Pearl Campomanes

Health, Safety and Wellbeing at Meridian

We're committed to delivering clean energy for a fairer and healthier world. To do this, we understand the importance of looking after what’s most important – people.

At Meridian, we are committed to the safety, health, and wellbeing of everyone who works with us. Achieving world-class outcomes requires exemplary leadership and the seamless integration of health, safety, and wellbeing practices into every facet of our operations. 

He aha te mea nui ki a koe i tēnei au? Maku ki atu, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata. 
What is the most important thing in this world? It is people, it is people, it is people. 

Safety is the responsibility of everyone at Meridian

Our people play a crucial role in ensuring their own safety and that of others. Our Health, Safety and Wellbeing Policy and Code of Conduct ensure safety is embedded into everything we do and is championed by our people at all levels of the business. Participation in site safety committees and other forums, both internal and external, is encouraged to improve knowledge and practices and we empower our people to speak up, take action and look out for one another.

Our Commitment to Preventing Injuries and Illnesses

Our commitment to preventing injuries and illnesses is unwavering, and we strive to create a culture where safety is a shared responsibility. Through comprehensive risk management, continuous improvement, and collaboration with our partners, we ensure that our work environment is safe and healthy for everyone.  

We follow regulatory guidance as an owner and operator of electricity assets. Our Public Safety Management System (PSMS) is certified to NZS 7901: 2014 Electricity and gas industries – Safety management systems for public safety. Diligent risk management practices ensure that public safety is a key consideration in all our safe working procedures and practices when operating our assets.

We are committed to the continuous improvement of our safety and wellbeing practices. Applying engineering controls to eliminate hazards and risk is our primary consideration. Our Plant Control Process (PCC) ensures the safety of our people and plant. Any changes are incorporated into working procedures. Our risk management process is cyclical by design, enabling ongoing identification of improvement opportunities and supporting a proactive safety culture. 

  • Healthy Work By Design

    Meridian is committed to ensuring that the work our people, contractors, and stakeholders do is healthy work, designed to eliminate hazards and risks at the source.

    A comprehensive industry-aligned competency framework is in place for all our people, including contractors, who work on our high-risk assets. Most of our training aligns to NZQA standards, our electricians and technicians are registered and deemed competent by the Electricity Workers Registration Board (EWRB). We are closely affiliated with, and participate in, joint initiatives with key industry bodies such as StayLive and the Electricity Engineers' Association (EEA).

  • Risk Management

    A systematic approach is taken to risk identification to ensure that all hazards on any site are identified, assessed, and controlled. Our approach integrates risk management into all organizational processes, systems, culture, and decision-making.

    Our Critical Risk Framework identifies those risks that could lead to severe harm, injury, or death. Having a shared understanding of our high-impact risks and articulating the critical controls that prevent or mitigate these risks, help ensure we remain focused on preventing serious harm to our people.

    Shared learnings and Safety Alerts are issued at appropriate times to reduce the risk of occurrences. 

    Our risk management framework is aligned to ISO31000:2018 Risk Management.

     

  • Contractor Management

    We work closely with our partners, contractors, industry experts, and sector bodies to ensure we’re applying best practice.

    Contractors are an important part of our team, and when they are working with us or for us, we expect them to have the same commitment to health, safety, and wellbeing as our employees do. 

    Our contractor management procurement and engagement processes require a strong commitment to safety and wellbeing at all levels.

  • Emergency/Crisis Management

    We are committed to our obligations as a lifeline utility, ensuring that our operational readiness is safeguarded. We have comprehensive reduction, readiness, response, and recovery plans to ensure that Meridian can operate effectively, efficiently, and appropriately before, during, and after any emergency.

    Our teams are trained to respond to emergency situations where rescue and recovery is required, for example our wind technicians regularly train to global wind rescue standards.  Rescue training is a key part of competence for all our operational workers. 

    We respond without delay to all emergency situations and treat accidents and near miss events with urgency.

    Learning teams are stood up to explore key learnings and actions which are fed back into the hazard management system.   

     

  • Assurance and Audit Programme

    We are committed to proactive assurance through an effective assurance and audit programme. Our multi-layered programme, from site-based assurance activities to external independent audits, provides the Executive, Meridian Board, and other stakeholders with certainty that health and safety risks at Meridian are meticulously managed.

    Site inspections are undertaken to monitor health and safety activities with a key focus on ‘work as done.’  Our people who are doing the work are part of this activity, including our site-based health and safety committees, which ensure we get a real view account of how work is done.  Site and work inspections are increased as activity increases on site e.g. during project works or plant outages. 

  • Independent External Verification

    Our Safety Management System (SMS) is certified to meet with AS/NZS ISO 45001:2021 Occupational health and safety management systems.

    We align our Wellbeing framework to the global standard ISO 45003:2021 – Psychological Health and Safety at Work.

    Our Public Safety Management System (PSMS) is certified to NZS 7901: 2014 Electricity and gas industries.

Our Safety Performance

We establish annual objectives aimed at continuously enhancing our safety and wellbeing outcomes, and systematically measure progress towards these goals. These targets are determined and overseen through a robust governance framework. The Meridian Executive Team Safety Committee, along with the Meridian Board’s Safety and Sustainability Sub-Committee and the People, Remuneration, and Culture Sub-Committee, all provide active leadership in safety and wellbeing, ensuring effective management of our performance.

While specific targets may vary annually, they typically focus on reducing high-risk potential events and injuries, increasing opportunities for improvement via Learning Teams and Safety Alerts, monitoring employee engagement in safety culture metrics, and fulfilling our training and capability development objectives.

We regularly report on both progress toward these targets and key performance metrics to maintain visibility into our strengths and areas for further attention. These metrics include leading indicators—such as audits, inspections, observations, and Learning Teams—as well as more traditional lagging indicators like the frequency and severity of safety incidents and the Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate.

Our commitment to ongoing learning and improvement is designed to prevent recurrence of occupational injuries and illnesses. We actively seek insights from our own Learning Teams as well as industry experts, safety and wellbeing forums, and occupational health providers to identify opportunities to strengthen our protective measures.

By designing healthy work practices that incorporate industry best practice and staff input, we strive to foster and protect the safety and wellbeing of all team members.

Safety is a shared responsibility. Our leaders are accountable for creating a culture where health, safety, and wellbeing are embedded in everything we do. Guided by our Health, Safety and Wellbeing Policy and Code of Conduct, we empower our people to speak up, take action, and look out for one another.