Tag Archives: EHS

Popular Reads – The Top 10 Intelex Blog Posts From 2022

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A look back on Intelex blog posts from 2022 reveals a full gamut of environment, health and safety (EHS) topics: from long-standing challenges and proactive strategies to improve safety performance to the exploration of new ideas, technologies and emerging opportunities.

Our coverage this year featured stories about building and growing safety cultures and safety management best practices, and innovative EHS technologies such as software-as-a-service and artificial intelligence that help organizations improve. We also explored the continued impact of COVID-19 in the workplace and environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and what it means for EHS.

Stay connected throughout the year to the things that matter in EHS and ESG by becoming a regular Intelex blog reader. And, in case you missed them, check out some of our top 2022 blog posts below.

#1 Lessons from the U.S. Army Climate Change Strategy: The U.S. Army’s first-ever Climate Strategy shows why … Read more...

ESG Reporting and EHS Management at Day 2 of the Intelex User Conference 

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Day Two of the Intelex User Conference in Nashville on Nov. 4 continued the discussions about the current state of EHS management, the growing role of ESG reporting and how best to support the frontline worker.

With experts from various industries in every breakout session, the discussions were rich with insights into how Intelex and its partners can continue to foster the innovation customers need to keep workers safe on the job and create a sustainable future for everyone. 

Managing an OSHA Inspection

When an incident happens in the workplace, an OSHA inspection frequently follows. 60 percent of inspections take place in construction, manufacturing, retail and health care, while almost 40 percent of all OSHA inspections are at organizations with fewer than nine employees.  

While your organization and OSHA both have the goal of keeping workers safe and ensuring the continuous improvement of the safety management system, it’s important to … Read more...

Great Ideas to Ignite Your Organization’s EHS Passion

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Seasoned safety pros and newly-appointed novices can benefit from these great tips for becoming a better EHS leader.

William Gibson, a safety specialist for Ohio-based Del-Co Water Company Inc., admits he’s far from being the most seasoned environment, health and safety (EHS) professional. But he is passionate about people and a keen observer who has taken the best ideas from safety veterans he’s encountered and applied those learnings to his own professional journey.

Gibson says he stepped out of his comfort zone to become a safety manager in 2017 when his company called out for someone to manage safety for the growing organization. During a recent presentation at the EHS Today Safety Leadership Conference, he shared many of the great lessons learned during his relatively short five-year career as an EHS professional and outlined what he believes are the building blocks of a great safety program and the key elements … Read more...

What is Incident Management in Safety? (And How Does It help Your OSHA Recordkeeping?)

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Incident management, the process of identifying, documenting, responding to and eliminating workplace injuries and illnesses, is a fundamental obligation for many employers. An important aspect of incident management in safety is OSHA recordkeeping and determining what incidents should be tracked and what data needs to be collected and reported to regulators can be confusing.

Say you reported to your manager that you had a headache. You’re not sure what caused it and are given three acetaminophen capsules. Is this considered a first-aid case by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or is it a recordable injury incident that must be tracked? What if you were only given one capsule? Is it still first aid or should it be recorded by your incident management system? 

An employee goes on one day of light duty at work. Is that a recordable? What if it lasts two days? A worker sprains an ankle … Read more...

More Work and More Tech Needed to Take EHS to the Next Level of Success

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The COVID-19 pandemic placed EHS in the spotlight and has tasked professionals to do more than ever in managing risks within and outside of traditional workspace confines.

The future of environment, health and safety will see the need for more technology adoption by organizations as EHS professionals take on much greater workloads and a role in total worker wellness largely due to the outfall of COVID-19.  

These were among the key observations and topics of discussion during the first day of the Verdantix virtual summit on Innovating for Sustainable Operations that focused on EHS and operations.

Next Level for EHS

During a session titled, Taking EHS to the Next Level of Success, presenters considered how the responsibilities and workloads of EHS professionals have been impacted as hybrid and remote working becomes more popular. 

Verdantix CEO David Metcalfe said the COVID-19 pandemic placed EHS in the spotlight and has tasked … Read more...

EHS Software Solves a Need for Speed for This Construction Company

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Moss searched for a safety management system and settled on the Intelex Health and Safety Management platform to organize all the data it had been collecting.
Moss went searching for a health and safety management system and settled on the Intelex Health and Safety Management platform to bring all its data from various processes into a centralized database, including incident reporting, inspections, behavioral-based observations, recorded near misses, good catches and even safety suggestions.

Fast growing companies often find themselves needing a high-performance approach to environmental health and safety (EHS).

Take the case of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based construction company Moss & Associates, whose vice president of environmental health and safety, Scott Gerard, recently told the story of his company’s business growth. During a presentation at the 2021 EHS Today Safety Leadership Conference, Gerard said Moss started out as a company of 300 people some 17 years ago and has today become an organization of more than 3,000 employees with expectations to reach 6,000 this year.

But high growth often moves too quickly past other corporate capabilities. In … Read more...

Insights from NAEM Part III: Technology, Empathy and Diversity

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Highlights from the NAEM conference on EHS and sustainability featured expert knowledge on machine learning, change management and workplace diversity, all of which will be important themes in the post-pandemic world.

The EHS & Sustainability Management Forum from the National Association of EHS&S Management (NAEM) demonstrated the importance of balancing cutting-edge technology innovation with human empathy, dignity and inclusion, which will become an increasingly important theme in 2022. Here is a summary of some select sessions:

The Human Side of EHS&S

While conversations about data and digital transformation dominate the marketplace, it’s easy to neglect the needs of the humans who make up the workforce in EHS&S. The morning roundtable discussion on the human side of EHS&S explored how technology and change management need to operate hand-in-hand for organizations to find success.

The role of digital technology as both a tool and a goal was an important theme. … Read more...

Insights from NAEM 2021 Part 1: Communication and Innovation at the Intersection of EHS and ESG

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The NAEM 2021 EHS and Sustainability Management Forum was the place to be for EHS practitioners last week. For those who weren't able to be there, we have summaries from some of the sessions to help you learn about the impact of ESG and the evolution of EHS.
The NAEM 2021 EHS and Sustainability Management Forum was the place to be for EHS practitioners last week. For those who weren’t able to be there, we have summaries from some of the sessions to help you learn about the impact of ESG and the evolution of EHS.

The National Association for EHS&S Management (NAEM) held its EHS & Sustainability Management Forum online from October 19-21. Subject matter experts from industry and academia, along with leading EHS and ESG vendors, reviewed recent EHS&S developments from the past year and provided a preview of what to expect in 2022 as ESG begins to take center stage for many organizations. While interest in ESG has advanced steadily over the last few years, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought it into greater focus as the world looks to avert the climate crisis while strengthening global resiliency and augmenting the social benefits of capitalism. This … Read more...

Data Does not Speak for Itself: You Have to Speak for It

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Letting the data speak for itself can result in unrecognizable insights for many in your organization. Data needs to be interpreted to make sense.

The data will speak for itself. This is a phrase that is commonly thrown around in data analytics circles.

Often the people who say the data will speak for itself are the ones who are closest to the data, and for them, this might be true. EHS analysts, business analysts and other disciplines that focus on data collection, cleaning, preparation and analysis are closest to the data.

However, for employees of departments whose focus is not data analysis, the data can look like it is speaking Italian instead of English. This means that “letting the data speak for itself” can result in unrecognizable insights for many in your organization.

The practice of environmental, health and safety (EHS) is experiencing growing pains when it comes to analysis … Read more...

Workers Memorial Day 2021: Mourn the Dead, Fight for the Living

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Every year on April 28, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) commemorate Workers Memorial Day. Also known as the International Day of Mourning, this is the day we remember and honor the men and women who have lost their lives on the job. Many of these devastating losses were preventable if standards had been followed, appropriate controls existed and if safety and health programs were a priority.

In 2021, the DOL also observes OSHA’s 50th anniversary. Before the 1971 enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the creation of OSHA, many U.S. workers lacked basic protections from workplace hazards. Since then, OSHA and its many partners have helped transform U.S. workplaces and have reduced injuries, illnesses and fatalities significantly.

“Workers Memorial Day reminds us of the sacrifices many workers make to earn their wages and provide for themselves and … Read more...