Workplace Culture

A new voluntary international standard for occupational health and safety management — including hazardous chemical safety — is currently under development by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The new standard will be called ISO 45001, and is set to replace OHSAS 18001, a voluntary set of international standards first published in 1999 and developed […]

Sustainability is an important term, but it seems to mean something different to everyone. It matters to individual people and it also matters to businesses. Companies who invest in sustainable innovation tend to experience benefits from this expression of their socially-conscious values in three key areas: 1. Business Performance 2. Employee Retention 3. Risk Mitigation […]

OSHA has repealed Arizona’s state-specific residential fall protection regulation put forth by the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH) — Arizona’s state OSHA plan. Because of this change, Arizona homebuilders will now be required to implement fall protection for workers in construction activities at heights of 6 feet or more. The repealed standard […]

Today’s best practices in EHS and Sustainability management strive to influence the culture at all levels of an organization to foster awareness and shared accountability for workplace safety and health and environmental stewardship. The implementation of an EHS software system does not tend to correlate directly to this goal, however it can have a tremendous […]

Last week, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) announced in a final investigation report that a fire at a Richmond, California Chevron refinery in 2012 was the result of a flawed safety culture within the corporation. The large fire endangered 19 Chevron workers, and sent over 15,000 local residents to the hospital for medical attention. […]

Exactly thirty years ago, the deadliest industrial accident of all time took place. On December 3, 1984, a leak in a pesticide plant caused the release of 40 tons of methyl isocyanate into the air in the city of Bhopal, India. About 4,000 people were killed outright, and another 15,000 passed away in the weeks […]

Many clients have asked me for advice on how to improve user adoption – I propose however that it’s not user adoption they need, it’s engagement! There are multiple schools of thought on the difference between adoption and engagement, but for the purpose of this blog post, here’s my stance: Adoption – users have accepted […]

A certification provides official confirmation of specific characteristic(s) a person or company has achieved through an external assessment. Businesses conduct SOC 2 certification to ensure that the inner workings of an organization meet audit and compliance standards. As a follow up to our blog post on The Information Security Certification Challenge, VelocityEHS conducted our first annual SOC […]

In 2012, I traveled to a remote community in the Buikwe District in Uganda, Africa to help build a sustainable clean water system for the maternity ward of the local hospital. This experience was absolutely amazing and rewarding! Since we had an abundance of volunteers, we were also able to repaint the interior offices and […]

“Solutions to Control Hazards” by OSHA contains information relevant to the implementation of control hazards in a variety of environments. There are three main groups of control hazards (engineering, administrative work practices, and PPE) that lead to the reduction of exposure to risk factors. This site provides examples, success stories, case studies, and guidelines in […]