The Ultimate Guide to EHS: What It Means and Why It Matters

Before diving in, let’s clarify a few key acronyms.

What is EHS? EHS stands for Environment, Health and Safety, a collective term for the laws, policies, programs and practices designed to protect the health and safety of employees, customers and the surrounding environment within an organization. The term may also appear as HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) or EHSQ (Environment, Health, Safety and Quality), depending on regional and industry standards.

What is EHS?

EHS is a term that encompasses many processes, guidelines and initiatives that work to maintain safe operations.

When “environment” is discussed, it means the natural world in which people, animals or plants live or operate. As in, “am I releasing toxic chemicals into the environment or polluting a stream?”

“Health” refers to anything that could negatively impact the physical or mental condition of an employee.

“Safety” relates to the organized measures a company takes to identify workplace hazards, thereby protecting employees and the workplace.

Understanding EHS, SHE and HSE: What's the Difference?

If you've come across acronyms like EHS, SHE or HSE, you might be wondering what sets them apart. Although they all represent similar concepts, their use varies by region. In North America, Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) is the common term, while in Britain and across Europe, Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) or Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) are preferred. Occasionally, you might even see "Q" added to form EHSQ, indicating a focus on quality as well.

Why these differences? Partly, it’s down to language conventions and translations. Another factor is the specific agencies that oversee these practices in each country. For instance, in the U.S., it's the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that sets the standards, while in the U.K., the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) plays this role. Recognizing and adapting to these regional nuances can be valuable for professionals working internationally.

Why is EHS Important?

Every person has a right to work in a safe and fulfilling environment. The cost of poor safety is high. It’s clear that one of the main reasons why EHS is important is that behind every safety-related statistic is a name and family. The cost of poor safety is the lives of your employees, but the cost doesn’t stop there. Safety is a legal obligation, and poor EHS management can lead to:

• Increase in costs (fines, claims, etc.)

• Disruption to operational efficiency

• Decrease in employee morale and retention

• Loss of future investment

• Damage to business reputation

• Negative environmental impacts

Good EHS management is a core part of the operational ecosystem, and doing it well can promote engagement and wider productivity benefits. This is why it’s time to shift the mentality on EHS to safe operations being an organization’s top priority.

The Western world’s outlook on employee health and safety has changed drastically over the last few decades, with legislation being brought in during the 1970s to provide more protection for employees than ever before. Thanks to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (passed to prevent workers from being killed or harmed at work), employees in the United States have the right to a safe and healthy place of work, while the U.K.’s Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 lays out specific health and safety responsibilities for employees and employers alike.

Incidents such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which caused 57,500 square miles of petroleum leakage killing 11 workers and injuring 17 others, and the Rana Plaza accident, a building collapse that killed at least 1,132 people and injured 2,500, serve as powerful reminders of the importance of truly prioritizing EHS. While it is easy to forget that hazards exist in our day-to-day lives, by placing safety at the heart of effective operations, tragedies like these may be avoided.

Embedding safe operations at the heart of your organization shows that you're not only serious about complying with governmental EHS regulations, but also that you truly care about your employees' health, safety, well-being and happiness, promoting a positive work environment.

The benefits of a comprehensive EHS management program are numerous. Even if you don’t work in a high-risk environment, making safe operations a priority is beneficial for the following reasons:

• Reducing the days of missed work for employees. The Health and Safety Executive estimated that in 2022/23, an estimated 2 million working days were lost in the U.K. due to work-related illness and injury. In the U.S., the National Safety Congress estimates that this figure reached 108 million days lost in 2022.

• Eradicating employee fears surrounding potential accidents. According to Richard Powell, head of personal injury claims at JMW Solicitors, more than a quarter of employees do not report a workplace injury for fear of financial repercussions from their employer.

• Increasing company profit. Incidents incur a range of direct and indirect costs to employers. For example, an incident with a direct cost of $5,000 will mean that the organization will need to generate $227,000 to cover the incident cost, according to Bill Gourdie, health and safety director at GAI. In 2022, the National Safety Council calculated that the total cost to employers for work injuries was over $167 billion, which includes wage and productivity losses.

• Improved public image. By taking a firm stand on health, safety and the environment, public recognition and loyalty from customers, partners and investors is strengthened.

• Reduction in legal issues brought on by workplace incidents. According to the Health and Safety Executive, organizations in the U.K. tried in a magistrates’ court can expect to pay between £5,000 to £20,000 in fines. Organizations may also have to pay compensation and legal fees. In 2022, the National Council on Compensation Insurance stated that the average cost on a U.S. worker’s comp claim was $40,000.

Which Businesses Need To Consider EHS?

The pressure on companies to be more transparent about their EHS practices is growing stronger. This is particularly important when it comes to their environmental footprint.

Actions taken within the last few years show that ignoring environmental regulations simply won’t fly. For example, Severn Trent Water, a water company operating in the utility sector, was handed a £500,000 fine in 2019 for spilling thousands of gallons of raw sewage in a Birmingham Park.

While protecting the environment and its people should be a priority for all businesses, some will have to manage risk more stringently than others. The industries with the highest need for EHS are as follows:

• Manufacturing

• Transportation

• Construction

• Engineering

• Utilities

• Industrial

• Warehousing

• Food & drink

• Pharmaceuticals

• Healthcare

• Sports & leisure

• Education

• Housing

• Retail

• Office-based

• Forestry

• Architecture

Despite being dotted across a variety of areas, these industries have at least one of the following risks in common:

• Slips, trips and falls

• Fire-related hazards

• Exposure to harmful and toxic substances

• Contact with heavy machinery and electrical equipment

• Accidents involving collisions with other vehicles

• Managing work through extreme heat or cold

According to HSE, construction worker deaths accounted for just under half of all workplace deaths in the UK in 2020/21 (39 out of 142 deaths). In the U.S., the Department of Labor shares that construction worker deaths accounted for 21% of workplace deaths in 2021.

Although incident rates globally have been improving over the last few decades, this data still demonstrates that workers in some of these industries, such as utilities, are more frequently exposed to risks that can be classified as a serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs).

What Are the Benefits of EHS Software?

In a nutshell, EHS software helps you manage your environment, health and safety program to keep your workers happy and safe, all while helping you reach your corporate operational goals.

EHS management software provides the means to capture, store and organize information and workflows to demonstrate compliance and track insights in one unified system.

The top 11 benefits of using EHS software include:

• Embed processes to meet safety regulations and monitor compliance across sites.

• Streamline incident reporting and investigation on-the-go.

• Reduce spreadsheet reliance with single data entries, cutting admin time and errors.

• Use powerful BI tools to simplify report creation.

• Centralize data collection to securely store incidents and supporting documents.

• Ensure consistent, high-quality data for smarter decision-making.

• Enhance staff education with interactive EHS training.

• Identify patterns and root causes to improve risk mitigation.

• Stay compliant with evolving EHS legal requirements.

• Build trust by being transparent about your environmental impact.

• Boost morale by empowering employees to take charge of safety initiatives.

What Does an EHS Manager Do?

An EHS manager is responsible for developing, implementing and overseeing the health and safety program of an organization. Responsibilities of an EHS manager include:

• The management of health and safety systems

• Coordinating and delivering safety training

• Job hazard analysis

• Implementing controls for hazards

• Performing risk management duties

• Improving human and operation performance

• Working to reduce emissions

• And so much more

Due to the multi-faceted nature of EHS, the role may be split across several jobs. Safety officers, for example, are more exclusively responsible for carrying out observations, inspections and safety training. EHS managers are vital in many organizations and keep the business profitable, operational and safe.

We hope this article has given you a better understanding of EHS, why it’s important and the tools you can put in place to improve your EHS management system. Embracing EHS will not only benefit employees by feeling safer and more valued but also secure your standing as an organization that believes in safe operations.

To find out more about EHS and how to be more proactive, browse our solutions page below!