Every person has a right to work in a safe and fulfilling environment. The cost of poor safety is high: behind every safety-related statistic is a name and family. Whether you’re a frontline employee, safety manager or executive decision-maker, understanding EHS is essential to upholding this right and building a resilient, high-performing organization. To begin, let’s define what EHS means and how it forms the foundation of safe, responsible business practices.
EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) is a collective term for the laws, policies, programs and practices designed to protect the well-being of employees, customers and the surrounding environment within an organization. Together, the three pillars form a holistic approach to risk management and responsible business operations. The breakdown of each acronym is as follows:
Organizations have a responsibility to protect the surrounding environment of their operations, including management of:
Pollution control
Waste management
Emission reduction
Environmental compliance
Sustainability goals
Protecting the physical and mental well-being of a workforce is paramount to a successful, productive organization. Workplaces that invest in worker health establish effective policies regarding:
Ergonomics
Stress management
Psychosocial risks
Personal protective equipment (PPE)
Industrial hygiene
Hazard identification
Risk mitigation
Compliance protocols
Emergency preparedness
Inspections and audits
Depending on where you are located, health and safety can be referred to in a variety of ways. In North America, Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) is the most used term. However, in Britain and across Europe, Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) or Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) are preferred. You may also see “Q” added to the term EHSQ, indicating a focus on quality as well.
With a growing number of regulations and governance aimed to increase sustainability reporting, some professionals have also begun to incorporate sustainability into EHS programs, creating the term EHS&S.
Understanding the importance of EHS also means knowing who sets and mandates all relevant standards. Regulatory requirements are set by various national and regional authorities:
In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) primarily set EHS standards.
Across Europe, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) primarily provides guidance. Individual regions have their own bodies, such as the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Germany’s Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin (BAuA).
In Australia, Safe Work Australia develops national policies, while New Zealand is governed by WorkSafe NZ.
The benefits of a comprehensive health and safety program are numerous and extend far beyond the EHS department. However, some organizations are reluctant to invest in EHS programs beyond regulatory compliance. Even if you don’t work in a high-risk work environment, establishing high-performing safety processes can:
Reduce the days of missed work for employees: The National Safety Council estimates that 103,000,000 days were lost in 2023 due to work-related injuries, 70,000,000 of which resulting from injuries occurring in the 2023 calendar year and 33,000,000 resulting from injuries in prior years.
Eradicate employee fears surrounding potential accidents: According to Richard Powell, head of personal injury claims at JMW Solicitors, more than a quarter of employees do not report a workplace injury for fear of financial repercussions from their employer.
Reduce direct and indirect costs of workplace incidents: Incidents incur a range of direct and indirect costs to employers. The National Safety Council estimates that health and safety injuries cost businesses $167 billion in 2022, averaging to about $1,040 per worker.
Improve public image: By taking a firm stand on health, safety and the environment, public recognition and loyalty from customers, partners and investors are improved.
Streamline regulatory compliance: Failure to comply with mandated regulations may result in hefty fines, lawsuits or reputational damage.
According to the 2024 Global Directors’ and Officers’ Survey Report, health and safety is now the #1 concern among worldwide corporate leaders. This follows growing pressure for companies to be more transparent about their EHS practices.
While EHS&S should be a strategic priority for all businesses, certain industries face heightened risks and regulatory scrutiny. The 2024 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index identifies construction, professional services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail and transportation as the sectors most affected by workplace safety challenges.
Across these industries, the same types of incidents consistently contribute to injuries year after year, including:
Slips, trips and falls
Fire-related hazards
Exposure to harmful and toxic substances
Contact with heavy machinery and electrical equipment
Accidents involving collisions with other vehicles
Managing work through extreme heat or cold
Given the recurring nature of these hazards, organizations across all industries should adopt proactive EHS strategies to protect their workforce and maintain operational resilience.
An organization may have several EHS professionals, such as EHS managers or safety officers, responsible for developing, implementing and overseeing the health and safety protocols, programs or processes of an organization. Responsibilities of EHS professionals may include:
Due to the multi-faceted nature of EHS, these responsibilities may be split across several jobs and even departments.
All too often safety is isolated from the rest of the business, overshadowed by the focus on financial or operational objectives. To enhance safety performance and foster continuous improvement, organizations must integrate safety seamlessly into the core of business operations.
No organization’s journey to EHS excellence is the same. Achieving substantial change requires a nuanced approach to planning and execution. Use the following best practices when embedding EHS in your workplace culture:
Establish EHS maturity: Every organization operates at a different level of EHS maturity. Some businesses begin their journey simply reacting to workplace incidents, while others may have already established forward-thinking policies. Evaluating your shortcomings and identifying room for growth is essential.
Learn from common EHS mistakes: Your organization is not the first to begin its journey with EHS. Often the most successful organizations are ones that learn from past mistakes and use them to move forward.
Set KPIs: Measuring growth is hard if you cannot backup your success with data. Set up leading and lagging indicators to prove the importance of health and safety to key stakeholders and leaders.
Establish safety as a core value: Organizations that hold EHS as a core organizational value embed safe practices across every aspect of the business. This, in turn, encourages adoption of safety procedures.
Encourage empathetic leadership: Studies have shown that empathetic leaders are a key part of a successful EHS policy. Empathetic leaders can encourage employee engagement, better respond to incidents and advocate for ongoing improvements.
Establish clear, ongoing communication: Use diverse channels to share updates and gather feedback on what’s working or what needs to be improved.
Make safety accessible to all workers: Provide frontline workers with accessible tools with reporting capabilities and safety training access.
Invest in learning and training: Invest in quality training and education for your workforce. Ensure that the training engages with your people and provides a continuous learning environment.
We hope this article has given you a better understanding of EHS, why it’s important and the tools you can put in place to improve your EHS processes.
For more information regarding environmental, health and safety process, check out our catalog of helpful resources below:
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