Forge Fedriga GREEN & SAFETY Magazine N.16
Information and sharing of environmental and health and safety topics underlie the relationship between Forge Fedriga and all its stakeholders. We are publishing the 16th issue of the “Green & Safety Magazine”.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS ON MOBILITY – BIO DISTRICT OF VALLECAMONICA
The Bio-district of Vallecamonica promoted and presented the “Cycle-ABLE valley project: experimenting with active mobility routes” to the Effetto ECO call for applications: Economia di Comunità di Fondazione CARIPLO (CARIPLO Foundation Community Economy Effect). Forge Fedriga expressed its interest by announcing its availability to collaborate, for the attainment of its objectives.
Italy has a density of 656 cars per 1000 inhabitants, the highest in Europe. Every week Italians waste more than 10 hours of their time in commuting, about one hour more than the European average; 75% of the routes are less than 10 km; on average, 1.2 people occupy each car. The Camonica Valley is no exception, with its high traffic level regardless of the public service running at an acceptable level. The project will be conducted in seven municipalities of the Lower Camonica Valley: Darfo Boario Terme, Esine, Piancogno, Berzo Inferiore, Cividate Camuno, Malegno, Breno. These municipalities, surrounding and bordering, have an overall population of 37,570 (ISTAT data January 2018), 37.5% of the population residing in the entire Camonica Valley.
The excessive use of private cars negatively affects the quality of the local air, health, living-comfort, and social costs due to accidents.
It is necessary to increase the number of people who use bikes for local commutes and to go to surrounding towns for work, school and other commitments; in view of the ecological transition, also adopted on national level.
Our area is suitable for the use of traditional bikes, in the towns in the bottom of the valley, as well as E-BIKES in the slope-side towns. The use of cargo e-bikes is also of interest.
The concrete operational proposals of the project are:
• Creating a favourable environment for using bikes
• Agreements with the Municipalities for the creation of dedicated lanes for the safe connection of bike lanes-built-up areas, dedicated parking lots with lock and charging columns
• Campaign to promote the use of bikes
• Awareness raising campaigns at schools, at workplaces, on the benefits of biking: environment, health, less stress, socialising, quality of life, savings
THE FIRST ITALIAN HYDROGEN VALLEY, A REPLICABLE MODEL
The first Italian “Hydrogen Valley” was announced at the end of 2020 and introduces a zero-emissions ecosystem in Valcamonica. The main steps of the project include buying new trains that run on hydrogen, which will be used on the non-electric Brescia-Iseo-Edolo line at the end of 2023, replacing the current diesel motor trains, building power plants for the production of hydrogen, initially intended for the new clean-energy trains and then for the introduction of a new fleet of hydrogen-powered buses that will jointly use the same refuelling stations.
This is a completely innovative project that aims to create travel with zero impact on the environment, through the decarbonisation of transport and the development of a local hydrogen supply chain. The introduction of hydrogen in Italy truly means taking a leap forward in the transformation process of the transport industry and heading towards sustainable mobility based on clean energy and reducing the environmental impact
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES AND REPORTING NEAR MISSES
The importance of reporting near misses is necessary for a good Occupational Health and Safety Management System. Within the company organisations, there are a series of factors that impede its actual implementation.
These include the failure of the involved employees to recognise a near miss as an event that needs to be reported: “I didn’t get hurt and therefore it is as though nothing happened!” or the perception that reporting near misses is simply the enth form of paperwork/reporting, analysis, etc.) that does not produce any value and, on the contrary, hinders “normal” company activities. Or, even worse, failure to provide feedback to those who report a near miss: “What happened to my report?”.
It is therefore important to apply a management procedure for near misses that expressly involves the reporting, analysis and processing method with the relative assignment of roles and responsibilities; with the entire staff being familiar with the near miss management procedure.
The Forge Fedriga ISO45001-certified Health and Safety Management System expressly requires this procedure, along with spreading a corporate culture that recognises that even competent people can make mistakes and violate routine rules, but this does not mean that they have to be penalised unless the risky actions/behaviour are deliberate.
In recent years more than 80 near misses have been analysed that have partially helped mitigate some risks.
GOOD PARTICIPATION IN THE SARS Cov2 VACCINATION CAMPAIGN
The vaccination, as we know, is currently only mandatory for health workers (Lgs. D. No. 44 of 01/04/2021 with the conversion law of May 28 2021 No.76). In non-health sectors vaccination is not compulsory and is therefore considered as an opportunity to reduce the risk of infection of SARS Cov2 and not as a work-related risk.
Vallecamonica has seen a high vaccination rate in comparison to the national average. From an assessment based on voluntary statements, this average also includes the Forge Fedriga employees who got vaccinated. With all of the protection measures kept in place, a vaccinated individual is less susceptible to infection and, therefore exposed to limited health-related consequences, in addition to remaining contagious for much less time than a non-vaccinated person.
