SAFETY FIRST?
INTEGRITY FIRST! SAFETY ALWAYS!
As Mike Rowe, the former host of Dirty Jobs, so aptly questioned, “Can safety really be first?”
As heavy equipment operators and earthworkers, what we do day-in and day-out is inherently and unavoidably perilous.
Severe injury and death nip at the heals of our work boots each day - and either is but a single moment of lapsed concentration away from reminding us that apathy in this line of work can have life-altering consequences .
So if we were to truly place safety first then, frankly, we would have chosen a different occupation.
But we didn’t.
We chose this work - or perhaps it chose us.
Either way, we live out our passion in this, our chosen vocation, reshaping the wild world into civilized landscapes with hardened steel & diesel power.
And instead of merely paying lip service to the all-to-often used phrase of “safety first” (especially when everyone knows that it can’t really be first), we instead anchor ourselves and our team to the notion of Integrity First and Safety Always.
Integrity First is, in part, saying what we mean and meaning what we say - to the visceral exclusion of saying things we don’t mean (yes, like Safety First).
Safety Always, to us, means that we are always acutely aware of the risks, hazards, and dangers in what we do; therefore we commit to the integrity needed to mitigate those risks by relentlessly practicing personal and mutual responsibility.
As a company, we are committed to having the integrity to continuous training in the competent execution of assigned tasks. This integrity will help ensure each team member is aware of hazards and has been appropriately qualified on the best practices to perform their daily duties safely and return home to their family at the end of each day.
Likewise, we educate for and expect each team member to take both personal responsibility for their safety, as well as mutual responsibility for the safety of those around them.
Both require integrity.
Safety requires integrity.
In our experience, lassitude can be found in the chain-of-custody of every preventable accident. And can become a virus that infects any company culture.
Integrity alone serves as antidote for the laziness or hubris found at the heart of each avoidable calamity.
Integrity breads safety.
Safety is the byproduct, the natural consequence, of integrity and responsibility.
Hence our oft-spoken creed: