Health & safety
At Cenovus, we value safety above all else. We want everyone – employees, contractors and suppliers – to return home safe to their families at the end of the day. We want staff to put safety first, by communicating with their leaders about any safety challenges they are experiencing and watching out for one another, so we can achieve our goal to be a global, top-quartile performer in process and personal safety.
With our expanded asset portfolio, we are working to establish more programs and plans to advance our top-tier safety journey, collaborating with cross-functional teams to review best practices, tools, and harmonized key safety processes, including the Cenovus risk matrix, emergency response plans (ERPs) and our incident investigation process.
Safety is ingrained in our culture and reinforced in every decision through our principles, systems and processes, and through continued learning. Our facilities and assets are designed, maintained and operated with a primary focus on process safety and asset integrity to realize safe and reliable operational performance. In the event of an incident, community and worker safety and environmental protection are the priorities.
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Emergency management
We maintain a comprehensive Emergency Management program to help ensure we are properly prepared for an emergency. Our Emergency Management program is based on an all-hazards, incident management system, which provides a standardized approach to emergency management that includes personnel, facilities, equipment, procedures and communication operating within a common organizational structure. We manage emergencies through the use of the Incident Command System.
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Our safety commitments
Our eight safety commitments in our Safety Policy outline the attitudes and behaviours we expect to see from anyone who works with us and for us. They empower workers to speak up if they feel the work they’re asked to do is unsafe.
Cenovus follows the life-saving rules recommended by Energy Safety Canada. The rules are designed to prevent injuries and significant incidents at our operations and across our industry. The 10 life-saving rules help us manage the risks associated with the work we do every day.
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Safety Operations Risk Committee
The Safety Operations Risk Committee was established in early 2021, comprised of senior leadership with the direct responsibility, authority and capacity to achieve our safety vision, create the desired safety culture and oversee implementation of the Cenovus Operations Integrity Management System, or COIMS. The committee develops strategy, based on risk management, and provides direction to ensure entities and functional groups can develop plans to meet its objectives while managing business wide risks. It monitors Cenovus’s progress towards meeting its health and safety objectives and provides course correction as required.
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Transition to Cenovus Operations Integrity Management System
The Cenovus Operations Integrity Management System, or COIMS, defines Cenovus’s approach to operating safely, responsibly and efficiently and is an important tool in becoming a top-tier safety performer.
The COIMS framework was launched in mid 2021 and has three main purposes:
- Define what we will do to manage health, safety, operations integrity and environmental risks.
- Provide the basis for meeting our operations integrity objectives and health, safety and environmental performance goals.
- Continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of Cenovus’s operating activities.
To develop the framework, we engaged the Safety Operations Risk Committee members and gathered their input. As we focus on updating corporate-wide and entity-level standards, processes, procedures and work instructions, the legacy management systems will continue to be followed until COIMS is implemented across the organization.
