Did your company launch an environmental, health, and safety (EHS) program recently? Or, do you need to grow an existing EHS compliance management program but need help figuring out where to begin? You are in the right place.
The team at RSB Environmental has compiled three great tips for growing your EHS program that will help mitigate risks and ensure adherence to relevant compliance requirements.
Take Action to Support EHS Compliance Management
To optimize your EHS program, follow these steps.
1. Conduct an Audit
How can you get where you are going if you don’t know where you stand? The answer is that you can’t. Or you might, but it will undoubtedly involve a massive struggle.
That’s why we suggest conducting a baseline environmental audit before you do anything else. An audit can show what your company has been doing right and reveal what you need to improve on.
Once you complete the audit, it is time to review the results. We suggest using a compliance matrix, which helps you prioritize pressing issues before they lead to fines.
- Red issues require immediate attention. If you don’t act now, you may incur a fine. More importantly, these issues could cause a workplace accident.
- Yellow issues should be addressed with preventive action. They do not immediately constitute a violation, but they can lead to one in the future if not fixed soon enough.
- Green findings do not require action. However, you should still maintain visibility into these findings to remain in good standing.
Remember, your initial audit is meant to lay the framework for your EHS program, which is why you must find an experienced partner to conduct the audit, like RSB Environmental.
Our reports clearly lay out our findings. They are descriptive and contain visual aids to emphasize key issues and outline a clear path forward so you can fix any problems discovered.
2. Verify Compliance
The information in your baseline audit will help you launch or improve your EHS program, but your program will still contain gaps and issues. These are normal, as EHS compliance is a complex subject and perfecting your EHS program takes trial and error.
With this in mind, we suggest verifying compliance after implementing the changes recommended during the initial audit. Ensure that all modifications resolve the issues they were designed to address.
Once confident that you have resolved all the concerns, conduct another audit. Ideally, the second audit will reveal fewer issues than the first as you drive toward continuous improvement.
Verifying compliance is a rinse-and-repeat process. We recommend that you periodically schedule quarterly or bi-annual audits to ensure no new issues have arisen.
Conducting audits is only part of the compliance verification process. You will also need to brush up on state and federal regulations that outline your responsibilities in terms of EHS.
Familiarizing yourself with these rules will help you avoid costly fines or penalties. It will also enable you to protect your company’s image and minimize your environmental impact.
3. Create an Ongoing Reporting Program
The final step to enhancing your EHS program is to implement reporting procedures. You should also create a monitoring program.
First, appoint an EHS manager to oversee this process. They should work with other team members to establish reporting protocols. These procedures should outline:
- How often audits will be conducted.
- How often in-house assessments will be performed.
- Who will monitor EHS compliance.
- Who will generate EHS reports.
- How often reports must be created.
EHS compliance is not a set-it-and-forget-it program — it requires constant attention.
The good news is that managing your EHS program will get easier as time passes, but you must always tackle any compliance gaps to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.
Finding gaps, much less fixing them, can be more challenging than you might expect. Fortunately, you do not have to tackle EHS compliance alone. You can partner with our expert team for help.
How RSB Environmental Can Help Safety Managers Close EHS Program Gaps
RSB Environmental can take the hassle out of managing your EHS program. We can conduct a baseline audit that identifies all key compliance gaps and clearly list any issues we find.
Our audits also provide recommendations for resolving these issues. Our thorough reports will help you close most compliance gaps fast and efficiently. In turn, this reduces the number of times you have to repeat the verification process.
We can provide audits on a tight deadline. In most cases, we can complete an audit in just 7-10 business days. If your company is located in Texas, we can cut this down to about 5 business days.
Our audits are fast and cost-effective, as we strive to keep costs down to deliver maximum value to our clients.
If your audit reveals you need additional compliance management services, we can help with that, too. Our team offers a full suite of services to help you achieve and maintain compliance.
RSB Environmental: Taking the Headache out of EHS Compliance
If you want to make EHS compliance management simple and painless, connect with RSB Environmental. Our auditing services can pinpoint issues and provide guidance on filling compliance gaps.
We also invite you to sign up for our e-newsletter. Each month, we provide updates on new developments in the due diligence space. To sign up, send us an email at info@rsbenv.com to be added to our list.
