2020 Property and Construction Annual Honours — Health and Safety Company of the Year

Featured company: Livefirm Construction(N.I.)Ltd

Reason for recognition: Chinese construction companies can meet and even exceed New Zealand’s construction industry health and safety requirements.

Before Livefirm Construction (N.I.) Ltd won the annual Site Safe & CHASNZ Safety Excellence Award, no Chinese recipient had appeared on the awards podium at a New Zealand Institute of Building (NZIOB) ceremony.

As the country’s most authoritative construction industry awards, the NZIOB New Zealand Building Industry Awards have traditionally attracted entries—and ultimately winners—mostly from long-established, European-owned companies familiar to New Zealanders.

Livefirm’s receipt of the highest award in the construction company safety category is both a powerful endorsement of its longstanding commitment to employee health and safety and proof to the wider industry that Chinese construction companies have the willingness, determination and ability to meet and even exceed New Zealand’s construction industry health and safety requirements.

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18 months of dedicated development and continuous improvement

Livefirm won the award for its Livefirm Mitresaw Dust Control Station, which captures more than 90% of the dust generated when a mitre saw is used.

Mitre saws are commonly used on building sites to cut timber. Dust pollution has remained an unresolved problem because of two technical difficulties: a separate vacuum cannot operate in synchronisation with the saw, while a synchronising device can easily burn out because of voltage differences between it and the saw.

Several years ago, after recognising the harm construction dust causes workers’ health, Livefirm began exploring more effective ways to protect them.

Fortunately, one of the company’s site supervisors had previously worked in mechanical design and knew of components unfamiliar to the construction industry. Under his leadership, repeated testing and refinement led to successive versions as problems were identified and solved, improving the equipment’s functionality and practicality.

After 18 months and three generations of improvements, the current third-generation Mitresaw Dust Control Station combines improved circuitry with an additional cyclone filtration and collection system. It effectively separates and collects the three types of waste produced by mitre saws—wood chips, coarse dust and fine dust—resolving site pollution and preventing dust-related harm to workers. It is also easy to clean, avoiding secondary airborne dust pollution during waste disposal.

The company is now preparing third-party testing of the station’s effectiveness to obtain more authoritative data. It has also set its next development goal: finding an effective solution to dust pollution from table saws.

16 years of unwavering commitment to health and safety

Founded in 2004, Livefirm has always put employee health and site safety first. Industry professionals know that health and safety are paramount in construction, yet few contractors establish a dedicated department to manage them.

Livefirm’s health and safety department has three full-time staff responsible for maintaining safety, employee training, risk management and construction supervision.

The company invests tens of thousands of New Zealand dollars in employee safety training each year. Every employee must undertake training in relevant laws and regulations as well as practical procedures.

The company also invests generously in personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety equipment.

In the Sitewise 2019/2020 annual assessment for Green status, Livefirm achieved an impressive score of 97, against a passing threshold of 75.

Although the deduction of 3 points was entirely understandable, executive director TK Yong has already set a higher goal for next year: ‘If we are going to do this, we should score 100 and be the best.’