As part of a redesign of its Next Gear website that houses the Safety Management System (SMS), Laing O’Rourke has integrated its Environmental Management System (EMS) and SMS to provide easy access for all of its stakeholders.

The EMS was previously only available on Laing O’Rourke’s internal intranet.  By integrating the EMS with the SMS, the new Next Gear HSEMS system is now available externally via www.nextgearsms.com.

As part of the integration and to ensure alignment across our Australian operations, we have used the same structure for all environmental and safety requirements:

• Severe Environmental Risks (SERs), similar to Fatal & Severe Risks (FSRs), outline the critical controls that must be in place and working effectively to prevent severe environmental impacts.
• Environmental Primary Standards (EPS) have been developed from aspects & impacts as well as compliance obligations. Documenting operational controls, they provide the framework for eliminating or minimising risk of environmental harm as well as creating opportunity for innovation and enhancing environmental benefits.
• Environmental System Requirements (SR) describe the processes that must be implemented in order for operations and activities to meet compliance obligations, policies and objectives.  To maximise operational efficiency many of the system requirements are shared with safety (e.g. event management, emergency response etc.) Other system requirements have been developed specifically for environmental aspects.

A register of changes is available here (Change Register) and a document outlining any specific requirements for workplaces following the changes is included here (EMS Fact Sheet Outline).

For more information on the EMS, check out the Environmental Requirements section of the Next Gear HSEMS.  If you would like to know more please contact a member of our HSE team or contact us via the support page.