Gold Shovel Standard works to Prevent life-threatening damages, Empower field teams to operate safely, and Protect excavation crews and the public.
Learn MoreA normalized measurement of the instances and circumstances of infrastructure strikes.
An Ecosystem for Industry Safety
Gold Shovel Standard (GSS) is committed to improving workforce and public safety and the
integrity of buried infrastructure. GSS believes that greater transparency in all aspects of
damage prevention among buried-asset operators, locators and excavators is essential to drive
continuous improvement, and vital to increasingly safe working conditions and communities.
Peoples Gas experiencing a 66% reduction in 1st party damages since joining Gold Shovel
Xcel Energy experiencing a 42% reduction in 1st and 2nd party damages combined since joining Gold Shovel
Leo Construction experiencing a 34% reduction in damages after their first year as a Gold Shovel member
NiSource, when vetting the Gold Shovel program, found that their excavation contractors who were members of Gold Shovel had a damage rate 64% less than contractors who were not Gold Shovel members
Dramatic reductions in the frequency of line strikes will remain elusive unless all parties continuously improve and measurements underpin continuous improvement. Standardizing the measurement process is an overdue first step to drive performance improvement and increase public and workforce safety. To achieve this ambitious plan, Gold Shovel Standard is working with balanced teams of damage prevention experts to draft, refine and broadly deploy damage prevention metrics for all stakeholders.
“Everybody’s third-party is somebody’s second-party.” Reducing line strikes associated with small excavators and third-parties persists as the top priority for all stakeholders in damage prevention. These are difficult reductions to influence, and yet they represent the single biggest risk to safety associated with excavation damage. Gold Shovel Standard Communities are novel and ambitious partnerships to attack this persistent and difficult challenge.
Increasing safety is impossible without the right tools. Gold Shovel Standard provides world-class technology to drive continuous improvement that reduces damages and increases public and workforce safety. ShovelSafe from Oropala puts damages prevention at the fingertips of business leaders, giving them the tools to drive continuous performance improvement. ShovelSafe is world-class technology for analyzing and tracking damage prevention performance.
Pursuing the industry-wide goal of zero incidents requires comprehensive, systematic use of Safety Management Systems. Pipeline and other energy companies, and along with the regulatory community have recognized the critical importance of SMS. Broad adoption of Damage Prevention-Safety Management Systems (DP-SMS), which are safety management systems specifically tailored for damage prevention is a necessary ingredient to achieve that industry-wide goal of zero incidents.
Subscribe to the Gold Shovel Scoop
