The safety, health and wellbeing of our employees and contractors is a primary focus for Drax and vital to our continued success.
Our approach and governance for safety, health and wellbeing
Our Group Safety, Health and Wellbeing Policy applies to employees and those working for or on behalf of Drax, and is supported by our OneSafeDrax vision that all colleagues have a role to play in safety for themselves and those they work alongside.
In 2023, we established a Group Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Governance Framework. It defines a systematic, risk-based approach with clear accountabilities, outlining the minimum HSE requirements with which our businesses and operations must comply. The Framework covers occupational health and wellbeing, occupational safety, process safety, and environment. Designated business unit leads are required to put in place HSE implementation statements and processes in line with the Framework. These are determined locally by the nature of the activities, risks, applicable regulatory regimes, and other factors.
Local Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) performance is regularly reviewed by each management team, with Group HSE performance reviewed quarterly by the Group HSE committee. Findings from an assessment of captured data is reviewed by the Executive Committee and the CEO also reports on that analysis, progress made on initiatives and areas for further action to the Board at each meeting. Additionally, Drax Leadership Team sessions (held monthly) commence with a ‘safety standout’ section where key safety messages are shared.
Our GHSE Centre of Excellence (C of E) convenes Group and business unit HSE leads, and its Terms of Reference were updated in 2023. The GHSE C of E meets monthly to share knowledge across the business and aims to drive improvements in HSE through use of best practice.
Additional people data can be found in our ESG Performance Report, published on the Drax website.
HSE Management Systems and audit
We have Safety Management Systems (SMS) in place to promote safe workplaces for our people. Our UK Generation assets have an integrated management system, certified to ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management Systems), ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management Systems), and ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems).
Our Commercial and Corporate sites in the UK continue to implement Safety Management Systems to raise awareness and drive continuous improvement in our health and safety culture. Our Pellet Production sites are aligned to one HSE management system across the US and Canada.
Training and raising awareness on safety
We have HSE training for employees based on the requirements of their role. Focus on HSE Leadership in 2024 resulted in selected UK HSE colleagues participating in a pilot practical safety leadership experience.
Safety targets and performance
We review our HSE performance regularly, including our Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR). We have a process to investigate injury events, with particular focus on those with a potential to become more severe, to ensure we establish root causes and learn lessons, before sharing findings across the organisation, where relevant.
In 2024, lagging and leading safety indicators1 (TRIR and NMHIR respectively) formed part of the Group Scorecard. Our TRIR in 2024 was 0.24 per 100,000 hours worked (2023: 0.38). NMHIR was 167.56 per 100,000 hours worked.
In addition to Group-wide Scorecard targets on safety, business units define local objectives and targets to drive positive safety behaviours locally.
Wellbeing
Our approach considers the holistic wellbeing of our colleagues, with a focus on four pillars of wellbeing: physical, mental, social, and financial. In 2023, we undertook a review of our wellbeing strategy, to enable alignment with the culture, new values, and colleague experience. Priority recommendations were included as part of 2024 and 2025 planning.
Colleague Resource Groups
2023 saw the launch of our first Colleague Resource Groups (CRGs). Through listening to our colleagues, we identified the need for two additional CRGs in 2024. We now have CRGs covering Women, Race and Ethnicity, Neurodiversity, and LGBTQ+, with over 12% of colleagues joining one or more.
In 2024 we were named by Working Families as one of the Top 30 UK employers for those with families. We will continue to our CRG groups to ensure people have a strong sense of belonging at Drax.
Our DEI programme
In 2024, we continued to work towards building a fair, safe, and inclusive Drax, that better represents the communities in which we operate. During 2024 our DEI team worked to develop localised plans to bring our DEI work to life. These plans bring together our DEI strategy and any local challenges for a meaningful and realistic plan that engages our colleagues.
