Health & Safety
Continually meeting and exceeding industry standards to ensure safety for our operators and their surroundings.
- HS&E Social
- Health & Safety
Our commitment to safety
At Heartwood, safety comes first - always.
It is our most important value and takes precedence over every other component of our operations. The strength of our business is our people. Safety in our business relies on our people – they are the key. An integral part of instilling our Field-First mentality is ensuring our operators have all the training, tools, and equipment they possibly need to operate safely.
Our approach to safety
Our ethos is one of “Black Box Thinking”. It is about creating systems and a culture that enables us to learn from errors and safety incidents, rather than being threatened by them. Our sector is a dangerous one, risk is unavoidable. Highlighting and learning from our near misses allows us to mitigate them in the future. We do this in three ways:
Training & certification
- Our training and assessment policy includes stop work authority training our teams. We stress that it is their duty to speak up if they observe unsafe practices.
- Regular tool-box talks on specific safety issues that have been raised by our teams in the field or on site at our yard.
- Dedicated HSEQ Manager who keeps us current and competent with industry standards
Equipment maintenance
- All plant and equipment is inspected on a scheduled basis to ensure compliance and serviceability, with a company commitment to go beyond PUWER requirements.
- Our machine operators are provided with all necessary training and only operate our machinery once properly qualified and after a period of supervision.
- We have a regular replacement cycle and are always looking to invest in the latest industry technology to reduce our employees’ exposure to occupational risk.
Safety in the field
- Our teams are incentivised to report incidents and safety observations to identify critical safety needs and how we can improve them.
- We use software to track and record all safety observations, so we have a consolidated database and can ensure the relevant remedial training takes place.
- We conduct thorough risk assessments for each element of our operations and implement site safety briefings at the start of each day.
Why Heartwood?
We pride ourselves on providing reliable, quality and safe tree and forestry solutions, whatever the location, size or scope of your project.
Arboricultural Association Approved Contractor
Emergency callouts
Free site visit and assessment
100% natural waste recycled
National coverage
£20,000,000 Employers Liability Insurance
In-house delivery
£10,000,000 Public Liability Insurance
Comprehensive mechanised asset base
£1,000,000 Professional Indemnity Insurance
Case Studies
View all Case Studies
Roadside Dangerous Tree Removal and Forestry Harvesting for a Major Landowner
Conduct thinning and harvesting of ~2,500tns of Ash, including removal of all roadside trees and vegetation on a road running through the woodland.
Large Scots Pine Takedown for Housing Developer
Safely and efficiently remove a large and dangerous dead tree in the rear garden of a residential property.
Street Tree Maintenance Contract for a Local Authority
Conduct daily highways tree maintenance works to maintain the tree population and reduce tree / vegetation-related risk on the network.
Mechanised Ash Dieback removal for a Local Authority
Thinning and removal of dangerous Ash trees from an amenity woodland, whilst retaining all other trees, allowing for habitat restoration within a designated Ancient Woodland.
Site Clearance to facilitate a Residential Development
Clear all identified trees on a 200-acre site in Buckinghamshire in preparation for a residential development project. Remove all stumps from site. In addition, pollard 50 mature Poplar trees.