CRH's corporate social responsibility project tackles construction industry safety and will aid the Simon Community, writes Caroline Madden

Property and the housing market has developed into something of a national sport, but conversations rarely delve into two delicate issues surrounding this topic: the safety of workers in the construction industry and homelessness.

Dublin-headquartered CRH, one of the largest building materials suppliers in the world, is tackling these two thorny issues head-on through a new corporate social responsibility project - the CRH Simon Safety Challenge.

For every accident-free quarter achieved at any CRH branch across the 32 counties, a donation will be made to the Simon Communities of Ireland - a voluntary organisation that works with people who are homeless - operating in that region.

For every branch that achieves a full accident-free year, the company will donate an additional 25 per cent bonus payment. The overall target donation for the full year is set at €1 million.

Donal Dempsey, regional managing director at CRH, explains how this innovative project came about.

"We sell a huge volume of materials into the residential construction market, so we said if we're selling into the house-building market, why not see could we support some of the agencies working in the shelter provision area?"

The company was also looking for a project that had a national profile and that would draw in and involve its workers.

CRH already places a huge emphasis on improving its safety performance and eliminating accidents, so when Patrick Burke, chief executive of Simon, suggested a safety challenge, it all clicked into place.

"You're dealing in an industry where there are constantly people working close to moving equipment excavators, dump trucks and so on," explains Dempsey, "so safety management is a huge part of the business.

"The company employs 25 specialist safety managers who set up safety programmes such as manual handling training and working at heights training, and CRH has succeeded in reducing accidents by more than 50 per cent over the last five years."

So if CRH already has effective safety programmes in operation, what's the attraction of this new safety challenge?

"This is not the primary vehicle to reduce our accidents," Dempsey says. "We've got to a very good position by comparison with our peers in this industry.

"Keeping safety awareness at the front of people's minds is a constant challenge," he says, "and so you must continually innovate. We're trying to incentivise it further.

"It helps to get people talking about safety. It helps awareness."

The challenge kicked off on July 1st, and so far it has received a warm reception from CRH workers.

"Everyone throughout the company that I've met has been wholly positive about it," says Dempsey.

"In fact some of our employees have written to me and said great idea, delighted to be doing something like this. It has hit the spot all right, and I believe we'll get a very full engagement."

According to Patrick Burke, this is likely to be the single biggest corporate donation that Simon has ever received, and not surprisingly he is "absolutely delighted" with the project.

"We're all fully aware of the massive building boom that has occurred here in the last 10 years, but certain sections of the population haven't benefited from the housing boom," he says.

"CRH is saying that they have got a lot out of the economy and want to give something back, and clearly it is a good match to work with an organisation like ourselves that are trying to combat homelessness."

The beauty of the project, Burke says, is that it is localised. CRH branches across the 32 counties are involved and funds raised in each branch will be used to address the specific needs of the local community.

"In the southeast, for instance, it will be spent primarily on tenancy sustainment workers who troubleshoot difficult situation before homelessness occurs," says Burke.

"In Cork it will be very much used in the daycare centre, ensuring that there's adequate food and medical services available, so it will vary from county to county."

As well as the monetary benefits of the project, Burke anticipates that the fact that everybody from CRH management right down to quarry workers and delivery van drivers are involved in this initiative will help to spread understanding of the complex problem that is homelessness.

"The more people that are educated and understand it the more they're willing to volunteer to our services," he says.

"The safety challenge is a win- win situation for all involved," says Burke, adding that there is greater buy-in from companies if they have something to gain from projects like this, rather than simply handing over a donation.

As well as improving their own safety levels, CRH workers will have the added satisfaction of knowing that they have helped the Simon organisation get one step closer to its ambitious goal of eliminating street homelessness by 2010.