From theory to practice: case of Progreso

Any successful strategy consists of two main components: a well-developed theory and a variety of practical applications. The main idea of the Vision Zero Digital events is to move away from theory and provide participants with the opportunity to get practical recommendations on how to implement the Vision Zero concept. We are immensely pleased that the CEO of Progreso – a company from Guatemala that is engaged in the production and sale of cement, concrete, lime and other products and services for construction – has agreed to share his own experience in implementing the Vision Zero principles in production.

Mr. Roberto Hermosilla (Occupational Health and Safety Corporate Manager at Grupo Progreso):
«Let me tell you more about Progreso itself. We are a group of Guatemalan origin with operations covering all of Central America, with over a century of experience on the production and commercialization of cement, concrete, lime and other products and services in the construction industry. We help to build sustainable projects that contribute to the infrastructure, housing and, in general, to the overall development and betterment of the countries’ life quality where we have operations. We strive to respect all individuals, families and communities with whom we grow daily to build a country we are all proud of».

It was founded on 1899, currently with 4,500 own employees and 5,000 contractor employees.

Nowadays it has operations in 4 countries

1) Guatemala
1 Lime plant
1 Pre-dosed mixing plant
16 Ready mix concrete plants
2 Cement plants
1 Agroforestry agricultural unit
1 Paper bag plant
6 Concrete additives plants
1 Electric power provider
13 Aggregates plants

2) Honduras
1 Cement plant

3) Panama
1 Cement plant
3 Ready mix concrete plants

4) Belize
1 Cement plant

Coronavirus brought with it one of the biggest challenges Progreso have ever faced. This has been a time marked by solidarity, faith, resilience; thus all team has committed to do everything possible to support the communities.

Mr. Roberto Hermosilla (Occupational Health and Safety Corporate Manager at Grupo Progreso) shared his experience:

In order to achieve health and safety among our workers, providers, clients and neighbors, we have developed more than 12 protocols with the purpose to reduce probability of contagion.

Thanks to our strict work policies and protocols we have had no contagions on the workplace.

Under our slogan “I take care of you, you take care of me”, we implement an internal prevention campaign and we collaborate with governmental authorities to coordinate donations and response support to our neighbors.

Since the first COVID-19 case came to light in the region, we keep our commitment towards protecting our workers, sustainability of our company and its continued operations. Remote work from home is our new norm. The 31% of our workers perform their duties remotely and the rest are under strict controls of hygiene and safety in our plants. The discipline, commitment, confidence and ethics have been fundamental on our way to board this situation. The pandemic has transformed everyone’s lives and mental health has not been excluded. Thus, we provide support to promote good mental, physical and nutritional health.

Health and safety at work are the priorities for a sustainable development. Therefore, at Progreso we consider workplace as a priority environment to promote wellbeing. As part of our Occupational Health and Safety policy, one of our greatest achievements was the Vision Zero Program, with which we work hard towards a vision with Zero incidents with injury and lost time. For this we implement scheduled inspections, control verifications, Safety gradients, Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate, Lost Time Injury Severity Rate, and Orange helmet. The last one promotes internal leadership and incentivizes detection of correct or incorrect behaviors.

Thanks to the performance shown by our Occupational Health and Safety program, since 2019, we are the only Guatemalan and Central American company to make it to the Campbell institute members list.