How To Build A Safe And Sustainable Worksite

As a company, do you often have projects in remote areas? Are there workers who fulfil their responsibilities in the field quite often? If yes, a worksite is a must-have investment for your business. It’s where your workers will work and rest when they’re away from your main office.

When building a temporary worksite, safety and sustainability are aspects to factor in. The former ensures your team works without any worry. At the same time, the latter allows you to leave a positive mark on the environment.

So how do you build a safe and sustainable worksite? Here’s a guide:

Adopt Safe Accommodation

Accommodation refers to the temporary living space your team will spend their nights in. The ideal accommodation is a temporary structure that doesn’t take time to assemble and disassemble when needed. Some ideal structures to consider are man camp trailers and tents.

Since your team works remotely, they need a conducive environment to fulfil their responsibilities. Therefore, the accommodation needs to be safe. You can ensure this by properly anchoring the tent to the ground so the wind can’t blow it off. It’s also important to use durable material in the entire process. You want the structure to be stable for the entire project duration and perhaps so you can still use it in the future. The recycling aspect also brings in sustainability.

Also, you’ll only achieve safety if you work with an expert to set up the structure. They will assess the site environment and know the best approach for the setup. Should there be any hitches, they’ll be able to find solutions without compromising safety. Therefore, work with an expert.

Practice Proper Waste Management

Improper waste disposal is one of the major contributors to the degradation of the environment. Therefore, it’s important to practice proper waste management.

The best way to manage waste in a worksite is to minimize it. You can do this by reusing and recycling. To reuse is to repurpose a resource until it becomes unusable. To recycle is to reprocess an item with another to form part of something new.

Suppose your team uses items they can’t reuse or recycle. Then you have to impose a sustainable waste disposal strategy. Start by strategically placing waste-sorting bins on the worksite. The sorting bins will guide your team on where to dispose of recyclable items like plastic bottles, food items, and nonbiodegradable wastes.

Doing so enables you to dispose of each category accordingly. For instance, you can dispose of food waste in companies that use waste to generate energy.

Reduce transportation emissions, image source: Adobe

Reduce Transportation Emissions

When it comes to remote working, your team may have to move from one place to another, maybe from their accommodation to the working area if it’s quite a distance. They’ll use cars to meet these needs.

However, car emissions are well-known environmental pollutants. One way to incorporate sustainability in the worksite is by adopting carpooling. Here, your team will only use one or two vehicles for transportation instead of driving individual cars. The result is a reduction in car emissions, leading to minimal air pollution.

You can also reduce car emissions by regularly maintaining your vehicles. Be sure to service them at the right intervals and use the right engine oils, among other practices. Letting a professional mechanic handle your team’s vehicles is also important. They’ll do what’s necessary to keep them in good condition. The result is an efficiently running vehicle with little to no emissions.

Use Eco-friendly Resources

Eco-friendly resources leave minimal environmental impacts. Therefore, they should be part of your worksite safety and sustainability project.

Your team will require to use resources like utensils, packaging materials, and paper for official work. Use eco-friendly alternatives or methods when and where you can. For instance, refrain from using disposable plates and cups. Consider adopting digitization in running your office operations to eliminate the need for paper and ink, among other items that could harm the environment.

Reduce Energy Consumption

Energy consumption refers to the amount of power an appliance uses to meet your needs, be they electricity, water, heating, or cooling, among others. Most of these appliances often rely on fuel to run, which pollutes the environment. It’s the reason you need to reduce energy consumption on the worksite.

One way of doing this is by using energy-efficient appliances, like an HVAC and electric heater. They’ll consume less power to run and meet your needs.

The other way is finding alternative sources of energy. You can refrain from using nonrenewable energy and instead rely on solar energy to generate electricity. In addition, ensure you use the proper appliance size, which should be proportionate to the room size.

Develop Environmental Policies

Policies are important to any organization. They guide your workers on how to conduct themselves as they execute their roles in the workplace. In this case, you want to create an environmental and safety policy on your worksite.

This policy should contain guidelines on how the team should practice safety and sustainability in the worksite. Inform them how and where to dump waste and about the personal protective equipment (PPE) to wear on-site, among other things. The policies should appear as dos and don’ts, and they should be in easy-to-understand language. Doing so ensures everything is clear, and no worker will claim they didn’t know how to do a certain thing.

Lastly, ensure you pin the policies all over the worksite for easier visibility.

Educate Your Team

As management, you might have put all the measures in place to ensure safety and sustainability in the worksite. However, all your efforts will be futile if your team isn’t on board with the concept. Therefore, as part of building a safe and sustainable worksite, involve your workers.

In this case, educate your team on the importance of safety and sustainability. Doing so will make them embrace and intentionally follow the guides you’ve set under each. It’d help to educate them through monthly training and seminars or daily meetings to keep them on their toes. Also, add practical training sessions for a better understanding of the concepts.

Conclusion

Building a safe and sustainable worksite is something you can achieve. A guide at hand will make it even easier. The discussion above provides such a guide. Be sure to implement it as you build your worksite. You’ll protect your workers and environment simultaneously.