In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon (Macondo) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Montara oil spill off the coast of Western Australia, ISO Technical Committee (TC) 67, which focuses on oil and gas issues, has developed an action plan to combat oil spill disasters. Published this past March, the action plan addresses many safety and health facets. Of particular interest is the TC’s proposal to develop an EHS management system standard devoted to this industry.
In the early 1990s, ISO/TC 67 developed a robust integrated EHS management system model. The TC suspended its development activities on the standard in anticipation of the publication of ISO 14001 in 1996 and the development of BS8800 in the UK. Read More
In the sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) “space” there is increasing pressure to report on triple-bottom-line issues through reporting frameworks, such as the 
It has been a while since I’ve posted. The summer has been full, working on developing the 
As a living system, a company’s risk profile is continually shifting. The growing attention on sustainability and corporate responsibility (CSR) has stretched companies as they wrestle with ways to characterize and manage their sustainability and CSR risks.
“What gets measured, gets done” is a popular saying in performance improvement circles. There is more though. Yes, true as this is, measurement—and I’ll go a step further here and say auditing—is just part of the “gets done” piece. When crafted within a context of breakthrough performance, EHS auditing and the audit function in an EHS department can be a catalyst for accelerated performance improvement and EHS integration. EHS auditing is commonly viewed as a necessary evil or burden to satisfy regulatory and legal requirements. Within this context, the results are predictable. There is little if any enthusiasm; there is a struggle; and there can be challenges with inter-rater reliability.
Organizational culture is complex, and according to many experts, not well understood. EHS professionals often think about culture in terms of safety. Yet, while safety is clearly important, the topic of culture is all-encompassing.