How to Prevent Environmental Damage With Access Mats

How to Prevent Environmental Damage With Access Mats

Nov 5, 2020 | Access Mats, News

With environmental efforts becoming more and more of a priority and responsibility on job sites, the importance of using resources that minimize your footprint and help protect the land is greater than ever. Site access solutions such as mats and bridges play a significant role in reducing the damage caused by transporting goods, using heavy machinery, and more. At GFI Solutions, we’re proud to offer full-scale site access solutions, including mat rentals and sales, access mat washing, delivery and installation and more. Below we’ll take a quick look at how access matting can help you do your part to stay on the right side of environmental guidelines, while also benefitting your workflow. Read on to learn more!

Why Sustainability Matters

As mentioned above, there is an increasing demand for companies, especially those in the oil & gas, petrochemical, construction, and energy sectors, to ensure their job sites and practices uphold environmentally-oriented standards. Access mats are just one way to ensure you are in compliance while offering a wide variety of other benefits at the same time. Access mats help to ensure environmental and safety standard compliance by:

Minimizing Ground Disturbance

One of the most challenging aspects of any job is protecting the natural landscape while accomplishing the task at hand. Doing so requires careful planning, especially where site access and transportation issues are concerned. By serving as a makeshift road or foundation for heavy trucks, drills, excavators, cranes, and more, access mats help to reduce the damage done to the ground in the first place, which makes post job recovery much easier on the landscape.

Prevent Soil and Weed Contamination

If you’ve got trucks hauling materials throughout different areas of your site or coming in from remote regions, there’s a solid chance their tracks may introduce foreign fauna to the terrain. Access mats act as a shield against this and help to protect the local plant life from contamination.

Circumvent Weather and Challenging Landscapes

It’s no secret that both the Canadian landscape and climate can be unpredictable and difficult to overcome. Site access solutions allow you to conquer both with ease, while also reducing the damage that can be caused by mud, snow, rain, and more.

Prevent Chemical Cross-Contamination

As with organic cross-contamination, chemicals used during your operations can pose a significant risk to the environment. Access mats help prevent them from reaching the ground, and thorough mat cleaning between jobs will prevent future risks as well. Partnering with an experienced team like GFI’s makes it easy to clean mats efficiently, allowing you to get to the next job faster than ever before.

About GFI Solutions

As one of Canada’s leading sources for access mat solutions, GFI is proud to carry the best products available on the market. We are Canada’s exclusive distributor of Sterling Solutions‘ range of TerraLam® CLT products, including their 300 and 500 model access mats, access bridges, and more. Designed with the utmost of quality in mind, TerraLam® solutions embody the many benefits of CLT mats, right down to the superior performance and longevity. For all of your site access needs including rentals, sales, mat washing and more, contact our team today!

Discover the Necessity of Access Mat Washing

Discover the Necessity of Access Mat Washing

Jul 31, 2020 | Access Mats, News

Are you protecting your access mats as much as possible to extend their lifecycle and maximize your investment? Does your project have a built-in plan to adhere to environmental standards and reduce the risk of cross-contamination or transference between jobs? If you’re not taking advantage of the many benefits of having a dedicated access mat washing solution in place, you’re not just missing out, you may be putting your site and your crew at risk. GFI Solutions is proud to be one of Canada’s leading providers of full-scale access solutions, including dedicated washing and cleaning services for mats. Below, we’ll discuss just a few of the many reasons you need to stay on top of mat washing, as well as our available services Canada-wide. Read on to learn more!

Why Washing Matters

Canada’s topography can be unforgiving at the best of times, quickly caking mud, dirt and grime all over temporary access solutions. Left uncleaned, mats become at risk for premature failures, contamination issues if moved to another site before being properly sterilized, and, ultimately a poor return on your initial investment. By ensuring that you either have a remote option available or designated yard to have your mats cleaned at upon the completion of each project, you help to keep the environment, your crew, and your equipment safe both in the short and long term.

Contamination Doesn’t Need To Be A Risk

If your job site involves the transport or use of chemicals, fuel, or other materials that could cause harm to the surrounding environment or lead to a potential reaction down the line, mat washing is a must. Having a portable unit on site makes it easy to accomplish this with minimal disruption allowing you to proceed forward with confidence for the next phase or the next job. Removing the risk of decontamination also adheres to existing remediation standards on both the Provincial and Federal levels.

Safety Is Paramount

As we mentioned above, mat washing helps keep the entire job site and respective crew safe. Built-up mud can cause a wide array of issues spanning from complicating the hauling process to risking slips and falls for team members. Keeping your mats clear helps to avoid such issues, ensuring everyone has a safe, secure site to navigate.

Extend Your Life Cycle

Finally, as we mentioned above, cleaning your mats will help to avoid premature wear and tear, which increases your ROI job after job. Whether done directly on-site or in one of GFI’s many yards across Canada, mat washing serves to protect your mats both today and in the future, helping you to maximize your investment with every job.

Mat Washing and More at GFI

GFI Solutions is proud to provide comprehensive site access solutions throughout the Western Canada region, as well as nationwide. Our team of experts offers our customers access to 24/7 rental and sales service, as well as mat washing, installation, turnkey services, and more. Learn more about our products, including TerraLam® CLT mats by contacting our team today!