Tinhorn Creek Wins CLC Award

Tinhorn Creek Vineyards has won the Cargo Logistics Best Safety Innovation Award for 2014. The award was presented to Tinhorn Creek CEO and President Sandra Oldfield at the awards breakfast on January 28 in Vancouver.

The CLC awards offer an opportunity for industry’s clients, vendors and supporters to recognize, celebrate and shine the spotlight on the important role of logistics professionals and other businesses. The award was decided upon by the CLC Awards Committee and was awarded by WorkSafeBC.

“We had to give a specific example of something we had done in the past year. We had an unidentified confined space with a pump on our property down a vertical shaft. It had been there since before we owned the lasnd,” says Oldfield, adding, “When we went through Hazard ID due to getting our OSSE certification we identified it and put control up around it (signage, no work alone procedures for example). This year the pump failed and instead of replacing it we paid an extra $10,000 to bring it above ground into a proper pump house.”

“This was something that went from not being recognized it was a hazard to dealing with the hazard to finally elimination of it. We are all happy at Tinhorn Creek when our H&S program works the way it’s supposed to,” she said.

The event provided some 100 speakers and more than 30 Seminars and 150 exhibits.

According to Tinhorn’s website, the winery is the product of friends (the Shaunessys and the Oldfields) deciding to go into business together.

“We started from humble beginnings – like having barrels of wine in the basement of a house. And we decided to plant a few more vines, for a total of 150 acres. That’s a lot of vines. After almost 20 years, we’re still laughing. Often at ourselves – and at each other.

“We grow grapes and we make wine. There are many steps between the field and the bottle, but at the end of the day it’s about farming the land responsibly, having fun, and making wines to share with family and friends.”

Health and safety have played an important role in Oldfield’s management of the vineyard. More than a priority, she considers the health and safety of her employees to be a basic value of her company.

Tinhorn Creek Vineyard is a member of the OSSE Hall of Fame (the first BC Winery to achieve OSSE certification) and a signatory to the BC Safety Charter.