S.H.E
Safety
Our approach: ” Safety First No Compromise “
Our SZCC VISION ZERO approach articulates Safety as a fundamental element.
The safety of our people and the communities in which we operate always comes first. Our working environments by their nature expose our employees and contractors to risk. This is why our objective is to identify those risks and implement controls. Our material safety risk assessments include potential community impacts and controls to mitigate these broader impacts.
We are committed to a set of national, regional, continental and global safety priorities that continue to guide our decision-making and approach to safety. We are guide by the following seven gold rules:
This policy applies to all Sino Zimbabwe Cement Company management and employees.
Corporate SHE code of Business Conduct Management shall lead Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company in ethical ways that increasingly benefit society, the economy, and the environment while adhering to the following SHE codes of practice:
- To lead Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company in ethical ways that increasingly benefit society, the economy, and the environment.
- To work with customers, carriers, suppliers, and contractors to foster the safe and secure use of cement, its transportation; and to provide hazard and risk information on our product.
- To operate our plant in a safe, and environmentally sound manner.
- To instill a culture throughout all levels of Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company employees; to continually identify, reduce and manage process safety risks.
- To promote pollution prevention, minimization of waste, and conservation of energy and other critical resources at every stage of the life cycle of cement.
- To cooperate with government authorities at all levels and other organizations in the development of effective and efficient safety, health, environmental management system, regulations, and standards.
- To communicate product, service, and process risks to our stakeholders, and to listen to, and consider their perspectives.
- To make continual improvement towards our goal of no accidents, injuries, or harm to human health and the environment, from our products and operations, as well as to openly report our safety health and environmental performance.
Safety Principles for Employee Conduct Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company’s Safety, Health, and Environmental Policy will achieve maximum effectiveness only if all employees maintain a consistent, positive attitude towards SHE. Therefore, all Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company employees shall conduct themselves in accordance with the following Safety Principles:
- Accidents and injuries are preventable.
- Safety is line management accountability.
- You are responsible for your own safety.
- All employees are obligated to stop a job or refuse to perform a job if it is not safe or cannot be performed safely.
- Efforts in safety will yield results.
- Safety is a condition of your employment
The Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company’s Safety, Health, and Environmental Policy (SHE) describes how Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company intends to conduct its business, and how employees conduct themselves in support of the company’s safety, health, and environmental policy.
Health
Health at Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company
We recognize that Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company operations can impact the health of our employee, contractors and community. We set clear requirements with minimum mandatory controls. ISO 9001:2015 .S.H.E procedures to manage and protect the health and wellbeing of our employees, contractors and community.
Some of the harmful health risks and agents at our workplaces include exposure to musculoskeletal stressors, noise, cement dust, silica and diesel particulate matter (DPM). We manage our exposures with internally specified occupational exposure limits (OELs). Our OELs are in line with, or more stringent than, applicable regulated limits.
When setting OELs for our most material occupational health exposures, we monitor and review scientific literature; engage with regulators and OEL-setting agencies; benchmark against peers; and seek independent advice.
We conduct periodic medical surveillance to detect signs of potential illness at an early stage, and assist our people in the recovery and management of illness that is a result of exposure at our workplace.
In line with OUR VISION ZERO and our culture of care, we undertake health activities to enhance the physical and mental wellbeing of our employees. This includes the provision of the following preventative health measures:
- Blood grouping
- Mental health sessions.
- Dental Health Campaign.
- Women’s Health Clinic.
- Voluntary HIV /Aids testing
- Breast cancer screening.
Environment
Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company is dedicated to the protection of the environment in which it operates, and believes in the right of the individual employee to work in healthy and safe conditions.
The company’s management commits itself to:
- Minimize occupational health and safety risks, as well as environmental impact, through the employment of safe work methods, equipment and optimize resources. Minimize waste, and to use of natural resources in a sustainable way.
- Comply with all applicable safety, health and environmental laws, regulations and codes of practice to which Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company subscribes to.
- Prevent or minimize environmental pollution and damage resulting from emission of dust, gases, effluent, etc, due to its activities.
- Setting and reviewing objectives and targets.
Consequently, Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company shall;
- Develop, document, implement and maintain an effective safety, health and environmental management system targeting internationally recognized standards that enable it to identify, assess and manage risks to its employees, integrity of company assets, contractors and communities affected by its operations.
- Promote and maintain open and constructive dialogue and working conditions with employees, local communities, regulatory agencies and all other stakeholders.
- Train all its employees and other interested parties to enable them to understand their safety, health and environmental obligations, and to communicate this policy to all the organizations, stakeholders, including employees.
- Continually improve occupational health, safety and environmental performance to achieve world class standards.
- Review the policy at appropriate intervals.
- All employees, contractors, management and stakeholders are partners in the development and maintenance of a zero harm culture at Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company.
Our approach
Our approach to environmental management is based on the robust identification, assessment and control of material risks across all phases of our business.
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Our environment approach
Our approach to environmental management is based on the robust identification, assessment and control of material risks across all phases of our business, from exploration to development, operation and closure. We engage with stakeholders and take their perspectives and knowledge into account in our decision making.
We aim to avoid or, where this is not possible, minimise our impacts, while contributing to lasting environmental benefits across the regions where we operate. Where unacceptable impacts remain, we focus on implementing compensatory actions to address residual impacts to the environment.
Cement donation to the community.
In addition to our direct environmental management actions, we pursue opportunities, such as conservation, to deliver lasting environmental benefits.
Our material sustainability issues
We identify and respond to material sustainability issues to successfully deliver on our Company strategy and to create value. Having regular, open and honest engagement with our stakeholders helps us to identify, understand and priorities the sustainability issues and opportunities that matter most to our stakeholders and to our business.
Avoiding environmental impacts
We are committed to our environmental obligations. These include:
• We do not explore or extract resources within the boundaries of World Heritage-listed properties.
• We do not explore or extract resources within or adjacent to the boundaries of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Protected Areas Categories I to IV, unless a plan is implemented that meets regulatory requirements, takes into account stakeholder expectations and contributes to the values for which the protected area is listed.
• We do not operate where there is a risk of direct impacts to ecosystems that could result in the extinction of an IUCN Red List Threatened Species in the wild.
• We do not dispose of mined waste rock into a river or marine environment.
Climate change
• We continue to focus on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and energy use at our operations.
SZCC accepts the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment of climate change science, which has found that warming of the climate is unequivocal, the human influence is clear and physical impacts are unavoidable.
Climate change is a global challenge that requires a collaborative market and policy response. Playing our part in responding to climate change is a priority governance and strategic issue for SZCC Our Board is actively engaged in the governance of climate change issues, supported by the Sustainability Committee. Management has primary responsibility for the design and implementation of our climate change strategy.
Our climate change strategy focuses on reducing our operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, investing in low emissions technologies, promoting product stewardship, managing climate-related risk and opportunity, and working with others to enhance the global policy and market response.
Our actions on climate change.
Management cleaning the plant.
Our plant emissions discharge.
Regulatory information.
We are committed to high ethical business practices and governance standards. We provide detailed operational, environmental and community information for our local communities and key government stakeholders.
Social Responsibility
Besides being responsible to its own employees, SZCC as part of its corporate governance provides social responsibility to the local community. The assistance to the local community comes in various forms e.g.
1. Company Clinic
- Provision of primary health care to the community.
- Provision of essential drugs and surgical sundries to the community.
- Promotion of health related programs e.g. commemoration of activities such as World Aids Day, Blood donors Day e.t.c.
- Voluntary counseling and testing of HIV and Aids.
2. Cement Donations
- The company donates cement to individual homeowners in the local community for constructions of blair toilets and water wells.
- Cement is also donated to local communities for construction of classroom blocks and clinic structures.
3. Provision of Transport
- The company provides transport (through its staff buses) to teachers coming to teach in the local schools.
- Company buses are also provided to ferry pupils to sporting activities in and around Gweru.
4. Casual Employment
- The company also prioritizes employment of casual and contract labour from the local community.
5. Governor’s Office
- Cement is also donated to the Midlands Governor’s office for social causes within the province.
