Last week, CGA released its newest White Paper, “Natural Gas: Leading the Damage Prevention Industry,” which analyzes key data from surveys and interviews with natural gas decision-makers to understand this group’s perceptions and initiatives around damage prevention.

In this week’s Damage Prevention Download, we’re taking a look at the first key takeaway from the Natural Gas White Paper: “Natural gas distribution stakeholders are deeply engaged in damage prevention and can expand what they perceive as their central role in the industry.” Through CGA’s primary research, it’s clear that natural gas stakeholders feel a strong sense of responsibility for the damage prevention process—more than a quarter of natural gas distribution professionals view themselves as the group that’s primarily responsible for damage prevention. Because of this perception, natural gas distribution stakeholders value and enforce safety not only within their organizations, but in their interactions with other stakeholder groups as well.

How is a culture of safety enforced?

Natural gas companies incorporate safety into all levels of their organizations through strong leadership and by integrating damage prevention practices into organizational life. Externally, natural gas stakeholders report utilizing training as a primary mode of communication about safety and damage prevention, with companies devoting resources to both reactive and proactive excavator training. Most natural gas industry interviewees believe that facility owners should assume responsibility for coordinating and implementing excavator training efforts that will in turn reinforce damage prevention practices.

The strategies and channels through which the natural gas sector approaches damage prevention can serve as models for other stakeholder groups to reduce damages across the system.

If you haven’t already, check out the new White Paper on CGA’s website and view supporting materials, including a presentation deck highlighting the key takeaways and insights, as well as all graphs featured in the White Paper.