Latest News and Case Studies
Case Studies
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Latest News
February 2012
ExxonMobil was fined £2.8m for failing to report carbon dioxide emissions from its Mosmorran chemical plant in Fife, it has emerged. The fine, believed to be the biggest ever in the UK, dates to 2010 but the details have only just been published. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said there had been no direct environmental impact.
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Gillian Tett, in the Financial Times of 4/5th February, raises some interesting points about the growth in popularity of CSR:
The Government has published the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA), the first assessment of its kind for this country and the first in a 5 year cycle. The report can be downloaded from:
From 6th April this year, subject to Parliamentary approval, RIDDOR’s over three day injury reporting requirement will change. From then the trigger point will increase from over three days’ to over seven days’ incapacitation (not counting the day on which the accident happened). The deadline by which the over seven day injury must be reported will increase to 15 days from the day of the accident. Full guidance is available from the HSE:
Severn Trent Water Ltd has been fined £24,000 plus almost £7,000 in costs after polluting Heapham fishing lake in Gainsborough and killing hundreds of fish in April 2011, the fourth time this has occurred in seven years.
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Drax Power Ltd in North Yorkshire has been found guilty of breaching r.5(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 after an incident in March 2011 in which a worker’s foot was fractured by a falling counterweight. Also prosecuted was Konecranes UK Ltd, the permanent on-site contractor responsible for maintaining all the cranes and hoists.
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The TUC is gearing up for the biggest ever national workplace health and safety event on 28th April this year. It has designated Workers’ Memorial Day 2012 a ‘Day of activity to defend health and safety’, which is facing an unprecedented attack.
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December 2011
The British Safety Council welcomes the Löfstedt Review and provides a reasoned response on its main findings and recommendations.
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National Grid Gas and Northern Gas Networks have been fined £4.3 million and £900,000 respectively by the regulator Ofgem for not attending to gas leaks in time during the period April 2010 to the end of March 2011.
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EU plans to levy an emissions tax on airlines are valid, according to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). As a result all airlines flying to and from the 27 states of the EU will face a tax on emissions from 1 January 2012.
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The Scottish Sheriff presiding at the enquiry into a 2008 trench death in Scotland described the death as “one more example of health and safety practice, training and procedures being ignored in the interests of expediency.”
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UK Coal Mining Ltd of Harworth, Notts, has been fined £1.2 million for four fatalities in 2006 and 2007.
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The HSE has released a report reviewing the characteristics of “High Reliability Organisations” - those that achieve high reliability and safety objectives.
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November 2011
Researchers claim six-fold increase in the risk of developing Parkinson's following workplace exposure to trichloroethylene
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Veterans involved in Britain's nuclear weapons tests between 1952 and 1958 are beginning the latest stage in their battle for compensation
More than 1,000 ex-servicemen say exposure to radiation has led to ill-health, such as cancer.
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The government's failure to meet EU standards on air pollution is "putting the health of UK residents at risk", says the Environmental Audit Committee
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October 2011
Insurance companies have failed in a legal bid to scrap the right of people in Scotland to claim damages for an asbestos-related condition
The UK Supreme Court dismissed their case, a decision which will enable people with pleural plaques to claim compensation.
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August 2011
Deaths from a cancer caused by asbestos dust are at an all-time high, research by BBC Look East has revealed.
Since the 1980s, the male death rate from mesothelioma has increased more than four-fold in the east of England.
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A man died on 18th August after collapsing in the chemical tank he was working in at Diamond Wheels Technologies in Dundee.
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The first part of the operation to stop the Shell pipeline leaking oil into the North Sea has, according to the company, been successful so far.
Shell has been dealing with the release of what has been estimated as more than 200 tonnes from a leak near the Gannet Alpha.
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Falkirk-based mobile phone recycling firm Redeem has been taken over by an incoming management team backed by a private equity investor.
Curt Hopkins, the new chief executive, states: “Our aim is to create Europe's leading value recycler with the vision of making corporate social responsibility easy.”
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High Street retailer Primark has been criticised by charities for its policy of shredding damaged and unwanted clothes.
The Association of Charity Shops has pointed to the environmental impact of destroying clothes - from the wasted resources in making them to those ending up in landfill.
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Scientists have produced what they say is the first complete map of how the ice moves across Antarctica.
It is built from images acquired by radar satellites and should aid the understanding of how the White Continent might evolve in the warmer world being forecast by climatologists.
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July 2011
Leading companies sponsor new Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (G4)
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the network-based organisation that produces a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework, announced on 29th June 2011 that ten world-leading companies are the global sponsors of the next generation of sustainability reporting guidelines. Registration for the first G4 Public Comment Period is now open. The 90 day Public Comment Period begins in August 2011.
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Sustainable growth features for the first time in China's five year economic plan
The Chinese government announced its 12th five year economic plan in March 2011. For the first time, sustainable growth is publicly stated as part of the core strategy. The plan's main goal is to boost consumption by creating more socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth, re-orienting the Chinese economy after three decades of rapid expansion.
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EU Commission tightens rules for biofuel use
In July 2011, the European Commission approved seven schemes set up to ensure that biofuels used in the EU are produced in an environmentally sustainable way.
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Nicholls and Clarke Glass fined after worker seriously hurt
The Dunstable-based company has been fined after a large piece of glass shattered and severed the artery, muscle and nerves in the right forearm of an employee.
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Falling snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains
A June 2011 study released by the United States Geological Survey notes that the decline in snowpack in the Rocky Mountains since the 1980s is unusual compared to the historical evidence gathered from the previous centuries.
This has huge implications on the availability of water for more than 70 million people living in the western US.
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July 2010
In a recent article in the Times of India, S A Aiyar writes that philanthropic activities labelled as CSR are being used by major corporations to cloak their irresponsible activities in respectability. Clearly the proponents of CSR need to concentrate more on CSR management within their organisations and less on publicity generating greenwash.
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UK government stops funding its independent environmental watchdog the Sustainable Development Commission.
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Five companies ordered to pay £9.5 million fine for their part in the 2005 Buncefield UK oil depot fire and explosion.
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HSE reaction
BBC News
FT article
Local MP considers Buncefield fines inadequate.
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Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings has become the first UK company to be charged under the 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act.
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COMAH Sites
The final (December 2008) report into the 2005 disaster at the Buncefield UK oil depot estimates the actual costs of this disaster at a major COMAH site as being in excess of £1bn. Read the report at www.buncefieldinvestigation.gov.uk
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