President of the American Chamber of Commerce, Hugh Howard, has said he expects the recent oil spills on T&T's south-west peninsula to be a major talking point at the chamber's health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) conference and exhibition, which takes place next week on September 25 and 26.
Speaking about the upcoming event with the Sunday BG, Howard said he thought this would be one of the topics on attendees' minds, given the spill's effect on the residents, the environment and the economy as a whole.However, the focus of the event will be on the prevention of such disasters in future and not assigning blame.
Howard said some businesses were still slow in understanding the importance of health and safety planning, preferring to view it as a cost, rather than an investment. He said the conference was aimed at shifting this mindset.
"What we have been pointing out to them is: it is an investment, because it produces returns. If you have excellent health, safety and environmental practice in your business, it means that you are going to have less people getting ill. So that you don't have medical bills and you don't have loss time. Every time you have loss time on a project, it means the cost of that project escalates. It affects your bottom line."
The AmCham president also said a responsible business owner looked out for his employees, the human element, as they would members of their families."What you would want to ensure is that those workers are protected and are not unduly exposed to unnecessary risk of an injury."Nirad Tewarie, the chamber's CEO, said the conference will also focus on helping businesses build better business continuity arrangements.
"What happens in the case of a hurricane? How do you protect your business operations so it is seamless in the event of a disaster like a fire," said Tewarie.Another aspect of the conference and exhibition will be the security of a company's sensitive information. Tewarie said, with increasing numbers of corporations choosing to store information in the cloud, the issue of the maintenance and integrity of these records comes to the forefront.
Minister of the Water Resources and the Environment, Ganga Singh, is expected to deliver one of the feature addresses at the event, along with Transport Minister, Stephen Cadiz, who will give information on upcoming legislation treating with the areas of marine pollution and the transport of hazardous waste material.
Tewarie said two foreign experts–Dr Peter Sandman and Diana Kloss–are also expected to speak.According to his Web site, Dr Sandman is one of the pre-eminent consultants on risk communication in the US and is the creator of the "Risk=Hazard+Outrage" formula.Tewarie said, "He focuses on two things: how to get people concerned about these risks and how to communicate this after the fact."
Attendees can also expect to hear from Diana Kloss, a UK lawyer, instrumental in the creation of occupation health and safety legislation in that country.Tewarie said the mix of local and foreign experts was deliberate."We don't want to make the conference too myopic by focusing on the local, we are bringing international best practice into it."
Tewarie said the chamber planned to make the conference a regional affair from this year forward.Attendees can also expect a range of exhibitors from those in the health and safety equipment industry to environmental consultants.On September 26, AmCham will partner with the Ministry of Labour to reveal the winners of this year's HSSE awards. Howard explained the selection process.
"We have our own team of experts who go around to the nominees operations to see what they have really accomplished.Then they come in with their recommendations which are ranked in order, as to who gets first second or third in the various categories."There are 30 awards in wide ranging categories dividing companies by size and the areas: energy, manufacturing and services, most improved HSE performance and most outstanding HSE project.
Tewarie said applications and nominations are up 30 per cent over the previous year.The theme for this year's conference and exhibition is "HSSE Excellence–Plan, Practice, Assess, Act and Innovate."The chamber will also have a youth forum where students will not only gain exposure in areas of their school syllabuses, but Tewarie hopes they will act as "evangelists" spreading the word on the importance of health and safety to others.
Sponsors of this year's event include: Atlantic LNG, bpTT, Yara, BHP Billiton, Methanex, Nu-Iron and the Massy Wood.