Gearbulk ESGreport 2024 Paperturn - Flipbook - Page 41
ESG REPORT 2024
POTENTIAL AND ACTUAL IMPACTS
OUR ONGOING EFFORTS TO MANAGE THE IMPACT
We recognise that our operations—through both our own
Gearbulk places strong emphasis on health and safety, recog-
activities and those linked to our business —have a potential
nising its impact on the economy, environment, and human rights.
impact on the health and safety of all individuals involved. Life
We assess our operations and partnerships to identify and miti-
onboard a vessel inherently involves risk, and without strict
gate risks, ensuring compliance with all relevant regulations and
prioritisation of health and safety, daily tasks can become
standards. Our comprehensive policies re昀氀ect a commitment to
hazardous. To mitigate these risks, we maintain a robust
protecting the well-being of employees and stakeholders. We
safety management system aligned with the International
proactively manage health and safety through training, safety
Maritime Organization (IMO) standards and other globally
protocols, and regular risk assessments. When negative impacts
recognized frameworks. Our policies and procedures are
occur, we act quickly to address them and support remediation. At
designed to prevent incidents, protect crew welfare, and
the same time, we seek to enhance positive outcomes by fostering
promote a culture of continuous safety improvement. Despite
a culture of continuous improvement and employee well-being.
strict adherence to these protocols, injuries can still occur.
This reality reinforces our commitment to ongoing improve-
Gearbulk closely monitors the e昀昀ectiveness of its health and
ment and risk reduction. Crew welfare is not just a compli-
safety initiatives through clear goals, targets, and performance
ance issue—it is a core value. We are continually re昀椀ning our
indicators. Lessons learned from this monitoring are integrated
practices to ensure safe, supportive, and resilient working
into operational policies and procedures to enhance health and
environments at sea.
safety management continually. Moreover, Gearbulk actively
engages with stakeholders to gather feedback and insights,
Risks ashore during vessel maintenance, loading and
ensuring that its actions align with stakeholder expectations and
discharge of cargo and ship recycling pose an inherent risk
contribute to a safe and healthy work environment.
to our suppliers providing these services. We acknowledge
that although these risks are avoidable, strict policies and
The Gearbulk Safety Committee convenes monthly to discuss
procedures on sourcing of goods and services together with
updated statistics, recent incidents, safety measures, and
continuous audits of our suppliers are important e昀昀orts to
proposed initiatives. Experience transfers and ship circulars are
reduce these impacts.
regularly published to the 昀氀eet, covering personal injuries, best
practices, and more. Quarterly publications such as the Safety
and Quality Bulletin and Near Miss Bulletin provide valuable
information to sea and shore sta昀昀, while the Safety Management System serves as the foundational framework for safety
performance initiatives.
Gearbulk also organises safety-focused events such as
‘Safety Days’ for vessels and a ‘Safety Week’ for shore sta昀昀,
promoting discussions, drills, and activities aimed at strengthening safety cultures and fostering shared safety behaviours.
These prevention and mitigation initiatives also cover health
and safety impacts directly linked to our operations by business
relationships. We enforce strict health and safety requirements
in our Supplier code of conduct where we also perform ad hoc
audits to ensure that our requirements in our supplier code of
conduct is adhered to. Additionally, we ensure that all relevant
insurances to cover scenarios that pose a risk on health and safety
are in place and all relevant employees and worker both on sea
and shore are covered abiding to the local laws and regulations
governing these insurances.
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