At SaskEnergy/TransGas, safety is the number one priority.

Given the nature of their job, many employees face several new worksites each day. When they arrive onsite the first thing they think about is safety – of themselves, of their colleagues and of the public.

Doug Kelln, President and CEO SaskEnergy/TransGas was the first leader from a Crown Corporation to sign the Mission: Zero partnership agreement with Safe Saskatchewan. Through this partnership, SaskEnergy/TransGas employees are ambassadors of the safety message Mission: Zero delivers, “the only acceptable number of injuries in Saskatchewan is zero.”

Safety at work is top of mind every day for SaskEnergy/TransGas employees with safety procedures, reporting practices and constant awareness of potential hazards in place. But safety doesn’t end when the workday does. These ambassadors of safety realize that there are many reasons to focus on safety – not only at work but everywhere they go. The risk involved with overlooking a safety procedure or taking a short-cut isn’t worth the price of an injury, or worse.

Injuries take an emotional toll on families and communities. They also have a significant financial impact on workplaces and the province as a whole. Mission: Zero believes that every injury is predictable and preventable. One employee says, “Being there for your family starts with taking care of yourself and being safe everyday in everything you do.”

Kelln reports, “We saw a decrease in personal injuries in 2012 which is a real sign of safety leadership.” The focus is on zero-zero-zero: zero lost time, zero medical aids, and zero preventable motor vehicle collisions. SaskEnergy/TransGas employees participate in hazard assessment and are able to look at risks at hand and manage their daily activities around them”.

Some people adopt the “it’s not going to happen to me” mentality. But without proper attention to potential hazards, human factors such as fatigue, frustration, rushing and complacency can cause injuries. Accepting and believing that injuries are preventable is the first step to a safer Saskatchewan. If we were to combine all workplace and non-workplace injuries, Saskatchewan has the highest injury rate in Canada. This is a statistic that should concern us all.

To show their commitment to safety, SaskEnergy/TransGas placed the Mission: Zero logo on all of their company vehicles. This serves as a constant reminder that no matter what you’re doing or where you are, safety is everyone’s concern. Together we can achieve Mission: Zero.