SoCalGas’ Safety Forward program is one of three finalists for the National Safety Council’s 2023 Green Cross for Safety Innovation Award.  SoCalGas was named finalist in recognition of the steps we’ve taken to strengthen our safety culture, empower safety leadership, and advance as a learning organization. SoCalGas’ commitment to safety is embedded in our culture and practiced daily by our dedicated employees who operate energy infrastructure throughout parts of southern and central California. The winner will be announced on October 23, 2023, at the National Safety Council’s award ceremony in New Orleans. 

“We are always looking for ways to build upon our strong safety track record and achieve world-class safety,” said Cedric Williams, Chief Safety Officer at SoCalGas. “Safety Forward is about listening to and learning from those who are closest to the work and who understand the risks and hazards in a personal, tangible way—our employees.  Safety Forward reflects SoCalGas' commitment to advance safety and continuous learning as essential to our efforts to build the safest energy infrastructure company in America. We are honored to be nominated for the National Safety Council’s Green Cross Safety Innovation Award.”

SoCalGas is striving to foster an environment where employees at all levels, across all work locations and departments, are committed, engaged, and empowered to continue to improve the safety of the company’s operations. Building upon this culture, the Safety Forward program is based on the premise that meaningful growth requires leadership involvement, extensive employee engagement, and dialogues to inform learning and improvement. It is rooted in the idea that all SoCalGas employees are leaders when it comes to advancing safety and evolving our culture for the needs of tomorrow. 
Some of the Safety Forward actions and impacts include: 

• Developing improved systems and processes for dynamic risk assessment.
• Integrating Learning Teams (stakeholder-driven exploration and problem-solving) into continuous learning and improvement activities. 
•  Expanding SoCalGas’s Safety Champion network to include champions from every department, nearly doubling the size and reach of the network.
•  Engaging thousands of employees to communicate the importance of psychological safety to enterprise learning and improvement.  

In 2022, SoCalGas released its ASPIRE 2045 Strategy, a set of sustainable business priorities anchored by core values that permeate every area of the organization. A key pillar within the ASPIRE 2045 strategy is to achieve world-class safety through innovation and the development of a best-in-class safety management program.

For more information about SoCalGas’ efforts to achieve world-class safety, visit https://www.socalgas.com/sustainability/aspire2045. 

For more information on SoCalGas’ safety program and for tips on how to stay safe, visit: https://www.socalgas.com/stay-safe