Over the years there has been substantial debate over whether it makes sense to outsource the conduct of environmental, health and safety audits entirely. And, in fact, many, but not all, organizations have done just that. This outsourcing is typically not an easy decision. There are many factors that come into play. A previous EHS
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Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once said there are things that we know for sure, and there are things that we know we don’t know. And then we also have things that we don’t know that we don’t know. The third category is what we want to uncover in an environmental audit…

Software designed to support EHS audits is one of the most widely deployed applications across environmental, health, and safety (EHS) processes. Penetration rates for audit software vie with incident management for top place. According to the Verdantix annual survey of 301 EHS decision-makers, 40% of firms already use software to enhance their EHS audit processes, and 2017 promises a good kick in spending. Six per cent of firms intend to replace existing homegrown or commercial systems, a further 6% will invest in an upgrade with their existing vendor, and an additional 8% plan to invest in EHS audit software for the first time. An impressive 20% of firms therefore plan some level of additional spend in this category during 2017.

In recent years there has been considerable discussion in the EHS audit profession about how to apply the concept of risk to an audit program. The theory is that risk-based programs will likely result in a more efficient and effective application of resources and a more targeted focus on truly important issues. This article provides a tool and approach that could be used by audit program managers to not only classify facilities, but also…

Corporate EHS audit programs require a substantial commitment on the part of executive management in order to be successful. Sadly, it is not always the case that senior corporate executives participate actively in EHS audit programs. This article examines the role of executive commitment in EHS audit programs and discusses ways to test whether this involvement is real or not.

Many companies have policies in place that specify the frequency of their internal environmental audits. Once a year or every other year, a company does an internal audit or hires external auditors to do it. When a company has a major chemical accident, investigative bodies such as the U.S. Chemical Safety Board looks into the
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Over the past few years there has been much discussion about how companies go about establishing and achieving sustainability and social responsibility objectives. Unless one is careful these initiatives can result in overlooking the need to meet the fundamental objective of regulatory compliance. There is no country where this is more important than the United States where the environmental, health, and safety (EHS) regulatory burden is substantial and the consequences of non-compliance can be quite severe. In order to merit a “license to operate” in the U.S. it is important to understand clearly and completely the regulatory environment and its requirements…

Environmental, health, and safety (EHS) audits are supposed to be a collaborative activity in which independent auditors team up with facility personnel to conduct an objective review of the facility’s programs and procedures. Things usually go as planned, but if you encounter any of the following warning signs, your auditor’s radar should be sounding, “
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Many organizations have been conducting environmental, health, and safety (EHS) audits for decades now, and as auditors revisit sites on a 2- or 3-year cycle, one of the most frustrating aspects of the audit outcomes is that many of the same or similar findings of noncompliance seem to arise time and time again. This situation
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The great majority of environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) professionals come from a background that is either primarily environmental in focus or primarily health and safety based. As the EH&S auditing profession has evolved, companies have integrated environmental topics with health and safety topics (and sometimes with others such as management systems or sustainability) on
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