#MAKEITVISiBLE with Molson at Scotplant 2024
The Molson Scotland stand at Scotplant 24 hosted the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, with their #makeitvisible campaign team on hand to discuss all things mental health. With a new specially wrapped Blackwood Plant Hire excavator, supplied by Molson Scotland, available for operators to have a go on, the stand was a must-visit for all attendees.
For decades the construction industry has been a place where individuals have kept their personal issues to themselves.
Blackwood Plant Hire, one of the largest operating hire companies in Scotland with over 300 items of plant, has recently joined forces with the Lighthouse Charity, the UK construction industry’s charity and their Make It Visible campaign.
There are many wellbeing and welfare initiatives operating within the construction sector in the UK and Ireland with great success, however the evidence suggests that we are not reducing the incidence of suicides in our industry. We are not making major improvements in the overall workforce welfare environmental conditions often because our workforce is not aware of the excellent support services that they can utilise if they are struggling or in crisis.
This is where the Make It Visible campaign steps in as an industry wide taskforce. Their goal is to help unite the multitude of industry wellbeing projects into one major recognisable movement. This will investigate, qualify and publish best practice from both home and abroad, along with implementing services that deliver measurable improvement to the welfare and wellbeing of the workforce in the shortest period of time. They also want to promote a more proactive, preventative approach to wellbeing across construction and drive long term culture change within the industry to promote equality, diversity inclusion, fairness and respect that will ultimately promote construction as a career choice for generations to come.
Blackwood Plant Hire’s involvement stems from MD Paul McCormack’s role as a committee member for the West of Scotland. “As individuals and as a company, we recognise the industry needs to talk. Whether that is on a one-to-one basis or within a group situation, listening and helping others within our own sector is so important.”
As a charity, the Make It Visible campaign requires funding for it to carry on assisting construction workers across the UK. Paul and his team at Blackwood made the commercial decision to support the charity by designing and fitting a Make It Visible wrap to one of their many Kobelco SK130 excavators supplied by Molson Scotland. Along with making the campaign visible to anyone on the many sites the excavator has been used on in the past year, the company also donated £1 for every hour the machine was on site. This, along with other donations have so far exceeded the £6500 mark.
“We have decided to add a second machine, another Kobelco SK130 from Molson Scotland, into the fleet with a similar Make It Visible wrap.” Paul commented. “Like the first machine, the new arrival will donate a portion of its hourly earnings to the charity.”
The new arrival took centre stage at theScotplant show on the Molson Scotland stand. It was used in an operator trial where the successful operator building the Make It Visible logo in the quickest time won a miniature model donated to Molson Scotland by Gaz Evans Models.
Molson Scotland’s stand also hosted the Make It Visible roadshow where visitors could attend daily talks, or chat privately with one of the team.
The Make It Visible campaign was one of the main benefactors for Molson Group’s charitable efforts in 2024.
