ENERGISING THE CONVERSATION

Twenty years ago, Trinidad and Tobago-based cross-sector conglomerate Neal & Massy joined forces with international energy services outfit Wood Group. The 50/50 joint venture, first forged in 2003, was consolidated in 2014 when the venture settled on its current name: Massy Wood Group. Today it offers a wide range of services in the energy sector.

CEO Mala Baliraj outlines where the business is today:

“We now have five office locations spread across Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. Some of them are joint office locations with our clients, and some of them are ours alone. Our core competency is set around engineering, procurement and construction work. However, we also offer services complementary to that, so we are sort of an integrated services company as well. We do fabrication, maintenance, construction and execution services but also warehousing and logistics to a small extent.

“Having started out with fewer than 25 employees in 2003, today we can range anywhere between 800 to 1000 people depending on our activity. So we can push up to 1000 if a lot is happening, but we generally have around 800 people in our company. This is also the foundation of one of our proudest achievements: in recent times, we have around 43 million safe man hours. Safety culture is a crucial part of our company, and we’ve worked hard on ensuring that’s spread throughout the company.”

Baliraj continues, laying out Massy Wood’s core values:

“They are safety, people, quality people, ethics and passion. Passion is an unusu- al core value. But for us it’s really important. Our company tagline is ‘bringing the you into what do you do’.”

Safety First

The safe man hours is an important feature of Massy Wood. It shows not only how the company cares about its staff, but also illustrates just how much work it has put into establishing a culture and not just a system of safety.

“Our 43m safe man hours should give you an idea of how robust our health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) culture is,” Ms. Baliraj explains. “There’s a lot of focus on the processes, but also on influencing safe culture and safe behaviours throughout. That’s because, due to the way we work, we don’t see and talk to employees on a daily basis.

“To maintain that cultural build up, cultural safety, we have to rely heavily on frontline leadership. That means making sure we’re training, that we’re refreshing, but also that we’re rewarding and recognising. Building a good culture means not just coming down on bad actions but recognising and rewarding where people are reinforcing positive behaviours.

“Having been around for 20 years in what is a very high risk environment means we really have to focus on not being complacent, and focusing on leading indicators. To do that we have a big long-term strategy for HSSE, then on an annual basis we review that plan in line with the strategy of the business.”

Sustainable Supply

This year by year approach is replicated in Massy Wood’s approach to environmental sustainability, too. At present it is working towards the ISO 20400 sustainable procurement certificate, but in doing so is also working towards a much more holistic practice.

“We are focused on moving towards the global sustainable standard,” says Ms. Baliraj. “Becoming more aligned with the ISO 20400 standard is part of our sustainability strategy for the next two years.

One

We specialize in supply and distribution of pipes, valve, fittings, fasteners and gaskets. For the past 5 years, Centaur has been a critical supplier for all major upstream projects.

However, as you can appreciate with ISO standards, we almost have to already operate at that level before even applying for the certificate. So a lot of work is going towards reaching that benchmark right now, and believe we have a robust framework for doing so. We have drawn on the resources of our parent companies to develop something that meets international standards.”

Ms. Baliraj says that Massy Wood has utilized the global expertise of its parent companies to establish its wider commitments to sustainability as well:

“Sustainability has been more at the forefront of our business over the last five years. Again, we’re heavily guided by the parent companies in terms of having a backbone on which to build our outlook. That backbone is comprised of Wood’s three pillars of sustainability: people, profit and planet. Then, on an annual basis in Trinidad, we try to have a plan with Massy Wood supported by those pillars.

“For example, conservation initiatives and carbon reduction initiatives are both very important to us. We live on an island, so conserving that environment is crucial. This year we’ve carried out a beach clean-up, for example, where we collected a significant amount of garbage. Our employees did that, and we partnered with other institutions to get more people out. It was great for everyone involved. And something a little different that we encouraged our employees to go on was turtle watching. So as you can see, some of the conservation initiatives are geared towards our island location and how we can care for our own space.

“When it comes to carbon reduction, we’re looking to do everything we can in the areas where we can control it. Right now, for example, we’re embarking on a project to build solar panels on the roof of our Debe facility. We think approximately 850 square meters of panels on the roof should be enough to support the building’s power use. The engineers will have that up and running by Q3 this year.”

“It’s our first solar project and, being the first, it’s also something of a legacy creation. We plan to build on it. We want to explore other ways of using solar power because in Trinidad there’s sunlight all the time. We’re very excited about it and see ourselves figuring out ways to reduce our carbon footprint through cleaner energy.”

Helping The Youth

Massy Wood is proud of its roots in Trinidad and Tobago. One way it shows this is through social responsibility initiatives that give back to the communities which have helped the company to thrive. When Sustainable Business Magazine last spoke with Massy Wood, Ms. Baliraj highlighted its Boys to Men program, which helped male youth develop as role models and responsbile leaders for their community.

This time, the CEO highlighted a very different initiative that Massy Wood is engaged with:

“The entire Massy group has just started on one of our community projects working with United Way. All the Massy companies get involved in United Way’s Day of Caring. That means we identify projects across the island and we bring volunteers to help. Those volunteers are our employees and their families and loved ones.

“Right now, we have identified two projects in our new catchment area, Penal-Debe. Our newest office is located there so we’re now trying to have an impact on that community. We chose two projects there, two schools. We will refurbish and enhance their outdoor multi-purpose spaces. One is Debe High School, and the other is SWAHA Vishok Children’s

Home. Those schools are definitely partnering and happy to have us come in. We fundraised and bring in our labour of love, and will spend one whole day to transform as much as we can.

“A lot of these schools, and the initiatives we take on, are people who don’t get a lot of attention even though they really need it. There are some institutions that get a lot of support in Trinidad. At Massy Wood, we are trying to go for ones that aren’t as obvious and don’t get as much support. That way, our resources and efforts really have an impact on the institution and the children.”

It’s clear from the Boys to Men project as well as its participation in United Way’s

Day of Caring that Massy Wood is keen to get involved in a wide range of community aid projects.

Changing The National Conversation

As Ms. Baliraj explained, Massy Wood is a company that plans years ahead. It should come as no surprise then that it has a pretty focused vision for where the company will head over the coming years.

“What you can expect from Massy Wood over the coming years is more about how we’re learning and adapting to a rapidly changing market,” the CEO says. “We’re in a very dynamic industry for Trinidad. It places a lot of pressure for the energy sec- tor in the country to lead the way in efforts to combat climate change, social inequity and other burning issues. So we really want to place Massy Wood as the organisation that learns and adapts.

“We want to be on the frontline in those efforts. We want Massy Wood to partner with key clients and set the stage for strategies like decarbonisation, contributing not only to our own carbon footprint but helping others do the same as well. Sustainability is far from the lips of most people in Trinidad. There’s so much learning and awareness-raising to go before the idea becomes a go-to conversation. But now we have the chance to influence a national agenda and that’s an opportunity Massy Wood wants to take.”

With its first solar project well underway, and with its deep belief in social uplift, Massy Wood is already well positioned to fulfil its wish on leading the national conversation. Ms. Baliraj concludes with a firm commitment to the future of profit, people and planet:

“In the future, we want to have a major influence not just on our clients but in the national space as well. The energy sector is the engine of the future, and we will learn what we can do to both contribute and impact.”