Ethos

Safety is our utmost priority. We pride ourselves on the ability to perform our work safely while maintaining the highest standards for quality work in the industry. AERI's production plan has been carefully designed to avoid injuries, prevent damage to property, and to cause no harm to the environment. We've maintained a clean record since the founding of the company, which includes a record of zero OSHA reportable incidents. Moving the massive size and weight of trees leaves no room for error, and so we have developed and implemented industry best-in-class safety techniques. We measure ourselves against the most rigorous standards found anywhere in the industry.

At AERI, we require safe and steady production all the time. AERI provides financial rewards to its employees for their safe practices, but never rewards speedy production. Tree work is dangerous business and having unrealistic production goals will only result in someone getting hurt, property being damaged, or the environment being harmed. We have no tolerance for any of this. Our personnel must feel secure that every move they make in the field will be one that will allow them to return to work safely the next day, and our clients must feel confident that we are taking every safety precaution in the performance of their work. At AERI, we fully believe that safe and steady always wins.

Center for Safety Excellence

AERI is fully dedicated to ensuring the safety of our employees. Tree work is the most dangerous job in America, and the Utility Vegetation Management ("UVM") work we perform is the most dangerous of the most dangerous. We impress upon our personnel from day one that they must look out for one another ("be your brother's keeper"), and for UVM work we will only employ seasoned professionals with thousands of hours of proven safe past performance. Our fully integrated onboarding process, from application to interview to skills assessment to classroom safety knowledge, is all conducted at AERI's Center for Safety Excellence in Yuba City. There, we test prospective employees for their ability to perform their work safely. Our specially designed Center is over six acres and has eight separate outdoor circuits for testing practical skills and multiple classrooms for indoor safety instruction equipped with white boards, powerpoint projectors, and all other modern classroom equipment. At the AERI Center for Safety Excellence, potential employees have the opportunity to prove that they have skills and knowledge to perform this work safely, and current employees have the opportunity to demonstrate that they have advanced their skills and are ready for the responsibilities that come with promotion.

AERI Safety Manual

AERI's Health & Safety Manual is the product of many years of strategic planning, tactical implementation, real life experience and input from safety professionals, combined with the best insights from other top safety programs. AERI's Health & Safety Manual is not just some book that sits on a shelf. It is a living document that is reviewed cover to cover each month and any improvements are made and notated. A copy of the AERI Health & Safety Manual is available to every worker in their vehicle, and the manual covers topics from tree inspection to electrical hazards and chemical hazards to first aid and much more. Safety topics for our morning muster each day are drawn from the AERI Health & Safety Manual.

Safe Employees

Keeping employees safe is not a matter of printing good rules in a book, though. Safety is a culture, and it is more about the rules that a company allows to be broken than it is about the rules that the company writes. At AERI, rule breaking and shortcuts are never allowed - the rules are there to keep us safe. If an employee doesn't have the skills or tools to do the job, or if there isn't time to complete a job, then the job shouldn't be started. Eventually someone will get hurt if shortcuts are taken, because taking shortcuts is cheating, and cheaters never win. Deliberate, safe and steady work is what wins at AERI.

A culture of corporate safety requires training, understanding and vigilance. All AERI field personnel are trained in CPR and First Aid and have the knowledge and skills to come to each others' rescue if needed, which is important since many job sites are remote. Similarly, all field personnel receive training on how to use their fire suppression tools to combat wildfires. In addition to such formal instruction, AERI's employees undergo training at all times. Teaching moments are utilized in the field on a daily basis. Weekly extended tailboard discussions review important safety topics relating directly to performance, and master class workshops, held monthly, provide direct training on the safe performance of difficult tasks to keep everyone's skills sharp. AERI provides annual refresher training in electrical hazards and in hazard communication, and provides aerial rescue training for all climbers and aerial lift operators so that everyone who goes up into a tree has the confidence of knowing that someone on the ground has the actual ability to bring them safely to the ground if needed.

AERI goes the extra step on behalf of its employees to keep them safe: AERI's in-house legal compliance team carefully reviews all changes to regulatory requirements and ensures that AERI implements all new requirements swiftly. Compliance takes a proactive approach to safety, always researching safety tools and procedures to secure the best working conditions for AERI's employees. AERI firmly believes that dangerous industries such as ours must be made safe and environmentally sound to protect workers and the public, while ensuring that clients benefit from our safety approach without incurring higher costs.