Uncovering Business Value from Environmental, Social and Governance Factors

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Organizations strive to achieve operational excellence, but many don’t realize that sustainability management systems can help them achieve their operational and quality goals. 

Companies that are standouts in their industries are at the forefront of quality and sustainability efforts, creating an alliance between technology, innovation and operational excellence. 

Aaron Morales is an Account Director at Trucost, part of S&P Global. He is responsible for helping companies understand their sustainability, ESG challenges and impacts and identifying solutions to support business decisions.  

“More than ever, companies are measuring and disclosing their performance around environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. By doing this, companies can reduce financial risks and uncover business opportunities,” said Morales. “Moreover, he added, “record amounts of capital are flowing towards companies who do good.” 

Morales, who holds a BS in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Environmental Systems from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), an MS in … Read more...

EPA: Existing Owners of Upstream Oil and Natural Gas Facilities Can Perform Self-Audits to Return to Compliance

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EPA offers a new temporary program in an effort to improve compliance, environmental outcomes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has temporarily expanded its voluntary self-audit and disclosure program for upstream oil and natural gas facilities by giving existing owners the opportunity to use EHS audits to find, correct and self-disclose Clean Air Act violations. EPA believes this self-audit program will motivate facilities to participate and start making the necessary changes to their equipment to address violations and return to compliance, improving air quality in surrounding communities.

“Upstream oil and natural gas facilities sometimes can have numerous emission violations. By temporarily expanding our self-audit program to existing owners, we expect more facilities to return to environmental compliance. This incentive to identify, correct, and self-disclose violations will provide additional public health and environmental protection in the surrounding communities,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Susan Bodine.

EPA is making … Read more...

Protect the Future with ISO 14001:2015

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In December 2019, world leaders gathered for the Madrid Climate Change Conference (COP25) to discuss ways to implement the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is a part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is intended to find ways to prevent the world’s temperature from rising more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. It also promotes ways to help countries create the financial and technological frameworks to meet these responsibilities while continuing to encourage innovation and economic growth. Despite the overwhelming public support for determined action to combat climate change, COP25, like many other climate change conferences, descended into a rancorous series of confrontations and accusations between rich nations, developing nations, and climate change activists. 

The international marketplace has spoken loudly that economic growth and prosperity cannot be achieved at the expense of pollution, inefficient use of resources, and degradation of ecosystems. We cannot continue to pursue unsustainable growth … Read more...

Infographic: Sustainability: Profits, Planet and People

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Sustainability, sustainable business practices or “green” business is all about what a company can do to minimize damaging impacts on the environment, people and society. It’s the effort your organization makes to do good for our world.

It’s also the better way to do business. Sustainability matters more than ever to today’s employees, customers, and partners. Environmental management best practices have moved well beyond compliance and risk mitigation. Every organization is on its own sustainability journey and Intelex provides environmental management software solutions that makes it possible to mobilize workforces and create sustainable cultures.

EHS professionals are integral to sustainability and operational excellence.  In the past, corporate sustainability efforts focused on environmental issues, such as resource usage and emissions reductions. Attention has turned to other aspects of sustainability, including occupational safety, health and wellness. Companies and their supply chains are managing sustainability through strategic initiatives embedded into daily operations, managed … Read more...

Occupational Fatalities in 2018 Up 2 Percent: Workplace Overdoses, Suicides on the Rise

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The most recent Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Report, released by The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS), shows the rate of fatal work injuries increased by 2 percent in 2018 – the fourth such increase in five years – and two statistics stand out.

Tragically, unintentional overdoses at work increased by 12 percent in 2018 — the sixth consecutive annual increase and a reflection of the broader opioid crisis that the United States is facing. OSHA has teamed with the National Safety Council (NSC) on the release of a toolkit to help employers address opioid abuse in their workplaces and support workers in recovery.

Unintentional overdoses from nonmedical use of drugs or alcohol increased for the sixth consecutive year, claiming 305 lives in 2018 compared with 272 the previous year, the NSC noted. Meanwhile, work-related motor vehicle deaths declined, totaling 1,276 in 2018 from 1,299 in 2017. In addition, falls … Read more...

Are You Ready to Improve Energy Performance and Reduce Costs with ISO 50001?

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ISO 50001 is the ISO management system standard that sets out the requirements for organizations that wish to manage energy performance. It includes energy consumption such as gas use, electricity or fuel.  

Expert Gary Cornell, in the Intelex Insight Report “Achieving Energy Efficiency with ISO 50001,” notes that ISO 50001—the ISO management system standard related to energy performance—exists for two reasons: to help organizations reduce energy costs and to reduce the emissions of CO2 resulting from energy consumption. Cornell works with businesses to improve environmental management through training, auditing and advice and has 25 years of experience working with some of the world’s leading businesses.  

“There are very few organizations in the world that would choose to waste money paying for energy that they don’t need,” writes Cornell. “At the same time, more and more organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the impact they have on the environment and the expectation that they contribute to sustainability. Yet far too many of these same organizations do not … Read more...

The Intelex Quality Top 10 for 2019

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Intelex provides tons of posts, webinars, and insight reports every year to help you figure out how to manage EHSQ better. Here’s our Top 10 resources on quality, all in one place!

It’s time to celebrate the Top 10 most popular or insightful blog posts, reports, or webinars we’ve brought to you in 2019 on quality-related topics! We picked these results based on feedback and interest and hope that they’ll help you learn more about the critical role quality plays in EHSQ. See you in 2020!

#10 – A Digital Transformation for Voice of the Customer (VoC) (Blog Post – September 17, 2019): This quick story shows how Fuji Xerox used their digital transformation initiatives to improve Net Promoter Score (NPS) from -4 (bad) to +35 (very good). To do this, the implemented a VoC data collection and management system.

#9 – Quality Failures Can Leave You In the Dark… Read more...

Corporate Success: Connecting Health & Safety, Sustainability, and Operational Excellence

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On January 21, 2020, join EHS Today and Intelex for Corporate Success: Connecting Health & Safety, Sustainability, and Operational Excellence, a webinar that examines the relationship between sustainability, EHS and operational excellence. 

Kathy Seabrook is a futurist in the world of workplace health, safety and environmental management. She is the president of Global Solutions, Inc.  and works with multinational companies focused on business, operational and commercial excellence using safety and health excellence as a lever for organizational change and sustainable business performance. She will share her perspective that sustainability is a business approach to creating long-term value by taking into consideration how a given organization operates in the ecological, social and economic environment. Occupational safety and health (OHS) professionals working in organizations are integral to Sustainability and operational excellence. 

In the past, corporate sustainability efforts focused on environmental issues, such as resource usage and emissions reductions. Attention has turned … Read more...

Documentation and Disaster: The Importance of Documented Procedures for Any Organization

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In October 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX flying with Lion Air from Jakarta crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board. In March 2019, another Boeing 737 MAX, this time with Ethiopian Airlines, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board. Each plane had been delivered to the airlines only a few months earlier, making them the latest and most technology advanced aircraft in the world. At first glance, there should be no reason that these aircraft crashed under such similar circumstances.  

During the investigation, the root cause of these disasters began to become clear. In 2010, Boeing had begun a redesign of the 737 aircraft to remain competitive with Airbus, which had recently announced the introduction of the upgraded A320 to compete with the 737. To ensure timely delivery of the 737 MAX and avoid losing competitive advantage to Airbus, Boeing presented the 737 MAX as being similar enough to the … Read more...

Yes, You Should Argue with Success: Why You’re Luckier Than You Think You Are

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Many organizations operate according to the maxim “you can’t argue with success.” In other words, if it works, it’s worth doing. You might have heard this in another guise when someone says, “I don’t care how you do it, just get it done.” 

But what if you should argue with success? What if what you think is success is simply sheer luck that the small failures that take place unnoticed every day simply haven’t yet aggregated into an inevitable cataclysm that results in injury, financial damage, or loss of life? 

Humans are not particularly good at extrapolating possible negative future outcomes from the information they learn from past events. We’re prone to assuming that if something has gone well when we performed the task on a previous occasion, that it will always go well. As a consequence, we get an inflated sense of our abilities and our skills at handling other similar situations, and the level … Read more...