New Zealand forest owners and forestry contractors are continually striving for improved safety and productivity. By collecting and analysing incident data the forestry industry is able to build a picture of the type, frequency and severity of incidents and identify the key contributing causes. This measurement and analysis has allowed targeted safety initiatives to be developed and their effectiveness monitored. The IRIS system also allows contributors to benchmark their health and safety performance against industry averages.

IRIS has a high degree of flexibility. Users can add incident records individually or upload multiple records using a bulk upload facility. Information is collected for a wide range of events – from Serious Harm through to Near Hits and Property Damage. Likewise, incident records can be exported allowing member companies to analyse both their data and industry data. Importantly, when industry data is exported, the information is aggregated so that individuals and companies cannot be identified. Access to add, edit, view and export incident data is via secure login.

IRIS members are also able to upload Safety Alerts. Industry and casual visitors to the website have access to these safety ‘heads-ups’, which are intended to keep forestry stakeholders informed of the facts surrounding accidents or serious near hits and emerging incident trends.

If you are interested in contributing to IRIS or would like more information, please contact Christine Dodunski (DDI +64 7 343 5640).