Welcome to our Annual Review for 2019
The occasion of reaching our 50 years of service as an Association last year and celebrating our achievements was extremely important and an honour to be part of.
This year we decided to demonstrate we are still evolving to changing needs and I’m pleased to be launching a new look for our Annual Review. The aim was to make it more efficient and effective to produce and to read as a user. All the familiar content is still here, but in a more visual and easy to use digital format. No printing necessary as the structure has been designed so you can choose a specific chapter to read online and move to another chapter whenever ready.
In times of limited resources and the introduction of new ways to keep informed, we should also align ourselves with the communication requirements from our different audiences.
I mentioned achievements and in this context I also include our collaborations!
At the Spring Meeting 2019 in Brussels we were lucky to have the opportunity to share our celebrations with many partners that we have worked with over the years. Some of these industry stakeholders have been very strategic in how we have developed over the years.
An excellent example of this is the collaboration activities we have created with our friends from the Asphalt Institute (AI) in the USA. Coincidentally they also celebrated an anniversary in 2019 of their 100 years of service to the industry. An outstanding milestone and many experiences along their journey of development that can be shared. We are increasingly seeing the need to work closer together with AI, as well as others, on common industry issues related especially to HSE and Technical.
Last year we approved the concept to create a Bitumen Sustainability Steering Group (BSSG) within Eurobitume, driven by the members to understand more about what the current status is regarding bitumen and sustainability, and what messages we can and should deliver to important stakeholders. We also collaborate closely with AI in this area, as it is fast becoming a high-profile topic of interest globally within our industry. You can hear a summary of what has progressed in this area over 2019 from Carl Robertus (Chair of BSSG).
Another area there was particular focus on was the safe handling of bitumen. Within Eurobitume we have a permanent sub-committee for safe handling (SHSC), involving member experts and Eurobitume team members, who were very busy delivering different tools to increase awareness on key areas. One tool that provided excellent feedback from the target audiences was the launch of a series of Toolbox Talks on safe handling in the UK and Ireland. Very much based on existing information available within Eurobitume, the concept was to organise local workshops for ‘operators’ to attend and benefit from face to face explanations and the use of visual aids to communicate the safety messages they need to know.
There are many other updates mentioned throughout this online publication and I hope you enjoy the new experience of using our annual review 2019.
Finally, I wish you all a healthy and safe year in 2020!
