Ensuring site safety with contractors in the Arauco Sucuriú project

The construction works is starting at the ARAUCO Sucuriú pulp mill project site in Brazil, the world’s largest single-phase pulp mill. Given the scale of this project, demands for safety are exceptionally high. With thousands of people working simultaneously in the middle of massive elements and machines, effective planning, commitment to common goals and rules, clear responsibilities, good coordination, and open communication are crucial to ensure everyone goes home healthy and safe at the end of the day.

“Safety is a top priority for us in this project, and we expect it and zero incident-attitude from all our stakeholders as well. We have comprehensive safety procedures and tools in place, but ultimately, our safety attitude and behavior have the greatest impact,” says Harri Pakkanen, Valmet’s Project Director for the Sucuriú project.

Safety is a collective effort 

Employees from dozens of contractors are working alongside us at the project site, making it imperative that we work safely together. To engage our contractor partners in our Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) mindset and procedures, we invited them to the Contractor HSE Day on February 13, 2025. These events are an excellent forum to share best practices, learn from each other, and develop safety together.  

The day was filled with inspiring safety presentations and fruitful discussions. Participants shared their company’s safety mindset and proactive safety activities and tools they are using. They also learned about Valmet’s HSE tools and procedures from Ronald Gomes, Customer Site HSE Specialist from Valmet. He described the safety tools and procedures implemented at construction sites, such as weekly safety walks, monthly leadership safety meetings, safety campaigns, leadership accountability programs, and project leadership training. Valmet has established Minimum Safety Standards for high-risk activities to ensure critical controls are in place.  

Sandro Krynski, Gerente SOO from ARAUCO, presented their HSE expectations. He highlighted the importance of prevention strategies covering small incidents with high potential consequences. The key to prevention is in the identification, mitigation and closure of possible gaps. In general, Mr. Krynski appreciated this opportunity to discuss their future mill and how to build it safely together.  

At the end, participants discussed real incidents that had happened to contractors on sites.  They also made personal safety promises.  

Both presenters and participants found the session to be an excellent forum for exchanging views and experiences on safe working conditions.