001 and 14001 confirming our alignment to industry best practice and providing our stakeholders with a level of assurance related to our way of working. DNV executes periodical certification audits every three years as well as intermittent monitoring audits. During the management review process conducted by Scatec’s Executive Management Team, various business units and national offices are consulted globally.

GRI disclosures

GRI 403-1: Occupational health and safety management system

All our business activities are conducted in accordance with applicable labour standards and fundamental human rights norms as prescribed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Scatec is certified to ISO 9001, 45001 and 14001 confirming our alignment to industry best practice and providing our stakeholders with a level of assurance related to our way of working.

Scatec and its subsidiaries and construction projects and operating plants shall have documented systems for the management of occupational health, safety, security and environment. The management systems shall be adapted to the needs of the organization and shall describe how the HSSE risks in their activities are identified, evaluated, monitored and controlled. The focus and comprehensiveness of the systems will depend on the nature and scale of the operation and the type and magnitude of the HSSE risks and impacts involved. 

The HSSE management system should preferably be integrated with the quality management, as well as environmental and social management system in a comprehensive Q-HSSES management system. The system shall meet relevant regulatory requirements and is implemented based on recognised risk management system standards and guidelines, such as the IFC. 

Scatec’s HSSE and Quality Procedures include key aspects of the OHSMS such as: key responsibilities, document control, training, risk assessment, internal control and external audits, key performance indicators (KPIs) and management reviews.

Our activities are a commitment to our long-term ambition, with our power plants made to work reliably and efficiently over their entire lifecycle. Our mission as a company is to deliver competitive and sustainable renewable energy globally, to protect our environment and to improve quality of life through innovative integration of reliable technology. This makes the need for quality in Scatec especially important, and employees as well as involved partners must be informed about our quality objectives in project development, delivery and power production, in addition to supporting functions. 

Our annual HSSE audit plan covered sites, suppliers and projects. We conducted regular internal audits organised by the projects along with external audits on behalf of financing and project partners.

GRI 403-2: Hazard identification, risk assessment, and incident investigation
GRI 403-3: Occupational health services

The identification and reporting of work-related hazards and hazardous situations is strongly encouraged throughout the company. Scatec focuses on leading and preventive KPIs to ensure a proactive approach to our HSSE improvement work. Our reporting and improvement database is the output to our processes that capture all work-related hazards and assesses risk: HSSE, Improvement areas, Lessons learnt.

Each employee can access the open reporting platform to report incidents, improvement ideas, non-conformances, lessons learnt and grievances. Incidents must be logged and assigned to a case manager/ responsible person. Each incident must be followed up and closed within 14 days. If the case manager requires more time, an extended deadline can be applied for and granted by a Senior HSSE Advisor. 

The quality of processes used to identify work-related hazards and assess risks are ensured by the HSSE Governance team who has the competency to identify trends, possible errors and engage the relevant teams to address such.

Our Incident Reporting and Investigation Procedure aims to establish whether a reoccurrence can be prevented by the introduction of safeguards, procedures, training and information or any combination of these. Following absence injuries (LTIs) and other serious incidents logged, the incident must be investigated. The project management, HSSE governance team or EVP Sustainable Business & HSSE can issue investigation orders. Material must be stored in the Open Reporting system. There is no requirement for a specific procedure for investigation, but there is an interdisciplinary team in Scatec who is trained in the Apollo Root Cause analysis method. 

Throughout the lifecycle of a project (from business development to decommissioning) lessons are learnt and opportunities for improvement are identified. As part of a continuous improvement process, documenting lessons learnt helps the organisation to discover risks and opportunities which can be mitigated or exploited in similar situations in the future. Key initiatives continue to strengthen our HSSE culture across projects: awareness campaigns, open reporting, and behavioural schemes. 

The quality of the services and facilities that employees have access to is ensured through ISO audits.

GRI 403-4: Worker participation, consultation, and communication on occupational health and safety

Scatec’s Central Incident Management Team (CIMT) meets regularly and provides communication updates to all employees included CEO townhall meetings, leader calls and manager calls, as well as direct information updates. 

There are several Emergency Response Plans within the Scatec system to ensure that each plan is tailormade to the relevant country and project. An emergency response core team generally consists of six members and their core responsibilities are set out below:

  • Senior Manager: Ultimate responsibility for the emergency response and is responsible for strategic emergency response management 
  • Emergency Manager: Head of the ERT and has the responsibility for handling the operational emergency response 
  • Human Resource (HR) Responsible: Organisation and management of emergency response related to affected Scatec employees, hired personnel, and expatriated family members 
  • Communications Responsible: Emergency response related to media, communication internally and for information gathering from external sources
  • Resource Coordinator: Coordination of administrative support to the ERT and for log keeping
  • Log Coordinator: Log any event in the emergency scenario, throughout the mobilisation period

GRI 403-5: Worker training on occupational health and safety

We work continuously for zero harm to personnel, assets, and the environment, and we believe that all incidents can be prevented through awareness, training, and preparedness. Mandatory HSSE training for all employees include: HSSE introduction to all new employees (onboarding), and Travel safety and security. Scatec hired 6 full-time employees during 2022 who were on-boarded and completed the HSSE training. Additional project site and business unit specific training is provided as and when required.

GRI 403-6: Promotion of worker health

International SOS provides medical and travel security expertise to help safeguard our travellers, expatriates and global workforce. All employees may use the services before, during, and after the trip. This includes vaccinations required, information on security risk, any type of advice or information. 

Access to medical and healthcare services is provided in countries where employees don’t have access to high-quality services. Voluntary initiatives to promote worker health: access to healthy food in the office canteen, and physical and mental health awareness campaigns.

GRI 403-7: Prevention and mitigation of occupational health and safety impacts directly linked by business relationships

We continuously work to monitor that all our subcontractors operate in accordance with our policy and principles. Our Supplier Code of Conduct, Scatec Partner Conduct Principles and Labour Policy for Site Personnel are integrated into all our subcontracts to ensure that these principles are respected, also in the parts of the value chain we do not control directly.

We have carried out labour management audits, held toolbox talks with labour requirements as main topic and updated our checklists to include labour management on daily inspections.

GRI 403-8: Workers covered by an occupational health and safety management system

All of Scatec and our contractor’s employees are covered by our OHSMS. This includes 100% of Scatec’s 924 full-time and short-term employees as of 31 December 2022. As an integral part of Scatec’s own reporting, contractors’ performance makes to a large extent the basis of our HSSE performance figures. Contractors working hours and incidents form part of Scatec’s consolidated reporting.

Scatec is certified to ISO 9001, 45001 and 14001 confirming our alignment to industry best practice and providing our stakeholders with a level of assurance related to our way of working. In addition, internal audits are conducted on a regular basis for all projects.

GRI 403-9: Work-related injuries

As an integral part of Scatec’s own reporting, contractors’ performance makes to a large extent the basis of our HSSE performance figures. 

Key performance indicatorUnitTarget 2022Actual 2022Actual 2021Actual 2020
Fatalitiesnumber0000
Lost Time Incident Frequency1 number≤ 2.10.71.90.6
Total Recordable Injury Frequency2number≤ 3.21.63.01.1
High potential incidents number≤ 1.40.71.21.5
Sick leave3number≤ 2.01.00.91.0
Working hours incl. subcontractors %-4,517,7202,586,7553,694,531

All figures include hours from subcontractors, except for sick leave. Rates are calculated per million hours worked.

1) Lost Time Incident Frequency (LTIF) is defined as the number of lost time injuries occurring per one million hours worked.

2) Total Recordable Injury Frequency (TRIF) is defined as the number of medical treatments, restricted work incidents, lost time injuries, fatalities, serious property damage and significant environmental incidents per one million hours worked.

3) Sick leave includes hours from full-time employees, short-term employees, and consultants.

Methodology

Key definitions used in our health, safety and security reporting:

Unsafe act: A dynamic situation where a person exposes himself to hazards or has removed one or more physical barriers.

Hazardous condition: A static condition representing a potential for harm or where one or more physical barriers have been removed.

Recordable Incident: Refers to all medical treatment, restricted work, lost time injuries, fatalities, serious property damages and significant environmental incidents.

Lost Time Injury (LTI): An injury during working hours that leads to unfitness for work and absence beyond the day of the accident, irrespective whether the next day falls within a weekend or on a public holiday.

Working hours: Total number of hours worked by Scatec’s own and its contractors’ employees.

Fatality: A death resulting from an accident or a disaster.

High Potential Incident: Any event which under slightly different circumstances could have resulted in a major loss, such as a fatality or serious personal injury; occupational illness which may lead to death or disability; emissions or discharge which may lead to long term damage; serious incident with major consequences; or extensive damage to assets or infrastructure.

HSE Observation: Report from the employees on any near accident, unsafe act or hazardous condition. Reports by personnel with the duty to follow up on HSE and reports from regular inspections shall not be included.

Emergency: Something dangerous or serious, such as an accident, that happens suddenly or unexpectedly and needs fast action in order to avoid harmful results

Disaster: A calamitous event, especially one occurring suddenly and causing great loss of life, damage, or hardship, as a flood, kidnapping, or business failure. The hallmark of a disaster is that the relief efforts are unproportionally insufficient, related to the need for relief.

Governing documents and related resources

Reports