The British Safety Council’s International Safety Awards 2022 are now open for applications, with a new category to celebrate the achievements of individuals and organisations who go the extra mile to transform health, safety and wellbeing. 

The International Safety Awards are an internationally recognised accolade for safety excellence. Now in their 64th year, the awards recognise an organisation’s commitment to excellent standards of health, safety and wellbeing management. 

In 2021, more than 500 organisations of all sizes, types and sectors won an International Safety Award. The winners included businesses from the UK, Africa, Asia, India, mainland Europe and the Middle East. A full list of 2021’s winners can be found here.

Businesses of all sizes, types and sectors around the world can apply. There are 12 award categories for 2022, including seven that are free to enter.

Launching the International Safety Awards for 2022, Chief Executive of the British Safety Council, Mike Robinson said: “2021 has been a challenging year for many businesses. Unpredictability brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in ongoing health, safety and wellbeing challenges for organisations across the globe. 

“The British Safety Council’s annual awards offer companies, teams and individuals the chance to be recognised for their hard work and achievements in protecting and enhancing the health, safety and wellbeing of their organisations’ workers.”

Businesses applying can be recognised as ‘best in class’ across four categories:

• The Sector Awards will recognise overall ‘best in class’ submissions by organisations to the International Safety Awards, by industry sector category.
• The Best in Country Awards will recognise the highest scoring and best overall application from individual countries where there are more than four applications from the given country.
• Best in Company Award is for organisations with 50 or more participating sites and recognises the site(s) with the most outstanding applications.
• Chief Adjudicator’s Award will recognise the most outstanding applications from this year’s entrants. Previous winners have been exemplars in their respective areas and evidenced this through their application responses.

Winners of the Sector and Best in Country will only be awarded where there is an applicant who has achieved a Distinction in their 2021 International Safety Award application.

Seven of the awards are completely free-to-enter, including a new ‘Seize the Opportunity Award’. Applications and nominations for these awards are invited regardless of whether an organisation is applying for an International Safety Award:

• Seize the Opportunity Award: This new award recognises organisations that have gone the extra mile to seize health, safety or wellbeing opportunities resulting from a crisis. 
• CEO Award: This recognises the leadership and strategic vision of CEOs who have made a vital contribution to the health and safety of their business and to the wider society during 2021. The award recognises how an individual CEO has taken an active role in aligning and championing their organisation’s health, safety and wellbeing interests with their internal and external stakeholders. 
• Health and Safety Transformation Award – sponsored by Croner-i: The Health and Safety Transformation Award is for organisations that have significantly changed or transformed any aspect of health, safety or wellbeing to a significant extent through the use of information. 
• Health, Safety and Wellbeing Ambassador of the Year Award: This recognises an employee who, in the opinion of the organisation or person nominating them, has played a significant role in ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of colleagues and others.
• Team of the Year Award: This recognises outstanding achievements resulting in a significant improvement to health, safety or wellbeing, from a collaboration of stakeholders, which may include members of the organisation, suppliers, subcontractors and/or the wider community. 
• The James Tye Award: This recognises an organisation or a team of individuals who have developed and run a campaign in 2021 that has made a significant impact on health, safety or wellbeing in the workplace. It is named after British Safety Council’s founder, James Tye, who campaigned tirelessly on issues such as life jackets and seat belts. 
• Wellbeing Initiative Award – powered by Being Well Together: This recognises and rewards those organisations that have demonstrated a proactive and effective approach to improving employee wellbeing. 

The closing date for applications is Friday, 4 February 2022 and the results will be announced on Friday, 11 March 2022.  

www.britsafe.org/awards-and-events/awards/international-safety-awards/