What is Beyond Zero?

Beyond Zero is our vision of a sustainable future built on excellence in all that we do. It is a future, however, which is determined by the choices we make and the action we take today.

Beyond Zero is for us all, both as individuals and together as BAM Nuttall. It reaches beyond business into our lives outside work.

Beyond Zero thinking, takes compliance as the norm. It empowers us to go beyond current expectations. It encourages us to stretch our imagination.

Beyond Zero starts with eliminating harm to people and the environment. But it goes so much further than that.

It is about all of us

•           Genuinely caring for ourselves and our colleagues
•           Setting performance standards that are exceptional
•           Valuing the opinions of others
•           Leading by excellent personal example.
•           Showing the utmost respect for people and the planet.

Zero incidents? We can do better than that!

Beyond Zero history

In 2006, at a health and safety summit, the senior team came to the conclusion that simply aiming for zero accidents was a soft target and was not the final word in what could be achieved.

Work began on creating a vision that explained how you could move beyond the target of zero harm, to something that was actively positive. This work continued through 2007, with the launch of the first stage of Beyond Zero in October 2008.

After the launch, work began to raise awareness amongst our employees, at this stage the focus was on health and safety.

In 2009, as part of the awareness campaign a week was designated as ‘Beyond Zero Week’ a week in the year where everyone was encouraged to come up with innovative ways of promoting the principles of Beyond Zero.

By 2010, the thinking behind the vision was beginning to change. In particular, the company’s leadership team realised that the positive, active culture that Beyond Zero promoted was just as relevant to the company’s approach to the environment.

The Beyond Zero thinking used to improve Health & Safety also fitted the need not only to maintain but improve the environment. The traditional ‘do no harm’ approach applied to the environment wasn’t enough. Charged with improving the UK infrastructure, we aspired to enhance the areas we worked in, to proactively find ways to make a positive contribution to society.

This message became part of how Beyond Zero was discussed within the company. The conclusion was that the same approach could also enhance our approach to quality, customer relationships and commercial objectives. That this was also an attitude change that employees could take home with them to alter the way they did things outside of work as well.

In 2011, the work being carried out to embed Beyond Zero throughout all levels of the company was significantly increased. A partnership was formed with a global consultant company, JMJ Associates, to support us.

A major programme of workshops was created, aiming to get all employees to really focus on what Beyond Zero means for how they work.

These peer-led workshops focused on the health and safety aspects of Beyond Zero, aiming to make Beyond Zero, personal, relevant and important to everyone. This also supported the leadership’s principle, that any injury anyone employed by us is an injury too many.

The focus for 2012 is to use this as a platform to encourage everyone to take this policy of care and concern for people’s health and safety into other areas of their work.
Beyond Zero has become our culture, it is how we do things.