Environmental, Occupational Health and Safety (EHS) Policy Suggestions

[sridharafep]

We are planning for EHS certification for our unit and i need suggestion to make it a simple EHS policy compliance to 14001 and 18001- please give your views.

Environmental, Occupational Health and Safety Policy:-

We are committed to take adequate precautions related to Environment health and safety in developing, manufacturing, storing, handling and Distribution of its products. It is our policy to provide a workplace free from accidents,
Injuries and exposure to hazardous chemicals conserve natural resources and prevent Pollution to protect the environment

Towards this, we have set our objectives and are committed to:
• Comply with applicable Environmental, health and safety (EHS)
Legislation and statutory, regulatory and other requirements
• Respond to community concern regarding EHS and address them
Proactively in our operation
• Integrate EHS considerations into Business Planning and decision
Making
• Use process safety and management techniques like Safety Audits,
Analysis, Operability Studies and Documentation of safety related
Information to minimize EHS associated with our operations
• Equip ourselves to address EHS emergencies
• Champion EHS responsibility among all the employees and impart
The requisite training
• Communicate our EHS policy and other concerns to our contractors
And vendors and seek their compliance
• Continually review objectives and set targets to improve our EHS
Performance
• Provide organizational structure support and directive to achieve these Objectives
• This policy is reviewed periodically for its continuing suitability to the Organization’s current business
• Make this policy available to our customer and other Stakeholder

So, it has become obligatory for all departments to be committed with the requirements of following systems;

- Environmental management systems ISO: 14001:2004
- Occupational Health and Safety management systems OHSAS 18001:2007

Thanks,

[Jennifer Kirley]

Good day sridharafep,

Your policy statement appears to include elements that I would expect to see.

I have a couple of ideas - I do not know if I would go so far to even call them suggestions, but here goes:

1) Consider that the policy statement is the highest level description of what goes on. Given that consideration I wonder if you want to say you "continually review objectives" since "continually" describes an activity in specific enough terms that I expect a process document would more likely list it.

2) To make the policy more understandable, consider categorizing the elements into topic groups such as:

Compliance
Continual Improvement
Business Integration
Communication and Education
Infrastructure

I hold up Medtronic as an example. I am not affiliated with Medtronic.

I hope this helps!

[Sidney Vianna]

Jennifer has excellent points. The Organization I work for also has a HSE policy.

I would HIGHLY recommend you delete references to the Internal Standards in your policy. If you strongly believe it should contain the reference to ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, do NOT list the revision year. It will avoid unnecessary revisions to the policy when those standards get updated.

[samsung]

In Reply to Parent Post by sridharafep

We are planning for EHS certification for our unit and i need suggestion to make it a simple EHS policy compliance to 14001 and 18001- please give your views.

Environmental, Occupational Health and Safety Policy:-

We are committed to take adequate precautions related to Environment health and safety in developing, manufacturing, storing, handling and Distribution of its products. It is our policy to provide a workplace free from accidents,
Injuries and exposure to hazardous chemicals conserve natural resources and prevent Pollution to protect the environment

Towards this, we have set our objectives and are committed to:
• Comply with applicable Environmental, health and safety (EHS)
Legislation and statutory, regulatory and other requirements
• Respond to community concern regarding EHS and address them
Proactively in our operation
• Integrate EHS considerations into Business Planning and decision
Making
• Use process safety and management techniques like Safety Audits,
Analysis, Operability Studies and Documentation of safety related
Information to minimize EHS associated with our operations
• Equip ourselves to address EHS emergencies
• Champion EHS responsibility among all the employees and impart
The requisite training
• Communicate our EHS policy and other concerns to our contractors
And vendors and seek their compliance
• Continually review objectives and set targets to improve our EHS
Performance
• Provide organizational structure support and directive to achieve these Objectives
• This policy is reviewed periodically for its continuing suitability to the Organization’s current business
• Make this policy available to our customer and other Stakeholder

So, it has become obligatory for all departments to be committed with the requirements of following systems;

- Environmental management systems ISO: 14001:2004
- Occupational Health and Safety management systems OHSAS 18001:2007

Thanks,

At bullet # 4, I suppose something is missing after 'EHS' ("to minimize EHS....."). Please check it up.

Your policy makes many commitments but the basic requirements of both the standards (14K & 18K) are still missing - where is the commitment for prevention of pollution, injury and ill health?

You may also review the following statement:

"Continually review objectives and set targets to improve our EHS Performance" While there is an absolute requirement for continual improvement in OH&S management and OH&S performance, the above policy statement doesn't imply so.

Objectives might or might not be reviewed but the programs designed to achieve those objectives must be reviewed "at regular and planned intervals"

[sridharafep]

Thanks for all your suggestions, sure will add value to my further preparation.

Also can you suggest ISO 9001 / 14001 / 18001 QP can be kept as one integrated policy? (no need to keep 3 separate policy)

This will help organization to circulate policy / display appropriately - for employees awareness and promotions.

Assume we have only certificed to ISO 9001:2008 currently.

[qusys]

In Reply to Parent Post by sridharafep

Thanks for all your suggestions, sure will add value to my further preparation.

Also can you suggest ISO 9001 / 14001 / 18001 QP can be kept as one integrated policy? (no need to keep 3 separate policy)

This will help organization to circulate policy / display appropriately - for employees awareness and promotions.

Assume we have only certificed to ISO 9001:2008 currently.

Hi,
if you should decide to use an unique Manual for the 3 integrated system, you could put it in the manual, even if OHSAS and ISO14001 do not request as requirment to have a manual.

[sridharafep]

No, manual won't be unique - separate.

[qusys]

In Reply to Parent Post by sridharafep

No, manual won't be unique - separate.

You can do it in integrated way but you shall decide how to use the ad hoc verbiage based upon your needs and customer's ones.