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The Ultimate Guide to EHS: What It Means and Why It Matters
3 September 2025
Every person has a right to work in a safe and fulfilling environment. The cost of poor safety is high: behind every safety-related statistic is a name and family. Whether you're a frontline employee, safety manager or executive decision-maker, understanding EHS is essential to upholding this right and building a resilient, high-performing organization. To begin, let’s define what EHS means and how it forms the foundation of safe, responsible business practices.
What Is EHS?
EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) is a collective term for the laws, policies, programs and practices designed to protect the well-being of employees, customers and the surrounding environment within an organization. Together, the three pillars form a holistic approach to risk management and responsible business operations.
Environment
Organizations have a responsibility to protect the surrounding environment of their operations, including managing:
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Pollution control
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Waste management
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Emission reduction
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Environmental compliance
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Sustainability goals
Health and Safety
Protecting the physical and mental well-being of a workforce is paramount to a successful, productive organization. Workplaces that invest in worker health establish effective policies regarding:
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Ergonomics
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Stress management
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Psychosocial risks
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Personal protective equipment (PPE)
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Industrial hygiene
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Hazard identification
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Risk mitigation
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Compliance protocols
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Emergency preparedness
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Inspections and audits
EHS, SHE and HSE: What's the Difference?
Depending on where you are located, health and safety can be referred to in a variety of ways. In North America, Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) is the most used term. However, in Britain and across Europe, Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) or Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) are preferred. You may also see "Q" added to the term EHSQ, indicating a focus on quality as well.
Who Sets EHS Regulations?
Understanding the importance of EHS also means knowing who sets and mandates all relevant standards. Regulatory requirements are set by various national and regional authorities:
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In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) primarily set EHS standards.
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Across Europe, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) primarily provides guidance. Individual regions have their own bodies, such as the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Germany’s Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin (BAuA).
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In Australia, Safe Work Australia develops national policies, while New Zealand is governed by WorkSafe NZ.
Why Are EHS Programs Important?
With regulatory bodies in place, the question becomes: why should organizations invest in EHS programs beyond regulatory compliance? The benefits of a comprehensive EHS program are numerous and extend far beyond the EHS department. Even if you don’t work in a high-risk work environment, establishing high-performing safety processes can:
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Reduce the days of missed work for employees: The National Safety Council estimates that 103,000,000 days were lost in 2023 due to work-related injuries, 70,000,000 of which resulting from injuries occurring in the 2023 calendar year and 33,000,000 resulting from injuries in prior years.
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Eradicate 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.
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Reduce direct and indirect costs of workplace incidents: Incidents incur a range of direct and indirect costs to employers. The National Safety Council estimates that health and safety injuries cost businesses $167 billion in 2022, averaging to about $1,040 per worker.
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Improve public image: By taking a firm stand on health, safety and the environment, public recognition and loyalty from customers, partners and investors are improved.
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Streamline regulatory compliance: Failure to comply with mandated regulations may result in hefty fines, lawsuits or reputational damage.
Which Businesses Should Consider EHS?
According to the 2024 Global Directors’ and Officers’ Survey Report, health and safety is now the #1 concern among worldwide corporate leaders. This follows growing pressure for companies to be more transparent about their EHS practices.
While EHS&S should be a strategic priority for all businesses, certain industries face heightened risks and regulatory scrutiny. The 2024 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index identifies construction, professional services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail and transportation as the sectors most affected by workplace safety challenges.
Across these industries, the same types of incidents consistently contribute to injuries year after year, including:
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Slips, trips and falls
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Fire-related hazards
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Exposure to harmful and toxic substances
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Contact with heavy machinery and electrical equipment
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Accidents involving collisions with other vehicles
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Managing work through extreme heat or cold
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Serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs)
Given the recurring nature of these hazards, all organizations should adopt proactive EHS strategies to protect their workforce and maintain operational resilience.
The Role of EHS Professionals
An organization may have several EHS professionals, such as EHS managers or safety officers, responsible for developing, implementing and overseeing the health and safety protocols, programs or processes of an organization. Responsibilities of EHS professionals may include:
Ensuring a Successful EHS Program
No organization’s journey to EHS excellence is the same. Implementing a successful EHS program depends on a variety of factors. Use the following best practices when creating health and safety processes.
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Establish EHS maturity: Every organization operates at a different level of EHS maturity. Some businesses begin their journey simply reacting to workplace incidents, while others may have already established forward-thinking policies. Evaluating your shortcomings and identifying room for growth is essential.
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Learn from common EHS mistakes: Your organization is not the first to begin its journey with EHS. Often the most successful organizations are ones that learn from past mistakes and use them to move forward.
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Set KPIs: Measuring growth is hard if you cannot backup your success with data. Set up leading and lagging indicators to prove the importance of health and safety to key stakeholders and leaders.
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Establish safety as a core value: Organizations that hold EHS as a core organizational value embed safe practices across every aspect of the business. This, in turn, encourages adoption of safety procedures.
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Encourage empathetic leadership: Studies have shown that empathetic leaders are a key part of a successful EHS policy. Empathetic leaders can encourage employee engagement, better respond to incidents and advocate for ongoing improvements.
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Establish clear, ongoing communication: Use diverse channels to share updates and gather feedback on what’s working or what needs to be improved.
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Make safety accessible to all workers: Provide frontline workers with accessible tools with reporting capabilities and safety training access.
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Utilize EHS management software: Replacing manual systems with a digital solution that centralizes all EHS information in one accessible platform makes it easier to track compliance, report incidents, manage audits and analyze performance data.
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 processes.
For more benefits of EHS software and to see how you can convince stakeholders of its value, check out our step-by-step guide to build the business case here.
