Kristin Hoskin

Kristin Hoskin has been a member of the Canterbury Safety Charter’s Professional Services Working Group for several years and is now the BIMSafe Guidelines lead and editor. Kristin has worked in a variety of roles and enjoys leading workshops and exercises that explore and test policies and procedures. Two standouts for her have been developing and building an oil spill beach response capability for Shell and removing barriers to women doing operational field work (in Muslim communities). In this case women were unable to complete breathing apparatus training with male trainers as they could not remove their hijab in their presence. Kristin identified this barrier and became a BA trainer explicitly to enable Muslim women to meet this competency requirement.

What has been your professional Journey?

I have a background in risk management. I started with risk in laboratories, moved to risk in food production, then risk in emergency management and business continuity. Health and safety has been an overlay in all of these sectors seen through these specific contexts.  Health and safety is focused on managing risks to human safety and wellbeing, while I also deal in other risks such as financial, reputational, political, environmental, cyber, and continuity risk.

What experience have you had with authoring and editing that you bring to your BIMsafe Role?

I have edited and authored several publications, and have been on editorial committees for ISO standards. I have written feature articles for professional publications, and my natural hazard, land use planning and risk communication work has included Centre for Advanced Engineering publications that are still in use.

What challenges do you see in writing and editing the BIMsafe Guidelines?

Writing to a mixed audience is always a challenge. The text must be both readable and relevant to all those who are going to utilize the guidelines. Another big challenge will be maintaining its currency in the rapidly evolving technological environment. The guideline’s must be technologically agnostic but able to be utilised across all common platforms that are available. Coordinating the authors group to create a cohesive voice is another challenge. It is critically important to have diversity amongst the authors group to reflect the range of stakeholders who we want to use the guidelines. They all bring distinctive writing and thought processes, which need to be smoothed to a common thread

What do you hope will be the major outcomes from the adoption of the guidelines by the construction industry?

The first one is safer workplaces with less accidents and injuries during all stages of a facilities lifecycle, including use and demolition. Secondly would be the lowering of the barriers for entry into the world of BIM and making the benefits available to a wider section of the industry. I also hope that the guidelines will create a foundation for the increased common approach to health and safety that can benefit from BIM. I also hope for showcasing of what is current practice in the industry to more clients and commissioners of buildings, and facilities management and operational planners.