The course is the first of its kind in Australia to combine the issues of safety management with that of environmental management, giving graduates the ability to better manage safety and environmental issues that may occur in the workplace.

“It is imperative for companies to ensure that a spill incident doesn’t escalate into a catastrophic event that compromises their ability to operate,” says Managing Director for Ecospill Kevan Goff. “Until now, there has been insufficient information and training available to business and industry to help them manage their sites environmentally. While safety training has been the forefront, accredited environmental spill response and management training just hasn’t been available.”

Previously, environmental complaints in industries have been made to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) organisations, but since they have no environmental section the complaints have not been able to be managed.

“If the spill occurs inside the workshop and there is an ignition source for example, it is an OHS responsibility, but once there is a spill outside the workshop it is no longer simply OHS, but an environmental consideration. And, if not managed properly, the effects can be disastrous.”

A perfect example of what this type of training can help prevent is what happened at a Golf Club in NSW when a pesticide spill went down the drain and caused the death of nearly 10,000 fish in the local creek. The company was fined approximately $250,000 and the supervisor was tried separately, found guilty, resulting in $220,000 of personal legal costs. At that time it was the highest fine for environmental damage ever ordered in NSW.

“The lack of sufficient training and information for environmental concerns, has paved the way for our new nationally accredited Certificate IV in Management of Safety and Environmental Practices (30845QLD). It is a unique, practical, hands on approach into the day to day management of Environmental and OHS risks and concerns in the workplace.”

With the course, Ecospill wants assist companies in understanding their environmental obligations and to see better containment of spills and prevent catastrophic consequences at work sites.

The course has been designed for team leaders, managers, depot supervisors as well as OHS & Environment Officers -everyone who have responsible for environment and safety.

Ecospill offers two tiers of nationally accredited courses. A Short Course (one day) focusing on management of spill control, containment and emergency response, takes participants through the fundamentals of Environmental Legislation, through to practical application of spill response management.

“It’s very hands-on. Participants get to physically co-ordinate emergency response to a simulated spill situation. It gives them the required confidence as well as competence, to know that they can effectively manage a spill event, before it becomes catastrophic”, Mr Goff says.

Completion of the one day Short Course also counts as two accredited units towards the Certificate IV: Management of Safety and Environmental Practices qualification, so participants have the option to take up the certificate IV course at a later date.

The Certificate IV level is a five day course, comprehensively covering aspects of safety and risk mitigation, environmental duty of care, compliance, administration and implementation of safety systems, practical environmental on-site management, spill containment and spill control measures.

Ecospill conducts the courses throughout the year in central facilities in all major capital cities. At the request of individual companies, Ecospill can conduct these courses on-site at their premises.

Mr Goff recommends that the mining sector, power stations, railway industries, transport companies and port authorities should be motivated to take the course since it’s connected to their industries.

“The course will assist businesses with meeting environmental and safety obligations and greatly help them maintain good compliance with the industry to minimise and prevent OHS incidents and spills.”

Ecospill is offering a 25% Govlink discount, for a limited time. Anyone wishing to find out more about Ecospill’s courses can phone 1800 009 665 for more information and pricing.