To Get Buy-In From the C-Suite, EHS Leaders Should Align Programs with Business Strategy
One of the keys to achieving executive support for corporate environment, health and safety programs (EHS) is to be an integral part of business planning, according to Walter Fluharty, Vice President of EHS and Organizational Development at Simon Roofing.
He’ll share his message as the keynote presenter at 2019 EHS Operational Excellence conference on May 15 at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh.
As a recognized leader in the field, Mr. Fluharty has developed world-class safety cultures for companies in a wide variety of industries. He has also contributed to the development of several OSHA standards, including the Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals. Most recently, he has successfully elevated EHS&S to Simon Roofing’s C-Suite by creating a common language for describing challenges and embedding these programs into the company's corporate management systems.
This is particularly important in an era when EHS leaders are looking for new opportunities to drive business value, according to NAEM Executive Director Carol Singer Neuvelt.
“Those who are effective at integrating the function into the business culture have strong support from the top,” she said. “That starts by understanding the opportunity for EHS to strengthen a company’s overall business strategy and framing that value for its leadership.”
Dennis Hu, Director of EHS and System Safety Engineering at Ball Aerospace, who led the development of the conference agenda, said the emphasis on strategic alignment was designed to address the business goals and professional development needs of EHS managers and directors.
“This is a conference for those who sit at the intersection of business leadership, risk management and regulatory compliance,” he said. “The conversations we have here are for the deeper issues that are more difficult to solve…This is a place for the kinds of conversations that matter.”
The agenda features speakers from companies across industries, including Cargill Inc., Saint-Gobain, PPG Industries, Corning Inc. Ball Aerospace and Caterpillar Inc. The conference will open with a half-day of training workshops on May 14. The full agenda will begin on May 15-16 with sessions on topics such as:
- Achieving Executive-level Accountability for EHS Performance
- Improving Stakeholder Engagement with Audit Results and Corrective Actions
- Fresh Ideas to Invigorate your Company’s Safety Culture
- Aligning Your EHS Initiatives with Business Strategy
- Successful Strategies for Managing a Multi-generational Workforce
- How to Build a Compelling a Business Case for Investing in EHS&S Programs
- Leveraging New Technology to Improve EHS&S Outcomes
- Why Strengthening Emergency Preparedness Builds Business Resiliency
- Best Practices for Managing Contractor Safety
- Updating Corporate Policies to Address Emerging Workplace Issues
For more information or to register for NAEM’s 2019 EHS Operation Excellence Conference, please visit ehsopex.naem.org.
