EHS Compliance is an industry regulation that refers to the rules, policies, programs, and protocols surrounding workplaces and aims to ensure that all company activities do not put the workers’ health and safety at risk, or cause any excessive environmental damage.
Sometimes referred to as HSE Compliance or EHSQ (for Quality), EHS (Environment, Health, and Safety) Compliance is also the combination of all actions, activities, prohibitions, and directives created to prevent workplace injuries or illnesses, contamination in the facility, and pollution in the environment.
Per Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), implementing safety processes also aims to improve compliance with rules, reduce costs, prevent penalties, engage workers, and increase overall business operations.
EHS is enforced by federal and international agencies such as OSHA, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), among others.
EHS is a legal requirement for businesses and failing to comply doesn’t just result in financial penalties but can lead to various other hidden and long-term consequences. Below are just some of the negative impact of non-compliance to organizations and individuals:
Regulations in different regions are constantly evolving and companies must proactively monitor these changes to avoid setbacks in their operations. It is also important to address and update internal policies according to said changes and in compliance to the requirements of the regulating bodies.
All these can be hard to keep up with so it’s essential to apply the basic steps in ensuring EHS compliance:
Cultivate a safe working environment and streamline compliance with our EHS solutions.
There’s no specific format to follow in monitoring environment, health, and safety issues in businesses as this depends on the industry as well as other factors. International Finance Corporation, however, released updated EHS recommendations that apply to all industries and can be used as a guide in implementing them.
Environmental – All the environmental factors that businesses need to be conscious of and constantly observe are the following:
Occupational Health and Safety – All the health and safety hazards in relation to the actual operation, production, and facility that businesses need to check:
Community Health and Safety – All the health and safety elements specific to community factors and responsibilities are:
These components must generally be observed for a greater chance of achieving EHS compliance.
Eliminate manual tasks and streamline your operations.
Now that we have all the essential information for EHS compliance, below is a step-by-step guide on how to implement these using inspection. Please note that this sample template is for a particular type of workplace and your business may have its own set of unique needs and environment and customization will be needed to directly cater to your business requirements.
Also, be as accurate with the inspection as possible, and provide images to items that would need further inspection, or include them as you see fit.
Consists of the most important details such as the inspector name, the date of inspection, and the exact location, building, or room it was conducted.
EHS Basic Inspection Information
This would list down all items for inspection not directly under the umbrella of environmental, health, and safety. This generally consists of the following items:
EHS Compliance General Facility Inspection
This part includes review of items to ensure that any organization activities won’t result in unnecessary environmental harm. This generally consists of the following items:
EHS Compliance Environmental Inspection
This part covers the safety and health components directly involving the facility and the people occupying it. This generally consists of the following items:
EHS Compliance Safety and Health Inspection
Detail your general assessment of the EHS inspection, and include any recommendations you may have. Don’t forget to add important signatures needed to complete the inspection.
EHS Compliance Assessment
EHS Inspections should be done regularly and must easily be updated in accordance with changes in rules and policies. EHS assessments should also be well documented and accessible anytime. SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor), is web-based and mobile app that businesses can use in daily operation inspections in compliance with EHS regulations and in using and creating EHS audit checklists. This software can also offer the following features:
This EHS audit checklist can be used as a guide to conduct inspections to workplaces in compliance to the industry regulation. It also specifically checks general facility, environmental, health, and safety policies to implement EHS compliance. This template is converted from Wichita State University’s EHS template.
Jaydee Reyes is a content writer and researcher for SafetyCulture. Her six-year experience in the field of data research and media monitoring adds expertise and quality to her work. She is also a champion of leveraging technology to promote a culture of safety in workplaces around the world. As a content specialist, she aims to help companies adapt to digital changes through interesting and informational articles.
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