By Phil Molé, MPH

Throughout Q3, VelocityEHS hosted a variety of events designed to help EHS professionals stay ahead of regulatory changes, explore emerging technologies, and enhance their safety programs. Covering topics like OSHA HazCom updates, AI in EHS, safety, incident management, ergonomics, contractor safety, and operational risk, these webinars provided practical insights and actionable strategies that attendees could apply in their organizations. We also continued the popular AI in Safety Coffee Chat series, offering ongoing conversations about the evolving role of AI in EHS.

EHS professionals are busy, so if you missed any of our Q3 webinars or AI in Safety Coffee Chats, here’s a handy recap, complete with on-demand recording links to help you catch up.

Chemical Management

Managing chemicals across an organization is becoming increasingly complex as companies navigate regulatory requirements, operational demands, and growing volumes of chemical and Safety Data Sheet (SDS) information. Yet many organizations still rely on manual processes, disconnected spreadsheets, and decentralized records that can create inefficiencies, limit visibility, and increase compliance risk.

One of our webinars, co-presented with partner Trinity Consultants, explored common challenges associated with managing chemical inventories and SDS information across multiple facilities and departments, and discussed how a centralized approach can provide greater visibility, consistency, and control.

Making the Case for Streamlined Chemical Management: Reducing Risk, Improving Efficiency, and Supporting Compliance

Safety

Every incident tells a story, but the most effective safety programs use those lessons to proactively reduce risk before the next job begins. To do that effectively, you need better integration of incident management with Job Safety Analysis (JSAs).

Incident investigations reveal what happened, why it happened, and where controls failed. JSAs take those insights and apply them proactively, helping organizations identify hazards, strengthen controls, and prevent similar incidents before work starts. Together, they create a continuous cycle of learning and improvement that moves safety programs beyond compliance and toward prevention.

In one webinar, presented for Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S), attendees learned how to improve their incident management and JSAs, and most importantly, how to de-silo the processes to get the insights needed to adopt a more proactive safety management approach.

Closing the Safety Loop: Connecting Incident Management and Job Safety Analysis

Not every workplace incident tells the same story though. Potential serious incidents and fatalities, or PSIFs, are incidents or near misses that didn’t result in a life-altering injury or death, but easily could have, providing critical insight into where the highest risks exist and where preventive action is needed most. That’s why EHS leaders are focusing on PSIFs as a leading indicator to identify high-risk exposures, prioritize resources, and strengthen prevention efforts before serious injuries occur.

One of our webinars, presented for National Safety Council (NSC), explored how organizations are using identification and tracking of PSIF risks as part of a proactive approach to safety, and discussed how the recent release of the ASTM E2920-26 PSIF standard provides a useful framework.

Rethinking Safety Metrics: Why PSIFS Are the New Standard for Evaluating Workplace Risks

Ergonomics

Ergonomics assessments sometimes overlook what workers depend on most. Whole-body assessment methods excel at identifying obvious lifting and postural risks, but they can obscure the cumulative strain of repetitive hand-intensive work.

One Q3 webinar, presented for AIHA, discussed why hand injuries uniquely affect every aspect of daily life and how targeted assessment methods help identify and prioritize hidden upper-extremity risks.

Seeing the Whole Job Isn’t Enough: Identifying Hidden Ergonomics Risks

Another webinar, presented for EHS Today, focuses on giving EHS professionals the talking points and strategy they’ll need to make a good business case for ergonomics within their organization.

Establishing the Business Value of Ergonomics

Ergonomics software on the market increasingly comes with AI capabilities, but not all AI is equal. One of our webinars helped EHS professionals understand what they should be looking for when they’re in the market for AI-enhanced ergonomics software.

AI Driven Ergonomics: What Works and What Doesn’t?

In another webinar, we were joined by Leyang Wen, Machine Learning Researcher at the University of Michigan, to discuss how purpose-built AI for ergonomics with tailored 3D datasets dramatically improve accuracy of ergonomics assessments.

From Motion to Foresight: The Science Behind Next-Gen Vision-Based Ergonomics Risk Assessments

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Operational Risk

Management of Change (MOC) is a sometimes-overlooked aspect of operational risk, consisting of formal procedures for assessing planned changes, whether to operations, the workplace, or other aspects of work, to make sure that they don’t introduce uncontrolled risks.

One of our Q3 webinars, which offered CEU credits, assessed the importance of MOC for an effective safety management system as defined by ISO 45001, the international standard for occupational health & safety (OH&S) management.

MOC CEU Webinar: Change Is Constant. Risk Doesn’t Have to Be: Elevating MOC for ISO 45001 and Beyond

Contractor Safety + Permit to Work

Organizations that conduct high-risk work often face fragmented data, inconsistent qualification processes, and limited visibility into who is onsite, especially when contractors and vendors conduct much of this work. These gaps create compliance exposures and slow an organization’s ability to respond when risks arise.

Permit to Work (PTW) is a system for ensuring that all highly hazardous job tasks, such as working at heights or within hazardous atmosphere confined spaces, occur with proper approvals, and after ensuring that all preparations have been made and safeguards are in place. The challenge is that EHS teams have a difficult time managing PTW with traditional tools, such as hard copy or desktop software systems.

In Q3, we conducted a demo webinar showing Contractor Safety software capabilities. While there is no on-demand recording, you can get your own personal look at the software anytime. Just reach out to set up a meeting.

AI in EHS

In the 2026 EHS 360 Benchmark Report, we surveyed over 1,000 EHS professionals and found that EHS professionals see AI as the most transformative factor for EHS, and see competency in using AI as the most important skill for EHS professionals to develop in the coming years. EHS professionals recognize that AI is no longer future tense. It’s here, it’s already improving EHS outcomes, and it’s essential to understand how to get the best use of it.

Some webinars on other topics, including Rethinking Safety Metrics and the AI Driven Ergonomics webinar, discussed the role of AI in helping EHS professionals reduce administrative burdens and assess risks faster. Other virtual events highlighted AI as the primary topic. During the quarter, we also conducted an entire AI virtual event. In one these presentations, our panel provided a primer on how EHS professionals can use the right kinds of AI to solve key challenges.

AI in EHS: The Essentials Every EHS Professional Should Know

In another presentation, attendees learned about the ways that AI-improved job safety analyses (JSAs), along with AI tools to detect PSIFs, enable EHS professionals to improve risk detection and control.

AI & Safety: Predict, Prevent, Protect

AI in Safety: A Coffee Chat for EHS Professionals

We also continued the popular AI Coffee Chat series, intended to bring EHS pros together to learn more about the relevance of AI and why you can’t afford to ignore it.

Each installment of the AI Coffee Chat features a special guest to discuss specific aspects of EHS and AI. In Q3, the AI Coffee Chat discussed various aspects of AI and its impact on the field of EHS and relevance to EHS professionals.

Make sure you don’t miss future installments of the AI Coffee Chat Series.

EHS Management and EHS Software

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Most organizations recognize the importance of improving EHS performance, but many struggle to accurately assess the current maturity of their EHS programs. Traditional audits often focus on compliance status and a narrow set of lagging EHS metrics, providing only a limited snapshot of EHS performance, while doing little to inform continued program maturity.

VelocityEHS developed a maturity assessment to help organizations evaluate their governance, culture, risk management, operational controls, leadership engagement, and continuous improvement, so they can identify strengths, uncover gaps, and prioritize next steps. One of our webinars discussed the maturity assessment framework, and helped attendees understand how to use the assessment to improve their management system and build resilience.

From Reactive to Resilient: Measuring and Advancing EHS Maturity

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EHS is evolving quickly. Our 2026 EHS 360 Benchmark Report, In Transition: The New Reality of EHS surveyed over 1,000 EHS professionals and assessed real anonymized customer data from our platform, and it documents the shift from a compliance-focus to an approach that’s strategic, proactive, and data-driven. Safety professionals and EHS leaders need to adapt to the changing landscape.

One of our webinars discussed main takeaways from our EHS 360 Benchmark Report, including what EHS professionals think about this era of change, and how they’re looking to overcome persistent challenges.

EHS in Transition: Navigating the New Era of EHS

Check Out More VelocityEHS Resources

Now that you’re caught up on our Q3 webinar topics, be sure to watch them on-demand using the links posted throughout this blog. We also hope you will catch one of our upcoming live webinars.

You can also check out some of our many on-demand guides, checklists, and white papers, including:

Partner with VelocityEHS to Level Up Your Safety Programs

Learn more about purpose-built, human-centered AI woven into Accelerate®, The VelocityEHS Connected Platform. Or if you’re ready to see for yourself how Velocity AI and Vēlo can empower safety professionals to act faster, with greater clarity and consistency, watch a demo today.

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