We’re delighted to announce that we’ve been shortlisted for the Health and Safety Initiative at the 2026 Water Industry Awards.
Our nomination celebrates ‘OPEN’, our culture and behaviour programme, developed to create a safer, healthier, higher-performing environment. Launched in 2023, OPEN is part of our everyday processes across Stonbury – from inductions and leadership training, to incident learning and team routines.
The programme was created in response to clear trends: rising accidents, sickness absence and avoidable equipment damage. Root cause analysis showed that the biggest opportunities for improvement weren’t in our policies, but in our behaviours and the quality of everyday conversations.
Since launch, OPEN has helped us:
By focusing on behaviours, conversations and leadership consistency, OPEN is helping us reduce undesirable events, strengthen engagement and embed learning in a way that lasts.
- Improve decision making and reduce undesirable events
- Equip managers to lead consistently and proactively
- Embed learning into routine processes so improvements are sustained
- Strengthen engagement and wellbeing through cultural KPIs and feedback
- Provide a flexible, scalable approach that works across teams and programmes
By focusing on behaviours, conversations and leadership consistency, OPEN is helping us reduce undesirable events, strengthen engagement and embed learning in a way that lasts.
We look forward to joining the other finalists at the awards in June – and wish everyone the very best of luck!
