What is World Class EHS, and How to Achieve It

[Former Member]

Last year, I had the pleasure of hearing Gary Rosenblum of the Campbell Institute speak at the SAP Conference for Environment, Health and Safety Management in Houston.  The Campbell Institute is the EHS Center of Excellence of the National Safety Council.  It’s a forum for leaders in EHS to exchange ideas and collaborate across industry sectors to identify and refine best EHS practices, and a platform to present best EHS practices to the EHS community.

Gary presented a research-based analysis of leading EHS management system practices needed to achieve world class EHS performance.  He focused in five key research findings:

1. Leadership and Culture Built and Sustained at All Levels
2. Integrated EHS Management System Approach
3. Strong Linkage Between EHS and Operations
4. EHS Efforts Extend to Surrounding Communities
5. Leading and Lagging Performance Measurements

Given the focus of the conference was on how to enable EHS performance with information technology, I found findings 2, 3, and 5 to be of particular interest.  He talked about how organizations that get EHS right take a systems-based approach that seamlessly integrates EHS across business functions, structures, and geographies, with a clear focus on continuous improvement.  “Operationalizing” the EHS management system with standardized business processes that are consistently executed in day-to-day operations is key, as is performance management with both leading and lagging indicators.

These themes will be discussed again this year at the same conference in New Orleans on Feb 24-25, when EHS leaders and professionals, and their IT counterparts will converge to share best practices and lessons learned in enabling EHS and sustainability performance improvement.

Some of the highlights:

• David Metcalfe, CEO of Sustainability/ EHS research firm Verdantix, will deliver a keynote address on Getting Value from EHS Information Management: Facilities, Products and Supply Chain.  He will present research that will help you understand why the time is right to move ahead with initiatives to enhance EHS and sustainability performance with software systems.
• Leading companies such as Dow Chemical, Al Hosn Gas, Colgate-Palmolive, Cristal Chemical, Southern California Edison and Seven Seventy Energy will talk about initiatives to streamline and operationalize proactive EHS compliance and risk management processes, and how that helps drive operational excellence
• Product manufacturers such Varian Medical,  Milliken,  CommScope, and Dow Corning will share how they are safeguarding revenue, building market share, and reducing costs by optimizing product innovation, safety, and compliance across the supply chain.

Whether you are already running solutions for EHS management from SAP or are considering future deployment, I invite you to join fellow SAP customers February 24–25, 2015, in New Orleans for the SAP Conference for EHS Management. The 2015 program builds on the success of last year’s event at which Gary spoke.

As conference chairman I’m probably a bit biased, but I firmly believe that this event is the place to be for any SAP customer interested in practical advice and strategies on how to better integrate and optimize EHS processes.

See you in N’awlins!

Pete Bussey

Sustainability Solutions

SAP