Winners of the MPA Health & Safety Awards 2024
The judges have deliberated, the results are in, and this year’s winners have been announced
THE Mineral Products Association (MPA) Health & Safety Awards highlight outstanding actions, initiatives, innovations, and leadership practices – from individuals and small teams to major global players. Sharing crucial information about how to make the industry’s workplaces safer and celebrating the achievements of those involved, they exemplify the core values of Vision Zero ‘Safe and Well Everyday’, the MPA’s strategy to eliminate the most serious incidents, the so called ‘Fatal Six’, and to raise health and safety standards across the industry.
This year Brett Group were awarded the coveted John Crabbe Trophy for companies with more than 250 employees for outstanding performance in health, safety, and well-being, while the top prize for SMEs – the Sir Frank Davies Trophy – was awarded to AG Paving + Building Products.
The 2024 Awards were introduced by MPA chair Lex Russell, who emphasized not only his personal commitment to ensuring that everyone in the workforce went home safe and well every day, but the determination of the MPA board members to improve health and safety within the industry.
Encouraging everyone watching the awards to think of how they could apply something they had seen today within their own organization, he said: ‘A vital element in delivering this goal is the sharing of information about both good practice within the industry and incidents, particularly those incidents in which people have or could have been seriously injured. By learning from each other and sharing information we will achieve a safer environment for all. The MPA Health and Safety Awards coupled with SafeQuarry play a critical role in facilitating this.’
The online event was viewed by individuals working in all sectors of the mineral products industry, watching from sites and offices around the country, learning how colleagues from across the industry have introduced new initiatives and innovations that mitigate or eliminate health and safety challenges.
Winners and finalists were announced for the following awards:
Eight Topic awards that focus on different activities within the product life cycle or an organization’s initiatives associated with health and well-being
‘The Fatal 6 Award’ for an exceptional innovation to eliminate one or more of the high-consequence hazards responsible for most fatalities within the industry
The Eurobitume Trophy for the best entry involving bitumen, from production, storage, and handling to delivery and highway contracting
A special award in recognition of initiatives in relation to health and well-being, and in particular, programmes specifically related to the welfare of women in the workplace
Two awards that recognize the critical role that individuals play in championing health and safety within their organizations – the Young Leader Award (sponsored by MPQC) and the Individual Recognition Awards
The John Crabbe Trophy and the Sir Frank Davies Trophy recognizing outstanding achievement in health and safety by a company.
The award winners and runners-up are:
John Crabbe Trophy: Brett Group (Winner), Cemex and Tarmac Holdings Ltd (Joint runners-up)
Sir Frank Davies Trophy: AG Paving + Building Products (Winner), Burlington Stone (Runner-up)
Young Leader Award: Laura Jackson - Aggregate Industries (Winner), Grant Garrick – Pat Munro (Alness) Ltd (Runner-up)
‘The Fatal 6’ Award: AG Paving + Building Products (Winner), Cemex and Marshalls (Joint runners-up)
Eurobitume Award: Hogan Holdings (Winner), Northstone Materials (Runner-up).
The category topic award winners are:
Safer production: Marshalls
Safer maintenance and housekeeping: Cemex
Safer handling of inbound and outbound materials: ProSpare Ltd
Safer management of pedestrians and transport on site: Heidelberg Materials UK with MecTech
Safer transport and logistics: Clubb Sand & Gravel and Heidelberg Materials UK (Joint winners)
Safer operations on site: Tarmac Holdings Ltd
Safer through improvements in health and well-being: AG Paving + Building Products
Safer together: Brett Group
MPA Special Award for Safer through improvements in health and well-being: Cemex for ‘Hey Girls’ and menopause support emanating from the company's Wellbeing Strategy Group.
Colin Mew, the MPA’s head of health and safety, congratulated the award winners and thanked all those who had submitted entries: ‘With entries from 33 companies across eight topics (numbering 142 entries), we’ve seen an impressive new array of health and safety initiatives and ideas shared from every corner of the industry. Most important of all, I hope that everyone who watched today’s event returns to work with fresh inspiration, new ideas, and better practices to implement to make their own businesses safer than ever.’
Chris Leese, member of the executive management committee at the MPA, added: ‘I congratulate every company that made an entry into the 2024 awards because each of them is helping to make our industry safer for everyone. All the 2024 entries – as well as those from previous years – help to provide member companies with a wealth of good practices and ideas which they can put into practice, where appropriate, within their own operations.’
Details of all the entries into the MPA Health & Safety Awards will be added to SafeQuarry.com, the free-to-access mineral products global hub for health and safety. Videos of the finalists and winning entries can be viewed on the MPA YouTube channel, which also features a film of the whole of the 2024 awards event, as well as previous years.
