What Factors Are Accelerating the Rise of the Sustainable Business?

Posted on by
Reply

The business world is always changing, and the most successful companies are those that foresee, understand and get out ahead of these changes to retain or expand their competitive edge.

The decade ahead could see a reprise of last century’s “Roaring 20s,” with all its rapid economic growth, inflation and employment gains as the world climbs out from the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the economy heats up, businesses will be looking for ways to take advantage of the growth while mitigating risk and downside. One promising approach is to increase efforts around environment, social and governance (ESG) strategies. Refocusing will help them deal with the trends that are changing global markets.

Government Regulations and Policies

Governments’ environmental policy varies from country to country. This is due in part to the varied priorities and strategies for addressing climate change, varied stages of economic development and even administration changes … Read more...

How Is Renewable Energy Accelerating the Rise of Sustainable Business?

Posted on by
Reply
Companies that invest in renewable energy save money, delight their customers, and please investors while avoiding fines and/or carbon taxes. Renewable energy helps build a sustainable business, which in turn helps your company reach its ESG goals.

Renewable energy is flourishing around the world. Countries and businesses are aggressively expanding wind, solar, and hydroelectric generation capacity to reduce carbon output, please customers, and lower costs.

Many businesses around the globe are working to become “greener” as part of their focus on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies. They are driven by the threat of global climate change, changing customer preferences, and the goal of improving their triple bottom line (profits, people, and planet).

There is a lot more to creating a sustainable business than reducing your organization’s energy consumption and carbon footprint, but it’s a great place to start. Unfortunately, depending on where your business operates, decarbonizing your energy consumption … Read more...

Douglas L. Parker Nominated by U.S. President Biden for Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health

Posted on by
Reply
As head of Cal-OSHA, California’s workplace safety organization, Douglas Parker was responsible for implementing and enforcing that state’s emergency temporary standard to protect workers from COVID.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Douglas L. Parker for Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, Department of Labor. Parker, as the director of Cal-OSHA, California’s workplace safety agency, directed that state’s efforts to implement an emergency workplace COVID standard. The Biden administration continues to weigh whether or not it should issue an emergency temporary standard that includes Covid-19-related workplace safety regulations.

Parker, of San Francisco, Calif., previously served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration and was a member of the Biden-Harris transition team focused on worker health and safety issues. He also held positions as a senior policy advisor and special assistant at the Department … Read more...

The New Retool: Pivoting Manufacturing to be Ready for Anything

Posted on by
Reply

Experts say that because of changes forced on the manufacturing industry by the pandemic and a new administration, we’ll begin to see the evolution of manufacturing as an industry that’s more responsive and adaptive to both markets and consumers.

As the COVID-19 pandemic exploded around the globe, it’s not surprising the industry that makes personal protective equipment (PPE) rapidly ramped up production. The demand for N95 respirators and a range of other vital protective equipment like faceshields, gloves, atmosphere-supplying respirators (supplied-air respirators (SARs), self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBAs) and combination SARs/SCBAs) and protective garments initially overwhelmed supply.

A video from the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA)—“Beyond the Mask”—shows how the PPE industry responded to the unprecedented challenges posed by the worst public-health crisis in a century.

“Beyond the Mask” reveals the behind-the-scenes work involved in getting PPE into the hands of those whose lives depended on it. “In January, … Read more...

Don’t Use COVID-19 as Excuse for OSHA Non-Compliance: Legal Experts

Posted on by
Reply
When it comes to recordkeeping, the hardest questions employers are grappling with are whether an incident is recordable or not, and whether it is work-related.

Employers who try to use the pandemic as an excuse for non-compliance with OSHA regulations can expect no mercy from the agency and will still face hefty fines and penalties, according to legal experts.

During a recent webinar hosted by the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), Todd Logsdon, partner at Fisher & Phillips LLP, and Barry Spurlock, practicing attorney and associate professor at Eastern Kentucky University, offered these and other insights into common questions they have received around how OSHA regulations may or may not have changed in the new COVID landscape. Here is a summary of their observations on a number of top-of-mind topics.

Training During COVID

Many organizations are wondering how to proceed with required training while operating under the onerous restrictions … Read more...

Quality Management Can’t Be Optional Anymore

Posted on by
Reply

Here is an unfortunate truth: the story of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of epic quality failures in almost every area imaginable.

While there have been some admirable successes, such as the food and beverage organizations that have ensured the continued safe delivery of food supplies to most regions, failures both large and small have caused an untold amount of damage to the infrastructure of society and business. Arguably, these quality failures have worsened the impact of the pandemic, including economic devastation and even a higher death toll. 

Here are just a few of the quality failures that will become prominent themes in the narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

PPE Shortages and Quality Failures 

Almost immediately after the start of the pandemic, healthcare organizations worldwide faced a critical shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as the crucial N95 respirators that would protect doctors, nurses and other frontline workers from infection. There were … Read more...

Expert Connect Explores OSHA under the Biden Administration: Compliance, Enforcement, Collaboration or All Three?

Posted on by
Reply
What does OSHA under the Biden administration look like? Read what Scott has to say and learn more from our experts on April 7th’s Expert Connect.

With new leadership at the U.S. Department of Labor and OSHA and the Biden administration signaling a return to more regulatory and compliance oversight, our panel of experts have been invited to explore how enforcement and regulatory action might change and what EHS professionals should be doing to prepare.

Join us on April 7th from 10:00–10:45 am EDT “OSHA under Biden.” Our panelists include Scott Gaddis, Vice President, Global Practice Leader—Safety & Health, Intelex, Travis Vance, Partner, Fisher & Phillips LLP and Jennifer Debias, Director of Business Development – North America, RegScan. Our moderator is Jonna Pedersen, Senior Manager, Customer Success, Intelex.

Scott recently sat down to answer some questions about the OSHA Under Biden session. Here’s what he had to say:… Read more...

How AI is Helping Organizations Meet ESG Expectations

Posted on by
Reply
Using AI, subject matter experts who need to understand ESG requirements can synthesize vast quantities of data that would take weeks or even months for human readers to wade through.

Today’s organizations are part of a dynamic marketplace undergoing seemingly constant disruption. While some of these disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, will produce times of crises, others will be the catalyst to monumental positive change.

Over the last few years, organizations have started to look beyond profit as the primary motivation for doing business to the possibility of having a positive impact on society and the environment. To this end, ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) has become the foundation upon which many organizations and their customers see strategic decisions regarding investment and innovation being made.

However, ESG comes with a number of complex obstacles for implementation. This is where ehsAI’s artificial intelligence and deep learning solutions can make … Read more...

Forest for the Trees: Stuck in the Briars of Measuring Safety

Posted on by
Reply
measurement versus targets
Does your organization confuse measurements with targets? If so, it means you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Can you see the forest for the trees when it comes to data targets versus measuring safety? Or are you stuck in the briars, setting targets that ultimately undermine your intentions?

The beginning of a new year offers a fresh start. As teams got together to vision set the year, we congregate for goal meetings. The goals that come out of these meetings shape our strategy for the year moving forward.

While our departmental or company goal meetings are often conducted with the best intentions, they often miss the mark by confusing targets with measures. As it is expressed in the Goodhart law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. In other words, when we use measures (quantitative indicators) as the targets we are trying … Read more...

IWD2021: Roula Vrsic: Own Your Value

Posted on by
Reply

International Women’s Day – March 8 – is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 (IWD2021) is: “A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.” 

IWD2021 is asking: How will you help forge a gender-equal world? The answer is by celebrating women’s achievements, raising awareness against bias and taking action for equality.

At Intelex, we celebrate the accomplishments of womxn every day. Through our annual IWD blog series, we want to introduce you to a group of women like Roula – Intelex employees, customers and partners – who personify the achievements of women in tech and in EHSQ.

What is your name, title and company? 

Roula Vrsic, SVP of Marketing, Intelex  

How did you become in involved technology? 

My curiosity and passion for technology started when I was in high school when I … Read more...