HS1: Employees – Above Green

(points determined by materiality)

Intent

The intent of this indicator is to assess health and safety performance associated with the entity’s employees. The health and safety of employees is a common key performance indicator for infrastructure operators.

Requirements

Select Yes or No: If selecting “Yes”, the entity must be actively tracking and reporting on all of the mandatory reporting metrics (indicated by the dark green cell outline).

Can the entity report on the health and safety performance of their employees?

Yes
- External review - Has the data reported above been reviewed by an independent third party?
  - Yes (provide evidence indicating where the relevant information can be found)
    - Externally checked
    - Externally verified - Using: [insert scheme name]
    - Externally assured - Using: [insert scheme name]
  - No
- EXCEPTIONS - Does the entity’s data reported above cover all, and only, the facilities (as reported in RC3) and activities (RC4) for the entire reporting year (EC4)? (for reporting purposes only)
  - Yes
  - No
    - Please indicate which facilities, activities and/or time periods are additional or excluded from the data reported above
      
      ________________________
No
- Provide additional context for the answer provided (not validated, for reporting purposes only)
  ________________________

Changes: New metrics “Near miss incidents” and “Hours worked” have been added. “Reportable injuries” have been changed to “Total recordable injuries”. The metric “Other [enter value]” has been removed. The LTIFR and TRIFR are now calculated automatically in a separate intensities table.

Prefill: The cells in the column “Previous-year performance” have been prefilled with the 2019 Assessment response where metrics have remained the same. Data has not been prefilled for new metrics or metrics that have substantially changed relative to the 2019 Assessment.

Performance Tables

Employees table: Complete the table as follows:

Previous-year performance (2018): This column shows the reported performance for the previous year (2018). If a metric is new or has changed substantially compared to last year or is new, or if there is no data available for the entity for the previous year, ‘N/A’ is shown. It is not possible to enter any data into this column.
Reporting-year performance (2019): Enter data for the performance during the reporting year for each metric where available.

It is mandatory to enter data for the metric “Fatalities”, highlighted with a green border.
‘Zero’ is an acceptable answer if it is true and accurate. If the entity cannot provide all of the mandatory data then it must select “No” for the overall indicator.

Reporting-year target (2019): Enter the targets that were applicable for the reporting year for each metric, where available.

A target can be interpolated from a future-year target.
A target (or the future-year target from which it is derived) must be formally adopted. This means that the entity must have set and communicated the target at least internally, and has implemented, or is preparing, actions to achieve the target.

Future-year targets: Enter the relevant year for which the targets are set at the top of the column and enter the future-year targets for each metric where available.

A target must be formally adopted.
The target must be set for any future year that is not the reporting year.

Employee intensities table: In Health & Safety, intensity metrics in the form of frequency rates provide a basis for comparing and benchmarking ESG performance. The table should be completed as follows:

Previous-year performance (2018): This column shows the reported performance for the previous year (2018). It is not possible to enter any data into this column.
Reporting-year performance (2019): Frequency rates are calculated automatically as follows:

Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) = “Lost time injuries”/”Hours worked” * 1,000,000
Total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) = “Total recordable injuries”/”Hours worked” * 1,000,000

Reporting-year target (2019): Enter the targets that were applicable for the reporting year for each metric, where available.

A target can be interpolated from a future-year target.
A target (or the future-year target from which it is derived) must be formally adopted. This means that the entity must have set and communicated the target at least internally, and has implemented, or is preparing, actions to achieve the target.

Future-year targets: Enter the relevant year for which the targets are set at the top of the column and enter the future-year targets for each metric where available.

A target must be formally adopted.
The target must be set for any future year that is not the reporting year.

External review

Select Yes or No: If selecting “Yes”, state whether the data submitted has been checked, verified or assured (select one option; the most detailed level of scrutiny to which the data was subjected). Participants should select the appropriate checkbox(es):

Externally checked: should be selected when a third party has reviewed the data in a structured and consistent process.
Externally verified: applies to instances where a third party has reviewed the data against an existing scheme. When this checkbox is ticked, participants should select the scheme name from the dropdown.
Externally assured: applies to instances where a third party has reviewed the data against an existing scheme. When this checkbox is ticked, participants should select the scheme name from the dropdown.

GRESB does not require the selected standard to be specific to health and safety data. As such, a standard initially designed to verify/assure other types of ESG data can be selected as long as the same thoroughness and review criteria are applied to data reported in HS1.

Exceptions

Select Yes or No: GRESB is seeking to standardize the scope and boundaries of reporting to allow for more accurate benchmarking and to progressively move towards scoring of performance. If the scope of the data reported for this indicator does not exactly match the reporting scope (facilities, ancillary activities and time period) as reported in “Entity and Reporting Characteristics” (EC3, RC3, RC4), then answer ‘No’ to this question and describe these exceptions in the “Exceptions” text box.

Examples are:

Temporal - A toll road includes data on energy consumption from its street lighting within its boundary but due to a data glitch, it lost this data for a two month period during the reporting year.
Physical - A power plant includes a switchyard facility within its reporting boundary but does not have data on water discharge for this facility.
Operational - An airport includes the operation of mobile equipment within its reporting boundary but not for aircraft since these are operated by airlines.

Validation

Evidence

It is optional to provide evidence of external review in the form of a third-party letter or certificate. Evidence will not be subject to manual validation for this indicator in 2020. Evidence can be provided by a hyperlink or through a document.

Hyperlink: If a hyperlink (or deep link) is provided, ensure that the relevant page can be accessed within two steps.
Document upload: Participants may upload several documents. When providing a document upload, it is mandatory to indicate where relevant information can be found within the document (e.g. for evidence relating to issue x, see section y on page z; for evidence relating to issue a, etc.).

Evidence should include:

Proof of the existence of third-party review of the data;
Clear indication that the reviewed data reflects the reported data;
A description of the type of third-party review (checked, verified or assured) and the used assurance standard (if applicable);
Proof that the data review applies to the entity.

Scoring

Materiality-based Scoring: This indicator applies materiality-based scoring. The materiality weighting for this indicator is determined by the materiality level of the ‘Health and Safety: employees’ issue in the GRESB Materiality Assessment (RC7).

Where this issue is of ‘High’ relevance, this indicator will be weighted highly and where this issue is of ‘Medium’ relevance, it will be weighted moderately. If materiality for this issue is set at ‘No’ or ‘Low’ relevance for the entity, this indicator will not be scored. As a result, the weight of this indicator may differ for each participant based on its materiality profile. The weighting of the material (scored) indicators in the Performance Component is automatically redistributed to ensure that the Component retains its overall weighting of 50% of the Asset Assessment. For more details refer to the section on Materiality Based Scoring in this Reference Guide or download the GRESB Materiality & Scoring Tool.

Scoring of Metrics: This indicator is scored as a one-section indicator where evidence is optional. Only the metric in the performance table cells shaded in light green is used for scoring. The scored metrics for Health & Safety: Employees are “Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate” and “Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate”.

For the scored metric, all columns (“Reporting-year performance”, “Reporting-year target” and “Future-year target”) should be completed to obtain points as follows:

60% of the indicator score will be based on the reporting of a value in “Reporting-year performance”.
20% of the indicator score will be based on the reporting of a target in “Reporting-year target”. For 2020, scoring is based on whether a target was set, not on whether the target was achieved.
20% of the indicator score will be based on the reporting of a target in “Future-year target”. For 2020, scoring will be based on whether a target was set, not on whether the entity is on track to achieve the target.

Reporting of external data review and exceptions are not scored in 2020.

Terminology

Employee: Individual who is in an employment relationship with the entity, according to national law or its application.

Fatality: Any deaths that occurred during or as a result of a disease or injury that occurred at or through work.

Lost Time Injury: Any injury, arising in the course of work, that results in temporary or permanent time away from work. Includes fatalities, permanent disabilities and injuries that have led to absence from work.

Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR): The number of lost time injuries occurring in a workplace per million hours worked.

Recordable injury: Any injury, arising in the course of work, that is a Lost Time Injury or that has required medical treatment beyond first aid or that have led to cancer, chronic disease, fractured bones or punctured eardrums.

Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR): The number of recordable injuries per million hours worked.

References

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

ILO - International Labour Standards on Occupational Safety and Health

USA OSHA - Using Leading Indicators

Alignment with External Frameworks

GRI Standards (2018) 403: Occupational Health & Safety

Relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth

8.8 Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment

SDG 3-Good Health and Well-being