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In recognition of the need to continually
improve our supply chain management
performance we are developing a Group
Procurement strategy, led by our Chief
Financial Officer. The strategy will embed
responsible supply chain management
into our day-to-day operations and
improve controls, processes and
transparency across our supply chain.
This will build on the work that we have
already undertaken.
The benefits of this strategy will
be increased governance, stronger
partnerships with suppliers and
more innovative, efficient and
cost-effective products and services.
We have recruited a General Manager
of Procurement to manage this strategy.
Programs and strategies on responsible
supply chain management now form
part of our sustainability policies in our
Residential, Commercial Property and
Retirement Living businesses. The
policies include social and environmental
expectations in supplier agreements,
where possible, and ensure that the
sustainability aspects of each service
are considered and addressed by the
business. This work will feed into the
Group Procurement strategy.
We will work with major suppliers over
the next 12 months as we continue
to refine our responsible supply chain
management policies and practices. This
will involve reviewing current practices,
improving outcomes and aligning our
approach to responsible supply chain
management with our suppliers. Our
goal is to help suppliers develop their
systems and practices over and above
the requirements that are specified.
Safety and performance
Our business partners play an important
role in the overall health and safety
performance of our organisation. Our
FY10 Health, Safety and Environment
(HSE) strategy sets out clear actions on
the accountability of health and safety
planning and performance not only for
our people, but also for our business
partners and suppliers. In FY10 we:
• Refined our contract documents to
clarify responsibilities at sites where
we have multiple contractors working,
• Introduced improvements to our
contractor briefing and induction
processes and established clear
policies for control of tenancy fitout
works carried out by our contractors,
• Began developing an online induction
process for contractors in our
Residential business to build on
the success of the system already
implemented for our Commercial
Property contractors.
We continued to share learning from
incident investigations across our
contractor community by distributing safety
alerts and meeting contractors on site. Our
incident reporting system helped us identify
recurring incidents involving contractors
striking buried and overhead electrical and
gas services and we worked closely with
contractors to improve the processes they
use to manage these hazards.
Understanding our and our
contractors’ HSE responsibilities
At the commencement of a construction
project we appoint a construction
contractor as ‘principal contractor’ for the
purpose of workplace health and safety
legislation. This appointment covers the
whole of the ‘site’ which is handed over
to the construction contractor to carry
out the works. This is also consistent with
individual state legislative requirements.
If we engage a separate contractor
to carry out work on the ‘site’, that
contractor is subject to the control of the
construction contractor as is necessary
for the construction contractor to meet
its ‘principal contractor’ obligations.
We appoint the main construction
contractor as principal contractor and they
are responsible for the site and their own
works as well as the management and
control of access and movements on the
site and in common areas. The tenant,
or the tenant’s fit-out contractor, will then
be principal contractor in the ‘shell’, and
in control of the activities of theirs and/or
the main contractor when working within
that shell. Contracts clearly stipulate that
HSE requirements are to be consistent
with our HSE Commitment Statement.
We continue to work closely with our
Project and Development Managers
to ensure clarity on responsibilities for
contractors. HSE Managers and Advisers
continue to work closely with both
Principal Contractors and Contractors
directly engaged by Stockland to ensure
that systems are in place and are being
applied consistently and effectively.
Contractor HSE performance
We do not currently include contractor lost
time injuries and other indicators in our
HSE reporting. In FY11, we will investigate
how to incorporate this information
into our regular reporting frameworks.
This will include assessing the viability
of extending our Injury Reporting and
Investigation System (IRIS) database
to include contractors.
HSE survey of contractors
We conducted our first comprehensive
HSE survey of contractors this year and
received feedback from more than
60 civil construction contractors.
We learned that, like us, our contractors
view health and safety as a collaborative
effort and 97 per cent said that we
have high standards and are clear
about health and safety expectations.
We received positive feedback on our
collaborative approach and on our
pre-start briefings, risk assessments and
reporting processes. The contractors also
suggested a number of improvements that
we can make, such as ensuring everyone
observes full compliance to contractors’
site rules and conducting joint site audits
and inspections. We will respond to
these suggestions.
Supporting contractors’
HSE initiatives
During the year, we maintained our
support of contractors’ safety initiatives,
such as toolbox talks, and ran a program
of events for contractors during Safe Work
Week. The HSE team is also building
relationships with contractors and their
HSE personnel, which is resulting in
more open and timely communication.
We continue to work closely with
contractors to identify and apply
sustainable solutions that, where
possible, reduce environmental impacts.
Reducing slip, trip and fall incidents
at our retail centres
We launched a number of initiatives in
FY10 to reduce the number of slip, trip
and fall incidents at our retail centres. We
mapped incidents at each property using
our improved incident reporting system
and used this to identify and eliminate
common causes.
Stockland Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report June 2010
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