BUREAU VERITAS HELPS FUJITSU GET AHEAD OF ISO 45001

Continuing to lead the way on certification, Bureau Veritas has helped Fujitsu become the first global technology provider to achieve the ISO 45001 standard on Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S).

As one of the world’s largest provider of IT services, Fujitsu employs 156,000 people to offer a full range of technology solutions in over 100 countries. Although the organisation had always believed it was low risk in terms of OH&S, it recognised that in recent years its organisational culture had become systemically intolerant of accidents, incidents and poor safety performance.

Keen to address this and reassert its commitment to safety, Fujitsu set out to meet the stringent requirements of ISO 45001:2018 – the first international standard to help organisation implement systems that proactively prevent work-related injury and ill health. It replaces the existing British Standard OHSAS 18001:2007, with a deadline to migrate existing management systems before March 2021.

Like many organisations, Fujitsu needed the support and comprehensive insight of a certification specialist such as Bureau Veritas to help understand the requirements of the new standard and establish any gaps in its own OH&S management system. Drawing on its extensive experience in this area, Bureau Veritas provided an outline of requirements and supported this by mapping out a tailored migration plan, including gap analysis – all of which was designed to ensure a smooth transition to 45001.

The plan proved such a resounding success that Fujitsu has become the first global technology business to achieve ISO 45001, well ahead of the 2021 deadline. The firm can now be confident that there are controls in place for OH&S risks, whilst developing and promoting health and safety as a core leadership value that strengthens ‘The Fujitsu Way’ – its global ethical culture for doing business.

Since then, the Fujitsu ISO 45001 management system has been rolled out throughout its UK and European operations and will be extended globally in the coming months, where Bureau Veritas will act as the sole third-party certification body supporting internal Management Information (MI) and process improvement activities to ensure consistency.

Karolina Lachi Kolarova, Certification Business Unit Director at Bureau Veritas, said: “Recognising that its organisational culture needed a major overhaul was the first step in Fujitsu implementing ways it could minimise work-related injuries and address poor safety performance. We’re delighted that our support, technical knowhow and tailored migration plan has enabled Fujitsu become the first global IT provider to meet ISO 45001. It’s a great achievement and we look forward to helping them roll this out globally in the years to come.”

Simon Head, Head of Health and Safety at Fujitsu, said: “With workplace health and safety of utmost importance to us, we were keen to make sure our management systems were updated to meet the stringent requirements of ISO 45001:2018 and further strengthen our ‘Fujitsu Way’ ethical culture. I’d like to thank Bureau Veritas for providing the expertise required to achieve this – the certification team provided a great service that resulted in a smooth transition to certification.”

Bureau Veritas Certification offers a comprehensive range of global or sector-specific standards certifications, customised audits and training services in the Quality, Health & Safety, Environment, Supply Chain and Corporate Responsibility fields to small, medium and large companies in 80 countries.

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