Official Opening Ceremony of the HSE DAYS Project Held

The opening ceremony was attended by the First Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation Alexey Vovchenko, President of the ORP International Foundation and Vision Zero Ambassador Mr. Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, and General Director of SUVOROV PRO Andrey Prokopenko.

During the ceremony, issues regarding the implementation of the "Zero Harm" concept and the latest achievements of the Vision Zero movement were discussed, and further practical steps were outlined for developing a full-scale exchange of experience between industrial companies within the HSE DAYS project.

Addressing the participants and organizers of the project, Alexey Vovchenko noted that the VZ concept is a flexible mechanism that can be applied at any enterprise, and one of the important achievements is that the rules of the concept have been reflected in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

The First Deputy Minister emphasized that since the launch, more than 6,000 Russian organizations have joined the Vision Zero concept. "Our task is to have all employers participate in this system; it should become the foundation in the field of occupational safety," he noted.

Russian regions are also actively joining the implementation of the concept; at this stage, 24 constituent entities at the government level have already confirmed their involvement in the process and received certificates.

Concluding his speech, Alexey Vovchenko noted the importance of sharing experience, wished further success, and emphasized that specialists from the Russian Ministry of Labor are actively joining the further work of the project.

"I am highly impressed by the progress observed in Russia regarding the development of the Zero Harm concept," Mr. Konkolewsky emphasized in his speech.

According to the Vision Zero Ambassador, implementing the Zero Harm concept requires a change in the mindset of all employees. "HSE safety must become the most important benchmark for a company. A clear understanding of this priority and compliance in absolutely all actions and foundational documents is necessary," he noted.

In his speech, Mr. Konkolewsky highlighted three main success factors for implementing the zero harm concept: conducting occupational risk assessments, ensuring proper training of relevant employees, and the leadership of top management and leading specialists.

"It is very important to see such support from the Russian government. I congratulate the government on expressing a clear and strong commitment to the goals and objectives of the Zero Harm concept from the very beginning. Russia became the first country to sign an agreement on implementing the concept with ISSA," he concluded. At the end of his speech, Mr. Konkolewsky emphasized the significant successes of Russian companies in the field of HSE and noted that international companies have much to learn from Russian ones.

At the end of the ceremony, Andrey Prokopenko spoke about the prerequisites, scale, and concept of the HSE DAYS project.

"We are creating a project where companies share their practical experience in implementing tools to realize the Vision Zero concept," he stated.

According to the organizer, the project concept includes a set of online and offline events throughout the year (a series of webinars, an Olympiad, express audits, closed group visits to enterprises, and a final international conference) aimed at developing a full-scale exchange of experience in the field of HSE.

Andrey Prokopenko noted that the project's experts are managers and specialists from industrial companies who implement various tools to reduce occupational injuries.