About Safety Day

On Safety Day all employees and contractors are encouraged to take time for safety. It’s a day for engagement, for sharing ideas and good practices, for working in teams on plans to deliver continuous improvement in safety performance, and to reflect on our personal and collective commitment to safety.

Why safety is important to Shell

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than 230,000 people are killed in road accidents in India every year, the equivalent of a life lost every five minutes. Man-made disasters cover a wide range of events created largely due to accidents, negligence or sometimes even by human design, which result in huge loss of lives and property every year in India, often greater than even natural disasters. These incidents can be avoided and lives can be saved, if one takes safety seriously and accords it supreme importance. 

In the oil and gas industry, risks to human life are high relative to other sectors - perhaps an inevitable consequence of the challenging environments in which it operates. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 2014, the occupational fatality rate was one of the highest globally from 1993-2010 compared with other professions. And that is why ‘Safety’ for Shell is paramount. 

With safety embedded in our work culture, it helps us to ask the right questions and make the right choices at every step – whether in engineering design or implementation, during maintenance or routine administration tasks. Our goal is to safety a part of people’s daily habits.

What is Goal Zero?

Goal zero represents a renewed commitment to our vision of “No Harm”.

It means really believing that we can operate effectively and still have zero fatalities, zero accidents and zero significant incidents.

Goal Zero is profoundly positive and is about changing how we think and act so that there are no failures.

At Shell, we are committed to prevent accidents by managing safety in a systematic way and are introducing simpler and clearer requirements that are easier for people to understand and follow. 

We launched our HSSE & SP Control Framework in 2009.  It sets out high level aims and is supported by a comprehensive set of company-wide requirements covering Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) and Social Performance (SP). 

This framework includes a set of manuals covering topics such as road and process safety, and working at heights or in confined spaces.

Achieving goal zero because we care

People Safety

Personal safety means that our people follow the rules and work safely. We continue to improve the safety of the people who work for us. We also continue to enforce our mandatory 12 Life-Saving Rules with all employees and contractors who work for us. 

At least 90% of injuries and incidents are behaviour related. The hazards and unsafe behaviours that we see, and don’t challenge and change today, become the accepted behaviours of tomorrow.  

These 4 easy steps can help you keep yourself safe:

  1. Sense: Understanding the basics of safety (e.g. Hazard, Incident and Consequences)
  2. Know the risk. Learn about risks and consequences and understand risk levels
  3. Plan the Controls. Apply to concept of Barrier Thinking
  4. Act: Preventing Incident – Your Role. Intervene if you see an unsafe behaviour

Process Safety

Given the nature of the risks involved, ensuring the safety and integrity of our assets is paramount to Shell. Process safety involves making sure our facilities are well designed, safely operated and properly maintained. Our stringent approach is designed to help prevent harm to people or the environment. We identify and assess risks that have the potential to become an incident, and take the necessary steps to reduce or eliminate them. At the same time, we prepare for and are ready to respond to potential incidents.

Hence we prevent process safety incidents that could place our people, our neighbours, the environment and our facilities at risk. Put simply, we aim to ensure that our assets are safe and we know it.

Road Safety

Each year, our employees and contractors around the world drive almost 1 billion km in more than 70 countries – a distance equivalent to 70 times around the world every day. Shell is always working to improve on road safety with ongoing training, the sharing of best practice and by developing programmes in countries that may lack the adequate laws, enforcement or infrastructure.

We also work to enhance road safety in communities where we operate and share our knowledge across other sectors. We share our road safety knowledge with other companies and NGOs. For example, we are a board member of the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) that aims to improve road safety via employees.

We helped to create the NETS’ Comprehensive Guide to Road Safety™ to assist employers to progress their global road safety programmes. Shell has also shared best practice with other companies such as Abbott and Unilever, regarding road safety programmes, including mobile phone bans while driving.