Vestas is setting long-term safety targets, as well as goals for building a more inclusive and diverse workplace.
The wind turbine manufacturer said it is committing itself to reduce the rate of total recordable injuries to 1.5 per million working hours by 2025, and to 0.6 per million by 2030.
Compared with achieving four total recordable injuries per million working hours in 2018, the new target represents an average reduction of 15% year on year by 2030, according to Vestas.
Vestas quality, safety and environment vice president Bo Kokholm Pedersen said: “Safety has always been our number one priority at Vestas.
“However, if we are to continue to be a spearhead of the energy transition, we must be more ambitious in our approach to safety than any other supplier in the renewable energy sector.
“I am incredibly proud that we are accelerating our journey along this path by becoming the only wind energy manufacturer to set bold, long-term targets within safety.”
To meet these targets, Vestas will introduce several initiatives.
As a first step, manufacturing processes will be re-evaluated to improve ergonomics and automation. In addition, pilot projects that make use of predictive analytics and augmented reality will be introduced to improve construction and service site safety.
Furthermore, Vestas said it will introduce a “safety by design approach” to all areas of its value chain, entailing an increased focus on safety across manufacturing, installation and decommissioning of turbines.
Vestas will also increase its focus on diversity and inclusion going forwards, and directly addressing gender disparities as a first step.
Gender diversity is a “pressing issue” in the wind industry, with 65% of women working in wind surveyed saying the perceive gender-related barriers at work, in comparison to 34% of men, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s ‘Wind Energy: A Gender Perspective study’.
As part of the increased focus on diversity and inclusion, Vestas said it will increase the number of females in leadership positions to 25% by 2025, and 30% by 2030.
Vestas will undergo an external audit of pay equity this year, while also expanding its female role models campaign to create more awareness of the opportunities available to women within the company.
Vestas will also introduce initiatives to support inclusion beyond the gender disparity.
Initiatives to assess and eliminate bias in recruitment processes will be introduced, including the implementation of a tool to enable more inclusive job advertisements, by highlighting language that may be hostile towards gender identities, cultures or nationalities.
In the next two years, Vestas will further develop its policies to facilitate inclusion to target more diverse perspectives beyond gender.
Vestas chief financial officer Marika Fredriksson said: “At Vestas, we believe a lack of diversity is a loss of talent. Younger generations gravitate towards companies that align with their own purpose-driven values.
“To remain attractive, we must prove that we share these values.
“At Vestas, we view the energy transition as an opportunity to change diversity-related barriers in the workplace. It is our duty as a leader in sustainable energy to ensure that the energy transition benefits everyone, not just the few”.
Vestas people and culture executive vice president Kerstin Knapp added: “2020 marks the launch of Vestas incorporating sustainability into everything we do and building a truly diverse and inclusive workplace is key to deliver on this commitment, and to achieve our vision of becoming the global leader in sustainable energy solutions”.