12.19.2011

ISO 9001 User Survey Results Published

Results of the 2010-11 ISO User Survey are reported in the current issue (December, 2011) of ISO Focus+.    The survey was coordinated by TC 176, subcommittee SC2 and had 11,722 respondents from around the world.  The full survey can be downloaded from the ISO website.  Some of the findings that caught my attention follow.

Factors influencing certification.  The three largest drivers that influence the decision to pursue certification are: customer satisfaction (4,222); market need (3,689); and, mandated customer requirements (3,290).  These findings are consistent with what I have been seeing with my clients, in particular customer mandated requirements for integrated EHS management systems.

Important benefits of applying ISO 9001 in an organization.  Customer satisfaction was the top response (5,886) as would be expected with 9001.  Of interest is that many of the top responses also point to value with business process improvements, including: standard business process (5,821); increased management commitment (4,125); and more effective management reviews (3,975).

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9.15.2011

Risk Management, EHS/S, Business Continuity, and the 360 Risk Management Check-Up™

It has been a while since I’ve posted. The  summer has been full, working on developing the 360 Risk Management Check-Up™, a high-level diagnostic to measure the EHS/S and risk management function in organizations. Associated with this work, I have been conducting research on the evolution of organizational risk management and growing attention on non-financial risk management (NFRM).

Organizational risk management (RM) concepts and practices have been evolving from a singular focus on financial risk to a more broad focus on enterprise-wide and non-financial risks. Approaches such as enterprise risk management, strategic risk management, value risk management, etc. have been evolving into what is being called NFRM. Read More

Posted By | in Emerging Issues, Innovation, Risk Management, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

6.30.2011

Risk Management and Business Continuity with an Integrated Management System

In my previous post, I briefly discussed the integrated quality, safety, and environmental management system (QSEMS) at the Cannes Convention Center. The trend toward integrated management systems, including ISO’s movement toward a generic management system model for wide application, will provide a new tool for organizational risk management.

As evolved as risk management methods and models are, organizations struggle with integrating risk management practices. A silo phenomenon challenges risk managers as it has EHS managers for many years. In current non-financial risk management writings and research, the need for risk management integration and “silo-busting” is highlighted. An integrated risk management system can provide a way to bust silos in an organization. Read More

Posted By | in Auditing & Metrics, Emerging Issues, ISO News, Management Systems, Risk Management | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

3.31.2011

Is Biodiversity the Next Big Environmental Issue for Business?

The McKinsey Quarterly reported earlier this year on environmental management-related findings from a McKinsey survey conducted in June 2010. The 1,576 responses from executives in a wide range of industries, regions, and functional specialties indicate climate change and energy efficiency as the most important environmental matter in their companies, but also indicate an increasing concern about biodiversity.

The article titled, “The Next Environmental Issue for Business,” suggests that biodiversity may be the next large environmental issue for companies.  The June 2010 survey found that 9 percent of the respondents think biodiversity is an important issue. This finding is similar to what a survey in 2007 found related to climate change and energy efficiency. The suggestion here is that if biodiversity has the same trajectory as climate change and energy efficiency, then by 2013, biodiversity will be a significant strategic and management issue for companies.

A significant number of respondents indicated they felt that in the next one to three years, they would have increased pressure to change operations, products, and services to reduce impacts on biodiversity. Read More

Posted By | in Emerging Issues, Management Systems, Risk Management, Sustainability | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

3.25.2011

EHS/S Continual Improvement – The EHS/S Management System is Key

Continual improvement is a term we hear a lot about in business these days. It is a notion that is central to management system approaches rooted in the quality and ISO arenas. As central as this concept has become, I find that organizations struggle with how to define it and then practice it.

Continual improvement may be defined and implemented in any number of ways. The basic notion is that the organization should seek ways to achieve ongoing improvement of EHS/S performance, both in terms of outputs and outcomes. The primary goal of continual improvement activities should be to reduce EHS/S impacts and eliminate worker injury and illness.

Continual improvement does not mean or imply a requirement to attain better-than-compliance conditions as measured against specification regulations or standards. While better-than-compliance conditions may be a goal of an organization, it is not a requirement of the definition of continual improvement suggested here. Read More

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2.28.2011

Getting Your EHS/S Risk Management Metrics Right: Taking a 360-Degree View

At its core, EHS/S (environmental, health, safety, and sustainability) management is a risk management endeavor and there are numerous ways these activities can be described and reported. Even though many companies have robust EHS/S risk management practices, it is sobering to hear risk professionals continue to report pessimism about their organization’s overall risk management efforts.

The February 2011 issue of Internal Auditor reports on three studies that indicate while there is continued focus on the importance of robust risk management, more times than not, it is not being done well. Research conducted by the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Institute at North Carolina State University found that only 28 percent of 460 ERM professionals surveyed described their current state of ERM implementation as “systematic, robust, and repeatable”; 42 percent described the process as immature; and 60 percent described the process as mostly informal and ad hoc.

Corporate board oversight of ERM is hit or miss. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) reports that while directors give their boards high marks for ERM, less than one-half of the boards have ERM accountability assigned to a board subcommittee. Further, a survey of directors, conducted by Protiviti Inc., showed that only 13 percent consider ERM robust and mature. Internal Auditor reports that both of these studies point to challenges with risk reporting to the board. Read More

Posted By | in Auditing & Metrics, Emerging Issues, Innovation, Risk Management, Strategic Thinking & Planning | Tags: , , | No Comments »

2.28.2011

Strengthening the EHS/S Role in Mergers & Acquisitions, Looking Beyond the Basics

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are always an option when developing and executing corporate strategy. They provide the means to quickly increase market share or expand technology that could otherwise take years to develop internally.

As an EHS/S (environmental, health, safety, and sustainability) professional or executive, how well do you support M&A activities? More likely than not, you cover the basics of conducting phase I or II assessments, determining basic regulatory compliance, as well as characterizing the overall EHS/S risk profile of the entity under consideration.

But have you or your leadership examined whether the EHS/S information being collected is enough and whether a change in the M&A assessment practice could increase the chances of a successful M&A event? An article in the current issue of the Harvard Business Review (March 2011) suggests not.

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Posted By | in Auditing & Metrics, Emerging Issues, Strategic Thinking & Planning | Tags: , , | No Comments »

10.21.2010

ISO 26000 on Social Responsibility is Done

The long-awaited ISO guidance standard on Social Responsibility has been completed and will be publicly available on November 1, 2010. ISO says, “ISO 26000 provides harmonized, globally relevant guidance for private and public sector organizations of all types based on international consensus among expert representatives of the main stakeholder groups and so encourage the implementation of best practice in social responsibility worldwide.”

While the ultimate impact of ISO 26000 is not known, it is anticipated that it will have impact throughout supply chains. Pekka Isosomppi of Nokia reported at the recent International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) conference in Rome that many large multi-national companies are already doing many, if not all, of the items recommended in ISO 26000. He indicated that what will be interesting to see is how different entities in supply chains, especially SMEs (small-to-medium) sized companies, respond. He echoed what many of us are observing—that is, supply chain activities cannot be ignored (e.g., Nike’s problem) and that ISO 26000 will help in evaluating supply chains. Read More

Posted By | in Emerging Issues, ISO News | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

4.29.2010

The Sustainability Gap

McKinsey & Company recently published findings from its February 2010 survey, “How Companies Manage Sustainability.” Nearly 2,000 executives from a wide range of industries and regions participated. The survey concluded that “most companies are not actively managing sustainability, even though executives think it’s important to a variety of corporate activities.”

This gap is attributed to no clear definition of what sustainability means, and as a result, only 30 percent of the respondents indicated that they “actively seek opportunities to invest in sustainability or embed it in their practices.”

The survey found that respondents framed sustainability in the following way:  55 percent as an environmental management issue; 48 percent as a governance issue; 41 percent as a societal issue; and 56 percent indicated they define sustainability in two or more ways. Only 6 percent said that sustainability is both a C-Suite priority and that it was formally and effectively embedded in its business practices. Read More

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4.28.2010

The Sustainability “Megatrend”

It’s common knowledge that sustainability is a big deal. It is a multidimensional issue that impacts all sectors of society. Companies wrestle with how they are going to respond beyond the obvious of energy conservation and waste reduction, when sustainability begins to blur with corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Some direction and insights are provided in an excellent article, “The Sustainability Imperative: Lessons for Leaders from Previous Game-Changing Megatrends,” by David Lubin and Daniel Esty. This article frames sustainability in ways that allow organizations to take actionable steps to impact their sustainability efforts (Harvard Business Review, May 2010).

Many readers are familiar with Esty’s landmark book, Green to Gold, and his work in the environmental policy arena. He evolves the ideas presented in Green to Gold in the “Sustainability Megatrends” article. Lubin and Esty assert that the current sustainability movement can be viewed as a megatrend, as popularized by John Naisbitt in 1982. As such, there are lessons that companies can learn by examining other megatrends, such as IT and quality. Read More

Posted By | in Corporate Social Responsibility, Emerging Issues, Innovation, Risk Management, Strategic Thinking & Planning, Sustainability | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »

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