Promoting a safety and health culture through marketing and procurement

Citation

(2001), "Promoting a safety and health culture through marketing and procurement", Facilities, Vol. 19 No. 11/12. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2001.06919kab.003

Promoting a safety and health culture through marketing and procurement

Promoting a safety and health culture through marketing and procurementKeywords: Health and safety, Working environment

Safety and health at work have traditionally been approached mainly by means of legislation and enforcement measures. A new report by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work shows that this might be changing in the future, as an increasing number of companies and organisations themselves take the lead by promoting a positive safety and health culture through their marketing and procurement initiatives.

The corporate as well as the public image of a company is becoming increasingly influenced by ethical, social and moral considerations. This can affect market prospects as well as the ability to recruit and keep qualified and motivated staff. The health and wellbeing of workers involved in the production chain of consumer products and services form a fundamental part of these considerations. As the Agency report illustrates, this is not only about child labour in the third world, as it actually deals with business attitudes and behaviour throughout our societies.

A number of examples of voluntary schemes introduced by private and public organisations and companies in the marketing and procurement area are presented. They can be seen as a complementary "tool" to traditional legislation and control activities by the responsible authorities, as they likewise aim at promoting a preventive culture, i.e. higher levels of occupational safety and health. This study describes the use of Occupational Safety and Health as a criterion in purchasing products and services from other companies (procurement) and the use of Occupational Safety and Health as a marketing element for promoting the sales of their products or services.

Examples in the report include:

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  The Swedish TCO labelling scheme for office equipment, which has benefited computer users world-wide through a proactive Trade Union approach to safety and health problems.

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  The Dutch Safety Contractors Checklist (SCC), which was established to evaluate and certify SHE management systems of contractor companies that offer their services to the petrochemical and chemical industry.

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  The IKA Procurement example of Denmark on guidelines used to define requirements in tenders for cleaning agents.

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  The Triodos Bank ethical investment funds example from The Netherlands.

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  Procurement in the Danish landworks of the Øresund fixed link between Denmark and Sweden.

Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, Director of the European Agency, said that "this report has brought together highly interesting examples of a modern and proactive business approach to developing a preventive culture in Europe based on integrating safety and health performance in marketing and procurement. I am convinced that these good examples – of how business interests and societal concerns can be balanced in practice, so that they support the development of safe, healthy and productive work environments – will be received with interest by other organisations, companies and decision-makers. I would like to thank all those who have shared their experiences with us and hope that their example will be followed by many others."

According to Stephen Hughes, UK Member of the European Parliament and European Parliament rapporteur on "Social" Procurement issues, "Companies today are now waking up to the fact that there is profit to be made in good corporate performance in safety, environmental and social issues. Trade Unions have also shown through the TCO example that they can be dynamic leaders in bringing about change in this field. It is now the task of the European Institutions to consider following the trend set by these good examples and setting certain demands on companies tendering for public contracts in the European Union. This is an issue upon which I will be working in a forthcoming European Parliament report on public procurement in the EU."

Kenth Pettersson, Director-General of the Swedish Work Environment Authority, said that "in Sweden we have gained much experience in both marketing and procurement issues in the safety and health area. This is supported by the number of Swedish related examples which appear in the report, which are just a few amongst many. It is quite rewarding to see Swedish good practice being shared with our European partners through this report. I am sure that we will continue to have more good examples in the future and I will also look forward to studying the other cases in the report to see if we can also learn from other European examples."

The Marketing and Procurement report in English and a short summary fact sheet in several languages are available at the following Webpage references:

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  http://agency.osha.eu.int/publications/reports/marketing/;

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  http://agency.osha.eu.int/publications/factsheets/facts11/

For further information contact European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Gran Via 33, E-48009 Bilbao, Spain. E-mail: information@osha.eu.int; Fax: +34 94 479 4383.

This Agency report brings together 22 case studies from nine member states of voluntary initiatives taken by companies, sector organisations and national authorities. The schemes represented include one or more of the following elements: tender criteria, management systems, certifications, labels, declarations, general communication and accounts.

The described initiatives are not selected to be representative for all existing schemes on the European scene, but should together represent initiatives, which may inspire other companies and organisations either to adopt the schemes or to make the necessary modifications to adapt the schemes to their specific sector and needs.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work was set up by the European Union to help meet the information needs in the field of occupational safety and health. Based in Bilbao, Spain, the Agency aims to improve the lives of people at work by stimulating the flow of technical, scientific and economic information between all those involved in occupational safety and health issues.