Environment, Health and Safety ( EHS )

What is EHS and Why is it Important?

EHS stands for Environment, Health, and Safety. It’s a general term used to refer to laws, rules, regulations, professions, programs, and workplace efforts to protect the health and safety of employees and the public as well as the environment from hazards associated with the workplace. You can also think of it as what makes up the profession of occupational safety and health professionals (plus their good friends in the Environmental Department).

Although EHS is a common way to abbreviate this, you’ll also see HSE or other versions. And sometimes you’ll see the addition of a “Q” for Quality, as in EHSQ.

We’ll learn a little more about EHS in this article, including who’s responsible for it and some tools used in the field.

What Are the E, H, and S in EHS?

Let’s start by looking at those three letters E, H, and S and determining what they mean.

E stands for Environment. We’re talking about things like environmental releases and spills here.

H stands for Health. We’re talking about things that can make you ill here, like airborne particulates, biological pathogens, and radiation, and/or things that can harm you as a result of exposure, such as noise.

And S stands for Safety. We’re talking about things that can cause injuries here, such as getting caught in a moving machine or being run over by a forklift.

Why Is EHS Important?

The primary benefit of EHS, and workplace EHS programs, is the obvious one: preventing incidents such as injuries, illnesses, and harmful environmental releases.

One of the classic (and most horrible) historic examples of a workplace incident that showed the need for EHS efforts was the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Other well known and more recent examples include the Bhopal/Union Carbide explosion in 1984, the Upper Big Branch Mine-South explosion of 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, and the fire in, and ultimate collapse of, the Savar building in Bangladesh in 2013. You can probably think of other horrible workplace incidents yourself.

Because these hazards are real, EHS programs are necessary and provide real benefits. For example, this OSHA website on safety and health management programs provides a lot of case studies demonstrating these benefits.

In addition, EHS programs at work also show employees that companies care about their well-being. If you have an active EHS culture, your company may have fewer incidents. This will make your employees feel safer and more valued. And this will have a positive effect on employee morale, retention, productivity, and even hiring.

And consider this thought along those same lines. A recent study by the American Psychological Association showed that millennials rank safety as an issue of workplace stress higher than any other issue (and higher than earlier generations have). Makes sense for a generation that was raised in the shadows of 9-11, the Great Recession, school shootings, and Hurricane Katrina, right? And since more and more millennials are entering the workforce, this is going to become increasingly important.

And that’s just one way that EHS programs can provide a dramatic positive effect to your company’s bottom line. For example, this study shows a direct correlation between safety and health programs and a company’s stock performance. And this Safety Pays website from OSHA provides an online calculator you can use to estimate the cost of health and safety incidents at your own workplace. Give it a shot, it’s pretty cool.

Also, EHS programs increase customer loyalty. Many consumers today research these issues before deciding which companies will get their money. Why not tap into this EHS-friendly revenue stream, all for doing the right thing?