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In their Health, Safety and Environment function, EHS experts must learn to promote their actions as opportunities rather than constraints, both internally and externally.
EHS experts, a discipline synonymous with constraints
Within companies, the tasks carried out by EHS experts are not always seen in the light of their true worth. Charged with implementing safety, health and environmental protection rules, and ensuring that they are complied with, EHS experts are sometimes perceived as "getting in the way". The inflation of standards and regulations is no doubt a factor in this negative perception of the role, which is sometimes even shared by EHS experts themselves.
This vision is of course (somewhat) caricatured, and naturally depends on the company, its sector of activity and its history in this field. Companies in the chemical sector, for example, were among the first to be made aware ofEHS issues. The agri-food sector, on the other hand, first tackled the subject from the angle of food hygiene, notably under pressure from consumers. The experiences of EHS experts can also have an impact on the rules implemented to prevent occupational and environmental risks.
From a logic of constraints to a logic of opportunities
Even today, the mission assigned to an EHS manager is often confined to regulatory compliance. This restrictive approach, which could be described as the "first level ofEHS", is however increasingly complemented by a more positive logic of risk and cost reduction. ButEHS is still rarely seen from the angle of creating new opportunities, as a discipline that contributes to brand and product enhancement, to the company's competitiveness and sustainability, or even to improving team cohesion around a virtuous employer brand.
The need to promote the role of EHS experts within the management committee
Our conviction is as follows: EHS experts have everything to gain from a change in senior management's vision of their missions, because it is only by being supported by their superiors that they will be able to contribute effectively to the creation of value and the long-term future of their companies. Which is what the vast majority of them want!
To achieve this, we believe it is essential for these men and women to go beyond the logic of expertise and standards to which they have often confined themselves until now. The challenge is to promote the EHS initiatives they have undertaken, as well as the associated results and opportunities. This requires both internal and external communication systems. To be effective, these measures must be based both on success stories and on factual indicators to measure progress. With regard to the latter, it is no longer a question of limiting oneself to mandatory indicators, such as the workplace accident rate, for example, but of choosing indicators that enable the function to be enhanced: for example, in the environmental field, the reduction in pollution around a given site and its beneficial effects on the health of local residents and biodiversity, the number of visitors to company sites during "open days" and the associated verbatim reports, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on a group-wide scale, etc. Indicators associated with "material" issues (i.e. those relevant to the company and its stakeholders) should also be favored, particularly those that reflect the company's vision of its future.
To make the most of their mission, EHS experts are probably well advised to get in touch with the teams in charge of communications. Not with a view to "green washing" but, on the contrary, with a view to convincing "by the facts" that the company is concerned about its sustainability. In this way, the EHS function will certainly be more visible and probably better regarded by top management. This will give it greater legitimacy and, we hope, the resources it needs to fulfil its mission.