5 ESG Policy Trends Changing Business: Now What?

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For business leaders, ESG data informs all decision-making processes – capital allocation, budget setting, cash flows and forecasts.
For business leaders, ESG data informs all decision-making processes – capital allocation, budget setting, cash flows and forecasts.

Until today, Environmental, Social, & Governance (ESG) has been defined mostly by voluntary practices, as the key policymakers (market authorities as well as national and international regulators) adopted a “sit and stare” approach and let the markets decide how to deal with ESG. 

The tide has turned, with jurisdictions now racing to introduce strict mandatory requirements that bind companies to contribute to the public policy goals governments are setting in relation to climate specifically and ESG more broadly.

What’s Changed? 

These developments have deep implications for companies, investors, and financial markets. Let’s look at five main policy trends that are significantly reshaping business: 

1. No more ESG standards alphabet soup – While new niche frameworks and guidelines will always pop up (let’s keep in mind that ESG evolves constantly), the European Union (EU) mandatory Sustainability Reporting … Read more...

Transformational Cultures and Leadership Lead to Engaged Workforces

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The closer that business and safety leaders can move towards building transformational rather than transactional cultures, the greater the benefits to be seen in business and safety performance.
The closer that business and safety leaders can move towards building transformational rather than transactional cultures, the greater the benefits to be seen in business and safety performance.

A little bit of transformational thinking goes a long way towards engaging workers and building high-performance business and safety cultures.

Employee engagement is particularly important in these COVID times, when many workers have most of their conversations on remote streams rather than live and in-person. And the closer that business and safety leaders can move towards building transformational rather than transactional cultures, the greater the benefits to be seen in business and safety performance, says Richard Fulwiler, president of Transformational Leadership Associates.

Fulwiler, a former industrial hygienist and health and safety director at Proctor & Gamble, says transformational culture building is all about empathy and communication that moves workers to becoming more engaged which means being highly involved, enthusiastic and energized … Read more...

What Is Risk Management? Causal Factors and Risk Assessment are Keys to Unlocking Job Hazard Insights

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Rather than reacting to existing events, implement risk management software to anticipate potential hazards and implement risk management and assessment strategies.

What can be done today to prevent worker injuries and deaths tomorrow? The answer lies in the notion of predictive analytics discovered through the use of risk management software that use historical data to identify the workplace danger waiting to strike.

Rather than reacting or responding to what’s already happened, EHS leaders should be looking to anticipate and forecast potential hazards and implement necessary change and prevention strategies before an employee is harmed.

Predicting negative events or incidents that might happen in a workplace is a matter of identifying “causal factors” through data analysis, but these clues are often not apparent and likely to be hidden in variables not captured in incident reports.

A causal factor can be defined as any major unplanned or unintended contributor to an incident that if eliminated would prevent or reduce the severity or frequency of the incident. Identifying causal factors requires digging deeper into … Read more...

Headcount or Upgraded EHS Management Software and Tools: Which Brings More Value in 2022?

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As an EHS professional who fights fires all day long, are you dedicated to hiring more firefighters or building a strategy using EHS management software to eliminate the fires in the first place?

As an EHS professional, it can be common practice to focus on the problems of the day: knocking out inspections, analyzing regulatory or policy requirements, evaluating work tasks and doing our best to influence team members who have priorities that often compete with our objectives.

But, in this state of focus, it can be all too easy to overlook the tools that might help us step back from the fires and approach work more strategically.

  • We allow ourselves to tinker and waste time creating (or fixing) the 12 spreadsheets we use to manage our programs.
  • We stress about the stack of papers piling up on our desks.
  • We waste countless hours sending and receiving emails in an
… Read more...

OSHA’s Scrapped Emergency Temporary Standard Offers Best Practices for Employers

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One ETS measure was a requirement that employees who are not fully vaccinated should be mandated to wear a face covering when indoors or occupying a vehicle with another person for work purposes.
One ETS measure was a requirement that employees who are not fully vaccinated should be mandated to wear a face covering when indoors or occupying a vehicle with another person for work purposes.

It may not be the law of the land, but there’s still great guidance and best practices to be applied from OSHA’s proposed Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19 for employers that was struck down by the United States Supreme Court in mid-January.

The ETS was introduced last October by OSHA as a set of requirements for certain employers with more than 100 employees to, among other things, mandate COVID vaccinations or weekly testing. While the ETS won’t become a legal requirement for employers to follow, the guidance and proposed mandated practices that were proposed are nonetheless useful for those looking to create a workplace COVID policy to mitigate risks and keep employees safer.

Let’s start with … Read more...

New Year, Same Pandemic: A Guide to Harnessing Resiliency and Improving Employee Mental Health

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When life seems that little bit tougher, or you need to dig a little deeper for optimism, here are several strategies to keep at your fingertips to make sure that whatever 2022 has in store, it is YOUR year to claim
When life seems that little bit tougher, or you need to dig a little deeper for optimism, here are several strategies to keep at your fingertips to make sure that whatever 2022 has in store, it is YOUR year to claim.

It feels like we’ve been here before. A new year dawns and with it, a countless number of aspirations, dreams and goals for the next 12 months…shrouded, again, by the uncertainty of the global pandemic.  

Whilst such positivity and forward-thinking is good – great in fact – it is impossible to ignore the fact that many of our 2022 ambitions may well be hindered by the ever-present cloud of Covid-19, whose ability to mutate and transmit more rapidly than ever before via the Omicron variant, has brought a fresh wave of caution and compounded unease amongst the worldwide population already in the throes of uncertainty. So how, with our budding aspirations and … Read more...

SCOTUS Scuttles OSHA’s ETS on COVID-19 Testing, Vaccination

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Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh hopes employers ontinue to promote vaccination and testing for employees, despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision that halted OSHA ETS for vaccination-or-testing mandate.
Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh hopes employers continue to promote vaccination and testing for employees, despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision that halted OSHA ETS for vaccination-or-testing mandate.

In an unsigned opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has ruled against the Biden administration and halted enforcement of the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard mandating that companies with 100 or more employees require vaccination or weekly testing for COVID-19. The ETA impacted more than 84 million workers in thousands of workplaces around the country and SCOTUS’ opinion makes it clear the majority of justices believe OSHA’s ETS overstepped the agency’s mandate to protect employees from workplace hazards.

Under the standard, covered employers were required to develop, implement and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose to either be vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face … Read more...

ESG Is Changing the Scope of EHS

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Meeting ESG requirements is a priority for many organizations, which is changing the role of the EHS professional. 
Meeting ESG requirements is a priority for many organizations, which is changing the role of the EHS professional. 

ESG (environmental, social and governance) has become a global priority. It requires organizations to monitor, measure and report on a number of factors that contribute to the well-being of the global community, such as sustainability, health and safety, diversity and ethical business practices. While many organizations are already making considerable progress in these areas, others are finding themselves under increasing pressure to meet new regulatory requirements and customer expectations. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ebb and flow, many organizations around the world are working hard to come to terms with a future defined by the responsibility of managing risk and protecting the resources that support our societies and economies. The last two years have provided a sudden and severe wake-up call to the entire world. In what seemed like a mere moment, economies and societies locked down, government … Read more...

EHS Regulations Watch: A Look at 2021 to Leverage in 2022

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If you felt like 2020-2021 was a blur of never-ending (and ever-changing) EHS regulations, you’re not alone.
A glance back to guide you forward. Which of today’s top EHS regulations and trends will shape your success in compliance tomorrow?

(This article is reprinted with permission from Enhesa. Read about more regulatory actions on the Enhesa blog Insights.)

Where EHS Regulations Stand Today and How to Step Forward Tomorrow

If you felt like 2020-2021 was a blur of never-ending (and ever-changing) EHS regulations, you’re not alone. From constantly changing COVID-19 requirements to aggressive air emissions cut-offs, the past two years sent a whirlwind of compliance issues around the world. In this time period alone, our experts tracked more than 96,000 new or changed requirements globally. And we don’t expect these winds of regulatory change to die down anytime soon.

So how can EHS professionals get ahead of this global storm? Weather-proofing your compliance program for what’s coming next – with what you know today. Below, … Read more...

Intelex Leans In to Support Customers in their Health, Safety and ESG Journeys

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ESG is an opportunity for EHS professionals to maximize the positive impact they have on their employees and the sustainability of their businesses.

As we embark on a new year, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you on behalf of the entire Intelex team for trusting us to be your partners in health, safety and sustainability. We feel a deep sense of purpose and honor to be part of your mission to ensure the health and safety of your people, the efficiency of your operations and the environmental stewardship of your business. We take this responsibility seriously, and we are tireless in our pursuit of continuous improvement so that we continuously raise the level of service we provide our customers. This is only possible through close partnership with you, and for that we are grateful.

I’d also like to take a moment to introduce myself. I joined Intelex last month because I am inspired by the profoundly meaningful impact we have on the world through our customers, and by the unique … Read more...