
Illuminating and transforming safety, health and environmental management in New Zealand
Who we are
For over 149 years, WSP Opus has been working closely with New Zealand businesses providing expert engineering design and delivery in the property and buildings, transportation, power, water infrastructure and environmental sectors. We also provide safety, health and environmental management consulting and advice to illuminate, transition and transform safety, health and environmental management. We can assist you in all areas of occupational risk-management in the workplace – ensuring that your systems and activities are aligned to New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work legislation and expected practice. Become 'future-ready' through transformational change.
Plain language reporting
We use plain language to provide concise reports and practical solutions. We focus on quality rather than quantity with the worker central to changes and improvements. We use an integrated management approach to help weave safety, health and environmental management into your business. We are confident that these features result in improved safety, health and environmental outcomes, and improved productivity.
Download our Safety, Health and Environment Consultancy Services Capability Statement [PDF]
Management consulting and advice
At WSP Opus we take an integrated, holistic approach to safety, health and environmental management. Some of our services:
- Strategy and policy development.
- Critical risk identification and development of critical controls.
- Safe systems of work that includes occupational health and environmental aspects.
- Risk management and BowTie risk assessments.
- Advice on areas that are often not well understood or managed, for example:
- Duties of a ‘Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking’ (PCBU)
- Duties of businesses engaging contractors
- Duties of contractors and subcontractors
- Overlapping duties
- Duties of manufacturers, importers, suppliers and installers
- Duties to engage with workers.
- Independent peer reviews.
- Prosecutions and enforceable undertakings support.
- Management of safety, health and environment on major projects in New Zealand or overseas.
Need recruitment advice, or a stand-in while you recruit for a new Executive or General Manager responsible for safety, health and environment? We can help.
Transition or Transform
Is safety, health and environment in your business future-ready? Would you like to transition from the old health and safety standards (AS/NZS 4801 and OHSAS 18001) to the first truly global standard – ISO 45001 – Occupational health and safety management systems? We can help guide you through the process, clarify new requirements and identify areas to improve.
Would you like to implement the ISO 14001 – Environmental management system standard in your business? Or perhaps you’d like to consolidate your current processes into an integrated management system. We can help with these.
Maybe you’d like to transform safety, health and environmental management into something easy to understand and apply. We use the Safety II – ‘proactive safety’ approach to transform and simplify your current system, to put workers at the centre, and help improve business productivity. We can help remove the ‘clutter’ from your systems.
Auditing
Auditing is fundamental to the assurance of safety, health and environmental management in every business. It’s vital to understand what’s being done, what’s not being done, and what’s not being done as well as it should be. Understanding this will help you make good decisions, focus your resources effectively, and improve your business.
We can help with:
- Auditing of compliance against your company’s safety, health and environmental management system.
- Auditing of compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and associated regulations relevant to your business.
- Auditing and gap analysis prior to certification audits:
- ISO 45001 – Occupational health and safety management systems
- ISO 14001 – Environmental management systems.
- Integrated management systems auditing – ISO 45001, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 (Quality management systems).
- Compliance audits for:
- New Zealand based companies of their overseas businesses or interests
- Internationally based companies of their businesses or interests in New Zealand.
- Business, site, project, system or any other safety, health or environment audit.
Incident investigations
Sometimes even the most conscientious businesses can unfortunately suffer an unplanned and unwanted event resulting in an injury, illness or negative environmental impact. Sometimes a serious event is narrowly avoided, and you want to make sure you do everything you realistically can to reduce the chances of it happening again. Next time it might not be a near-miss!
We can help with:
- Incident investigations using the ‘Incident Cause Analysis Method’ (ICAM), either as the lead investigator or as part of your investigation team.
- Peer review of investigations or reports undertaken by your business or a third party.
- Critical analysis of proposed or implemented actions and changes.
- A review of the effectiveness of changes once implemented.
Did you know...
- The new ISO 45001 standard is the first, truly global international standard on occupational health and safety management systems. Certification against this standard will put your business up with some of the best on the planet. The old 4801 and 18001 standards are being phased out and will soon be redundant.
- Enforcement activities by WorkSafe New Zealand have increased from an average of approximately 350 per month in 2017 and around 900 per month in 2018, to over 1,000 per month in 2019. These activities range from written warnings and improvement notices, to infringement notices and recommendations for prosecution. (Source: WorkSafe website – Enforcement activities)
- The fines for breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act in New Zealand are getting steadily bigger and have now exceeded $500,000. This fine related to a fatality from a fall of approximately 2.9 metres from the top of a shipping container. Total direct costs including fines, reparations, money paid to the family, and court-costs exceeded $818,000. Does your current Health and Safety management really keep your people safe? Or are they just ‘statistically safe’? (Source: WorkSafe website – News and media)
- The monthly number of workplace-related fatalities has been steadily trending upwards since January 2018. Has the initial impact of the new Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 worn off? Are businesses spending less time and resources on health and safety, or becoming complacent? (Source: WorkSafe website – Fatalities)
Contact us:
John Ford
Principal – Safety, Health and Environment
john.ford@wsp.com
+64 27 201 4286