Safety First, Excellence Always: How a Culture of Care for Our People and Our Work Drives Quality
Safety isn’t just a policy or a set of procedures at IHI Terrasun—it’s a shared commitment, an organizational mindset, and an operational cornerstone. It’s about protecting people, ensuring quality of workmanship, and achieving excellence in every task.
At IHI Terrasun, safety begins with people. While compliance with industry regulations like OSHA and NFPA 70E are essential, our approach goes beyond the baseline. By fostering a culture where safety is everyone’s responsibility, we create an environment that prioritizes the wellbeing of employees, contractors, and partners while delivering lasting value to projects and the industry at large.
A Holistic Approach to Safety
We believe in a dual approach that combines top-down leadership with bottom-up ownership. From the executive team to field technicians, every individual at the company plays a role in building and maintaining a safety-first culture.
- Top-Down Leadership: Safety is the first item on the agenda at every meeting, a priority reinforced by executive leadership. This buy-in from the top cascades through the organization, ensuring that safety policies are not just written but lived.
- Bottom-Up Ownership: In the field, employees actively participate in our safety program through behavior-based observations and peer-to-peer evaluations. Our safety platform enables employees to document observations and share best practices, fostering accountability and collaboration across teams.
Protecting Our People
At IHI Terrasun, safety has far-reaching benefits that enhance our operations and the outcomes of our projects. By empowering employees at all levels, we ensure that safety is a collective responsibility.
Our priority is ensuring safety around electrical equipment. Employees receive thorough training, follow strict safety procedures, use proper tools and protective gear, and assess hazards before starting work. They remain aware of their surroundings and are prepared to respond to emergencies.
Safety Helps to Ensure Quality and Drives Efficiency
Safety and quality are intrinsically linked. Investments in safety do more than mitigate risk — they build a foundation for operational excellence and long-term success. Attention to safety translates into attention to detail, resulting in higher-quality work and longer-lasting infrastructure. A safe work environment also leads to cleaner, more efficient operations with fewer mistakes and disruptions. Furthermore, maintaining a strong safety record is vital for the reputation of both our company and the broader industry.
Attention to safety fosters a meticulous approach to tasks, where every detail is carefully considered. This vigilance not only protects workers but also results in work that is efficient, reliable, and built to last. A safe work environment encourages precision and accountability, ensuring that every project meets the highest standards from start to finish.
Turning Principles into Practice
Turning safety from a principle into practice requires structure, tools, and continuous improvement. Here are key elements that contribute to effective safety practices:
- Comprehensive Policies and Training: Our safety policies are living documents, reviewed annually and updated whenever regulations or industry conditions change. Training is mandatory for all employees and designed to embed safety habits into everyday routines.
- Behavior-Based Safety Tools: Through our safety platform, employees log observations and track potential hazards, promoting real-time accountability. This tool also serves as a training hub, ensuring safety knowledge is accessible and up to date.
- Knowledge Sharing: We facilitate the exchange of best practices between sites and teams through personnel sharing and inter-site communication. This cross-pollination of ideas strengthens our overall safety framework.
- Good Catch Policy: Recognizing near misses as opportunities for learning, our “good catch” policy encourages employees to report and address potential hazards before they become incidents.
Embedding these elements into day-to-day operations ensures that safety isn’t a one-time initiative but an ongoing commitment. Over the past several years, IHI Terrasun has maintained an incident rate far below the industry average . These metrics highlight the effectiveness of our safety-first culture and the dedication of our teams to upholding those standards.
Safety in the Renewable Energy Sector
The renewable energy sector offers unique opportunities to lead with safety. Unlike legacy industries where safety procedures are often reactive—developed after accidents—the renewable sector has the opportunity to lead with proactive measures. Preventing accidents before they happen not only protects workers but also elevates the reputation of the sector.
By combining regulatory compliance with experience-based best practices, renewable energy companies are setting the benchmark for what safety can achieve in a rapidly growing industry. This commitment helps ensure that the clean energy transition is not just effective but sustainable for decades to come.
Whether through our top-down commitment, bottom-up ownership, or industry-leading practices, IHI Terrasun is creating a workplace where safety is ingrained, and excellence is the standard. As we continue to lead in the energy storage sector, our unwavering focus on safety ensures that every project we undertake is a step toward a brighter, more sustainable future.