Vivo Energy Namibia, the retailer and marketer of Shell-branded fuels and lubricants, recently held its annual Safety Day across company operations countrywide, reinforcing the importance of Health, Safety, Security, Environment & Quality (HSSEQ). Safety Day is an opportunity for all employees and contractors at Vivo Energy to refocus on the importance of HSSEQ.
This year’s Safety Day theme is ‘Learning to be Safer’, and focuses on how a combination of commitment and competency in safety helps create empowerment, allowing the company to strengthen its safety culture even further. As part of Safety Day, Vivo Energy invited staff, contractors and partners to share examples of how they are learning to be safer, and to encourage the replication of best practice.
“Safety is integral to our business and Vivo Energy’s long-term success in Africa. We must all continue to learn to be safer, and close any HSSEQ competence gaps. We can never be fully safe, and by encouraging a positive and learning approach, will ensure we never become complacent about safety,” said Grant Bairstow, Head of HSSEQ for the Vivo Energy Group.
In addition to employees sharing examples of how they are learning to be safer, each market has developed a programme of activities to remind employees to focus on HSSEQ, culminating in physical and virtual events this week.
Edward Walugembe, Managing Director of Vivo Energy Namibia observed: “Our ultimate ambition is to achieve a world-class safety culture, where HSSEQ is fully-integrated into the ways of working for all parties at Vivo Energy. Whilst safety is embedded across the company, our annual Safety Day provides a moment for all our teams to ensure we are doing everything we can to achieve our aim of ‘Goal Zero’ – no harm to people, and minimising our impact on the environment.”
As part of this year’s theme, all Vivo Energy Namibia staff signed a pledge to be safer by observing all of its nine Life-Saving Rules. The company also used the opportunity to reward staff members who displayed exceptional leadership and commitment in ensuring an industry-leading safety culture in the organisation.
Vivo Energy stated that it continues to work hard to achieve its HSSEQ goals in order to make continued progress towards its vision of becoming Africa’s most respected energy business.
Vivo Energy operates and markets its products in countries across North, West, East and southern Africa. The group has a network of over 2,500 service stations in 23 countries operating under the Shell and Engen brands, and exports lubricants to a number of other African countries. Its retail offering includes fuels, lubricants, card services, shops, restaurants and other non-fuel services. It provides fuels, lubricants and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to business customers across a range of sectors, including marine, aviation, mining, construction, power, transport and manufacturing.
The company employs around 2,700 people, and has access to over 1,000,000 cubic metres of fuel storage capacity.