Safety & Sustainability

Health and Safety

Safety is paramount on all of Rilean’s sites and anyone working on a Rilean site understands we take safety seriously. 

We want everyone who visits or works on our sites to feel safe in the knowledge that we have created a safe working environment  for employees, visitors and our clients . We undertake to comply and keep up to date with all relevant Health and Safety legislation, Codes of Practice, related Standards and identified Safe Work Practices.   All our Health and Safety Management Systems are focused on making continuous improvement to our Health and Safety performance.

Rilean is committed to ongoing Health and Safety Training.  We are a current and long time member of Site Safe NZ Ltd and all of our staff hold a valid site safe passport.  Further to that, all of our Foreman have completed a two day intensive Gold Card course.   But our safety extends further than our employees, we require and expect all our subcontractors on site to be site safe accredited too and this is monitored closely.

Rilean chooses to be part of the ACC’s Work Safety Management Practices programme (The WSMP system is based on the Australian/New Zealand Standard for Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems AS/NZS 4801) and at 2008 audit Rilean achieved tertiary status, being the highest accreditation possible.

 

Sustainability

Our objectives
Rilean Construction Ltd is a local company and we carry out the vast majority of our work in the Southern Lakes region. Our directors and staff are aware that it is a privilege to work and play in a region of such outstanding natural beauty. Because of this, we’re committed to taking all practicable steps to help preserve and, where possible, improve the quality of the environment in which we live and work.

As a Main Contractor we believe we can best achieve this by using and managing our resources efficiently and minimising waste.  We also believe that focusing on these areas will lead to greater sustainability and profitability in the future. We actively seek to use our influence with clients, suppliers, and other industry operators to ensure that this is the best practice standard for the structures we build and the processes we adopt.

Our commitment
We have developed a Company Sustainability Policy in line with BRANZ guidelines and Sustainable Foundations.  Our initiatives include:

  • Joining the New Zealand Green Building Council to improve our knowledge, skills and business practices

  • Working with Otago Polytechnic’s Centre for Sustainable Practice and linking in with other likeminded businesses

  • Our Office Sustainability Policy covers issues like waste, energy usage, water usage, office consumables, and vehicle travel.  It’s focused on measuring current usage and identifying ways of reducing the office “footprint”

  • We minimise and save water, power and waste – ‘saving’ our planet and saving dollars in the process

  • Where possible we source office stationery and other consumables from suppliers who are committed to sustainability

  • We have a recycling policy within the office which includes recyclable materials generated from kitchen waste

  • Sustainable practice has become a set agenda item at our weekly “Toolbox” meetings, ensuring staff at all levels take an active part in efficient use of resources and waste minimisation

  • We have a policy to distribute, where practical, tender documentation in electronic format.  This includes sending architects and engineers drawings on disc and printing only by specific request. To avoid paper wastage we have a separate page on our website for tenderers to view all drawings and supplement information

  • We’ve added a section on sustainable practice to our Sub-Contractor Pre-Acceptance Form. This highlights to our sub-contractors that Rilean Construction is committed to a sustainable construction process and encourages them to act appropriately to minimise waste and their own impact on the environment

  • When given the opportunity to specify products or materials we’re committed to using materials sourced from suppliers who have embedded sustainable practices.  We also recommend sustainable products to our clients

  • We encourage our project managers to organise materials orders and pick-ups to minimise vehicle movements. Where possible these are co-ordinated with disposal of waste materials

  • We advocate timber and certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FDC)

  • As part of the normal site establishment procedure, our management team makes sure that our project managers are fully aware of the specific provisions of the resource consent.  This ensures construction waste is not allowed to contaminate waterways, soil erosion and displacement is minimised and the construction process does not adversely impact upon the surrounding environment

  • We require each site to maintain a register of Hazardous Materials on site as part of our Health and Safety Plan.  This includes keeping material data sheets which outline actions for damage limitation and minimisation in the event of leakage, accidental ingestion etc.  It also ensures materials are stored appropriately on site to help minimise wastage through contamination or degradation of materials

  • When working on site, where possible we only use toilets that are hooked up to the council main sewerage system. The use of these toilets eliminates chemical cleaning

  • We’ve added a section on sustainable practice to our Quality Auditing check sheet. This allows our management team and project managers to identify at the end of a project where gains have been made and where we can do better in the future

In the pipeline

We’re currently working on:

  • Implementing an Environment Management System as a separate policy which will be issued as a tender document 

  • Reviewing the Sustainable Business Network in an attempt to improve our knowledge of sustainability

  • Appointing a Sustainability Manager from within our management team

     

 

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