Zero lost-time injuries in 2025
Umacon ended 2025 without a single lost-time injury in its demolition work. The result is built on long-term health and safety work that reaches into every employee’s daily routine.
Health and safety is built on careful planning
Zero lost-time injuries is the result of systematic and proactive safety work. At Umacon, health and safety is not a separate process but a central part of every demolition project from start to finish.
“The fact is that projects can be delivered safely, efficiently and to a high standard all at the same time. It all starts with planning done well in advance, backed by a team of highly skilled professionals,” says Raine Hakala, Project Director at Umacon.
Safety planning begins early in the project, often as early as the estimating stage. That is when we choose working methods that are safe for the site’s physical conditions, meet the technical requirements and fit the client’s schedule. Early planning ensures that safety is built into the entire delivery, from working methods to protective measures and the sequence of work stages.
Safety planning becomes more detailed as demolition planning progresses. Our project management team is responsible for the final demolition plan, which is refined during the project into detailed plans for each part of the demolition. These ensure that every work stage can be carried out both safely and efficiently.
Safety attitude makes the difference
At Umacon, health and safety is managed not only on site but at the level of the whole organisation. The aim is for every employee to understand their own role in ensuring safety.
“Rather than a health and safety culture, we talk about a health and safety attitude: how each of us approaches safety every day. When every employee understands why things are done in a certain way, and health and safety is part of everyone’s everyday conversations, the right things start to happen,” says Tommi Leppiaho, Managing Director of Umacon.
At Umacon, we believe that a strong safety attitude is developed together, by involving the whole organisation. Safety observations are not collected for the sake of statistics but as a basis for improvement. Every observation, whether positive or pointing to an improvement, is valuable and is reviewed with all staff. The aim is to increase understanding and to learn and build safe practices together.
“Safety is everyone’s business, and when everyone takes part in improving it, you get shared responsibility and genuine commitment,” Leppiaho continues.
We keep improving safety
In 2025, we took health and safety forward through concrete actions. One significant step was Esa Halonen, who has worked at Umacon for almost 30 years, taking on the role of Health and Safety Coordinator. Halonen works closely with every site, supporting site supervisors and workers with safety matters in day-to-day work by anticipating risks, giving guidance and making observations. His role makes our health and safety work more systematic and strengthens the safety attitude across the whole organisation.
Health and safety will remain a key theme in 2026.
“Achieving zero in 2025 is a great milestone, but we won’t rest on our laurels. Our goal remains the same: every one of our employees, and everyone on our sites, must get home safe and well every day, on every site,” Leppiaho says.
