Elevating Your Compliance-Based EHS Programs To Risk-Based EHS Programs

Do you wear a seatbelt because it’s the law, or do you wear it to prevent severe injury or death in case of an accident? The answer can be both, and this idea can also apply to your company’s culture, including how to manage safety. If you only focus on meeting the minimum regulatory requirement, you’re missing a large opportunity when managing risk for your organization. This is where risk-based thinking comes into play and with a robust system, it can be achieved.

Risk-based thinking is a systematic way of identifying risk and putting actions in place to both prevent an unwanted outcome and to leverage an opportunity. For example, when driving we automatically manage risks— such as weather conditions, speed, and fastest routes— and react to hazards or opportunities. During a blizzard, we’ll drive under the speed limit or pull over until conditions improve. Or, if we’re stuck in heavy traffic during our commute, we’ll take advantage of carpool lanes to avoid being late.

In business, companies must have a system in place to manage Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) risks. If you’re having a hard time meeting regulatory requirement for EHS risk, standards from the International Organization for Standards (ISO), The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) can help you build a framework to manage risk at every level of your organization. The following are the foundational standards to consider in your journey of building an EHS Management System that helps you better manage risks:

• ISO 14001: Environmental management standards to help minimize your operations’ environmental impact and comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements.

• ISO 45001:2018: Enables you to integrate aspects of health and safety, such as worker wellness/wellbeing. Here, ISO 45003 can also complement your management system by implementing effective controls to manage psychosocial risks.

• ANSI/ASSP Z10. 0: Helps to establish management systems to improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better working conditions. While this standard is similar to ISO 45001, Z10 differs because it is based on U.S. laws and regulations, business practices, labor relations and health and safety approaches (whereas ISO 45001 considers these from international ISO member countries).

“As humans, we all manage risks on an ongoing basis. When it comes to managing risk for your organization, taking a proactive, systematic, and holistic approach will help you minimize and reduce ris”

• OSHA VPP: Promotes effective ways of handing health and safety risk by establishing a cooperative relationship between management, workers and OSHA.

The above standards have many aspects to move us from compliance-based thinking to risk-based thinking. While we should not ignore compliance requirements, they should instead be treated as a foundation to build from. In a robust system with engaged stakeholders, risk is identified at all levels of the organization by recognizing and evaluating risk (not all risks are built equally), assessing the actions to control the risk, and prioritizing risk in order to manage them. An ISO based system will allow your organization to identify all risks but treat them with different urgency. For example, my company AVANGRID recently rolled out Essential Controls standard, which focuses on our organization’s top eight risks and the systematic approach we can take to minimize and/or eliminate risk based on severity and probability. In addition, we continue to leverage technology in the areas of information management system and training to have better controls in place to develop our people and improve our overarching system.

I’m proud that in 2016, AVANGRID was one of the first energy companies in the U.S. to have a certified Management System in OHSAS 18001 (now ISO 45001), the most rigorous workplace safety standards in the world. We use “The Wheel”, seven elements of our management system, to give a visual representation of our system. If one part of the wheel falls off, its unable to operate. This wheel is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act model, which urges organizations to have a culture of continual improvement. We have also invested in the development, implementation and certification of global standards aimed at identifying, reducing and managing safety risks in the workplace and environmental risks in the communities where we operate.

Ultimately, to have a successful system in place, building it is not enough. You must also incorporate it into the company culture. At AVANGRID, we have adopted “Human and Organizational Performance – The New View of Safety” in the last several years. This has moved our company culture toward a “learn and improve” mindset. This way, the system is built for the employees with their input, and they can voice their opinions in a psychologically safe environment. This is a win for the organization and our employees because psychological safety results in physical safety. Safety is not defined by the absence of accidents, but by the presence of capacity (as said by Conklin).

As humans, we all manage risks on an ongoing basis. When it comes to managing risk for your organization, taking a proactive, systematic and holistic approach will help you minimize and reduce risk. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “It’s not the destination; it’s the journey.” An organization with a culture that empowers its workforce to continually improve will do a much better job of keeping its workers safe and protecting the environment for the future generations.