Hudbay’s environmental, health and safety (EHS) management systems have been in place for many years, and have been compliant with international standards for 15 years. These systems provide the structure for conducting business in a way that manages our impact on the environment and minimizes and controls our health and safety risks. Our EHS systems are designed to support compliance with standards and reporting frameworks (both internal and external), drive continuous improvement and align with our business strategy.
During the year, we conducted a review of our EHS management systems, gathering feedback from operations managers on what is working well, what is not and how we can improve. We also tested how well the managers understood the systems and how they worked.
Key findings from the review included:
- Managers felt that there is a need for more training on the systems across all levels of their business unit, and that the training needs to highlight why the systems are in place and how they are applied.
- The systems and associated audits and certifications added value and were deemed important, but the documentation was onerous and opportunities existed to reduce complexities.
- Some system elements need to be better tailored to the specific operation.
- The concept of routine – such as the safety calendars in Manitoba that detail tasks, frequency and accountability for safety-related activities – was viewed as an effective tool for making sure teams are focused on the right tasks.
Each site is working to address these findings. Providing support to the sites’ efforts is the EHS Management Review Committee (comprising the CEO, COO, operations VPs and corporate CSR group) and the principles of our OneHudbay initiative.