When people face poorly designed tasks, impractical controls or competing production demands, asking them to work more carefully has limits. Encirc’s Zero Harm strategy starts with the conditions surrounding the job and the decisions that shape how people work.

In its submission to The SHE Show Inspiring Change Awards 2026, Encirc describes a programme spanning around 2,000 colleagues across its Elton, Derrylin and Bristol operations.

Encirc produces around 3 billion glass bottles and other containers annually and can fill up to 500 million litres of bulk shipped beverages every year.

The integrated group offering means customers benefit from a unique supply chain approach, which includes access to Europe’s largest bonded warehouse, significantly shortening the supply chain and delivering considerable cost and environmental savings to customers.

Working in glass manufacturing, beverages, warehousing and logistics, these teams encounter risks ranging from hot glass and moving machinery to workplace transport, chemicals and major accident hazards.

The ambition was to strengthen operational ownership of those risks and help teams act before harm occurred. Encirc treats Zero Harm as a shared philosophy and commitment, supported by the message “Work Safe, Be Safe, Make It Home Safe”. Its approach connects personal safety, process safety and environmental responsibility within the same leadership framework.

The starting point was an honest assessment of existing practice. Culture maturity audits, employee feedback and incident trends identified inconsistent leadership involvement, variable risk-assessment quality and uneven frontline participation. Learning did not always travel between sites, and operational teams sometimes relied too heavily on HSE specialists to solve problems and own risk.

Encirc also recognised that written procedures did not always reflect how work happened in practice. Investigations could focus on individual actions without fully exploring the influence of planning, equipment design, supervision or production pressure. The programme therefore set out to change the routines and expectations that shaped everyday decisions.

Four guiding principles provide its structure: management and leadership; risk management, compliance and governance; competence, training and awareness; and culture, collaboration and sustainability. Each business unit translates these into a local improvement roadmap, identifying priority risks, required controls, accountable leaders and expected outcomes.

This allows a glass production area and a logistics yard to address different hazards while working to common expectations. Roadmap priorities include separating pedestrians from vehicles, reducing manual handling through equipment and redesign, and removing people from exposure to hot glass and machinery. The emphasis is on improving the work and checking that safeguards perform as intended.

Leadership activity has changed alongside these plans. Senior leaders’ visits increasingly focus on specific risks and conversations about the gap between procedures and daily work. Leaders are encouraged to ask what could cause serious harm, what prevents it and whether that protection works today. Risk-assessment reviews, training compliance and corrective action closure sit alongside injury data in performance discussions.

Employees have a practical role in shaping improvements. The supporting examples describe workplace walks led by a colleague from the area being visited, giving the team a direct view of issues needing attention. Actions are shared with those responsible, with problems escalated where additional support is needed. Another example describes a bespoke metal scrap-box holder designed to remove manual handling of moulds.

Encirc has also introduced Zero Harm as a value within its employee recognition platform, allowing colleagues to acknowledge contributions to safety, health, the environment and wellbeing. Recognition sits alongside opportunities to participate in investigations, review procedures and suggest better controls. The expectation is that reporting leads to visible follow-through.

Cross-site collaboration supports this approach. A logistics health and safety improvement working group brings the three sites together to share practice and identify improvements. Independent workplace transport audits provide a further source of challenge, helping teams examine the effectiveness of existing arrangements and agree what needs to change.

Encirc reports that its Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate fell from 14.89 at the launch of Zero Harm to 11.15, a reduction of approximately 25%. It also reports a reduction in total injury frequency from 6.82 in April 2025 to 5.94 in April 2026, approximately 13%. These results indicate progress, although the company recognises that injury figures alone cannot demonstrate a change in culture.

Employee perceptions show why continued attention matters. The overall score for “Encirc is a Safe Place to Work” was 70% in 2025, compared with 71% in 2024 and 67% in 2023. That mixed picture reinforces the importance of listening to people’s experience alongside tracking operational measures.

Encirc acknowledges further work on the consistency of risk assessments, frontline leadership capability and action backlogs. Its experience offers a practical lesson for the wider SHE community: culture change needs a clear connection between what people report, what leaders prioritise and how work improves. Zero Harm gives those activities a common direction, while local teams remain responsible for making the changes real.

Based on Encirc Limited’s submission and supporting materials for The SHE Show Inspiring Change Awards 2026. Results and programme progress are as reported by Encirc in August 2026.