Singapore, 16 July 2013 – City Developments Limited (CDL) has won double honours in the RoSPA Awards 2013. The leading property developer has been recognised with the RoSPA Gold Medal Award for Occupational Health and Safety, and notably, it was also honoured with the International Dilmun Environmental Award, which makes CDL the first company outside of Europe to win this accolade.
The prestigious awards are given out by the UK-based safety charity, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
The RoSPA Gold Medal Award for Occupational Health and Safety, which is under the Achievement Awards category, is given to organisations which have received 5-9 consecutive Gold Awards. CDL was the first Singapore developer to obtain the RoSPA Gold Medal Award in 2010, and with the accolade in Occupational Health and Safety which CDL picked up this year, the Company has amassed a total of 8 consecutive Gold Awards to-date.
On the other hand, the International Dilmun Environmental Award, under the Specialist Awards category, is given to one winner each year, and this recognition for CDL makes it the first time that a winner has been selected outside of Europe, sealing and affirming CDL’s excellence in environmental as well as health and safety management.
The award ceremony was held on 15 May 2013, at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, National Exhibition Centre. Dating back 57 years, the RoSPA Awards scheme is the largest and longest-running programme of its kind in the UK. It recognises commitment to accident and ill health prevention and is open to businesses and organisations of all types and sizes from across the UK and overseas. The awards scheme not only looks at accident records, but also entrants’ overarching health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.
Receiving the Award, CDL’s Deputy General Manager, Projects, Mr Kelly Tan, said, “We are extremely elated to be recognised with a double win at the RoSPA Awards 2013. In particular, CDL’s win in the International Dilmun Environmental Award represents the first time an organisation has won this award outside of Europe. We are honoured to help place a Singapore company in the international sphere for recognition of good track record in Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) management. CDL has a very strong EHS culture and we are mindful of the need to constantly work with stakeholders and our supply chain to ensure environmentally-friendly and healthy project sites with low accident rates. The awards are made possible because of our like-minded EHS conscious partners and will serve as an encouragement and an affirmation to all of us, that we are moving in the right direction.”
Commenting on CDL’s win, Mr David Rawlins, RoSPA’s awards manager, said, “RoSPA firmly believes that organisations that demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention deserve recognition. CDL has shown that it is committed to striving for such continuous improvement and we are delighted to honour it through the presentation of an award.”
CDL, long a proponent of good EHS management, continuously aligns its business practices with the ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on Social Responsibility as part of its commitment to corporate social responsibility and human rights protection. The Company is also a strong believer in working hand-in-hand with its stakeholders and supply chain to influence them and encourage better EHS performance.
For instance, CDL’s signature 5-Star EHS Assessment System is an independent audit tool to assess, measure and improve its builders’ EHS management and performance. The EHS inspections and audits are carried out each quarter, and all CDL worksites undergo the exercise conducted by an independent EHS audit firm recognised by the Ministry of Manpower to appraise the worksite on a points system, and rate them on a scale of 1-5 stars. Pioneered in 2001, CDL was the first private developer to proactively structure a comprehensive, audited and appraised approach towards EHS involving all its builders.
Based on the audit scores, CDL holds an annual 5-Star EHS Awards to recognise these exemplary builders who have attained consistently high 5-Star EHS audit scores over a 1-year period and/or meet the award category criteria. The Award aims to motivate builders and consultants to work together, to improve EHS results.
The Assessment System and Award have been instrumental in influencing and encouraging CDL’s builders to monitor and improve their EHS performance. With their support, CDL’s environmental performance at the worksites has remained fairly consistent with commendable results in other key aspects as well. This includes an Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) of 0.14 accidents per million man-hours worked for the year 2012, which is significantly lower than the industry average AFR of about 1.70 over the same period.