excellence awardee: The BGIS Award for Safety Leader of the Year

Sebastian Ferraro

Green Infrastructure Partners Inc.

FEATURED EXCELLENCE AWARDEE

nearly 20 years of experience in construction, health and safety. He began his career in the western part of the United States where he worked for seven years with various general contractors as an environmental specialist. After this he moved to Canada and undertook a number of senior roles and was instrumental in reducing incident rates and creating a positive safety culture. Ferraro is highly qualified in his field, but he is ever ready to expand the stock of his knowledge and accreditation in the relevant fields of expertise. Some of his credentials in Health and Safety include occupational health and safety professional, construction safety specialist, national construction safety officer (NCSO), certified environmental scientist (CES), ISO45001 lead auditor and ISO14001 lead auditor. When the company he worked for was acquired by GIP his role expanded still more. Today Ferraro plays a major role in aiding the national director for HSEQ in building a HSE team of professionals with the scope of expertise to tackle a multitude of infrastructure projects ranging from shoring foundation installation to large-scale demolition. Related to this he has responsibilities in the recruitment and training of new members of the GIP HSE team. He provides mentorship in safety to both members of the HSE team and to the various operations teams he works with. In addition to which he is ISO45001 lead auditor for the company and has led GIP through accreditation and maintenance audits. In his capacity as senior director of HSE at GIP, Ferraro has been involved in multiple initiatives to raise the organisation’s safety culture. He has spearheaded two major initiatives for the company. In the first case he implemented a training strategy which identified the required training for all employees. This was a complex project that ranged from ensuring that all employees requiring legal training - such as WHMIS 2015 GHS, MOLTSD worker and supervisor awareness training, and working at heights - to working with the national director HSEQ and the various operations teams to identify trade-specific training that is required for each task. Priority was given to employees in higher-risk work. For Ferraro a good health and safety culture is a way of life. He uses his position to mentor and inspire members of his team and helps others develop a safety-first mindset. In particular, he encourages other to plan their work so that safety is built into its framework. He works closely with each member of the GIP team where his primary goal is encouraging others to improve their work.

Sebastian Ferraro is an industry leader who cares about his role and the people who work for him. He sees his role as helping his staff to reach the very highest of their abilities. He has built up an impressive body of work in the course of

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Green Infrastructure Partners

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