EHS - Nuevoways

Establishing an Environment, Health,and Safety Management System (EHSMS)

The EHSMS is a management tool that integrates all EHS components of an organization into one coherent system. Incorporating these components allows an organization to efficiently achieve its EHS objectives by managing its impact on the environment and minimizing and controlling occupational health and safety risks.
An EHS management system ensures that EHS risks are controlled systematically and proactively.
EHS management systems can be created to fit every organization’s needs.
An EHS management system that ensures regulatory compliance and employee safety and health can help companies focus more on operational needs.

EHS committee creation

creates policy,
ensures enforcement,
Analyzes ongoing processes.
The EHS committee should include representation from every department of the organization, with members who can capably share their perspectives and communicate committee findings to their respective departments or team.

EHS Policy Writing

The policy should clearly outline the roles and expectations for the organization, EHS committee, and individual employees.
The policy should state the intent to:
Prevent or mitigate both human and economic losses arising from accidents, adverse occupational exposures, and environmental events;
Build EHS considerations into all phases of the operations;
Achieve and maintain compliance with laws and regulations;
Continually improve EHS performance.
The EHS policy and policy statement should be reviewed, revalidated, and, where necessary, revised by top management as often as needed. It should be communicated, accessible to all employees, and available to relevant interested parties.

Planning

Planning is an integral part of all elements of the management system. To be effective, it involves designing and developing suitable processes and organizational structures to manage EHS aspects and their associated risk control systems proportionately to the organization& needs, hazards, and risks.
Identify EHS concerns.
Assess the risk and control capability.
Identify legal requirements applicable to the organization.
Develop a process to track legal requirements and activities changes.
Establish objectives and targets for the EHS policy.
Various sources of information are used to identify relevant EHS aspects and assess the risk associated with each, such as the following examples:
Hazard/exposure assessment
Risk assessment
Waste management
Inspections
Permits
Event investigations (injury and illness investigations, environmental incident investigations, root-cause analysis, trend analysis)
Internal audits and external agency audits
Fire and building codes
Employee feedback concerning unsafe work conditions or situations
Emerging issues
Emergency management

Implementation

Develop a process and organizational structure for communications.
Define a group to make decisions regarding external communications.
Define roles and responsibilities.
Develop and implement training as needed.
Define a process for maintaining documents.
Establish an organizational structure for responding to emergencies and accidents.

Performance Measurements, Audits, and Change Management

Track key performance measurements.
Establish a system to investigate incidents and take appropriate actions.
Establish processes for controlling risks associated with changes in operations.

Management Review