Edition No. 11

And the Survey Says… Results from the Priority Press Industry Survey

Priority Press has a subscriber base of 6,500 + readers. Nearly 9% of our readers, the majority of which are US-based, responded to our six-question survey (standard industry response levels are typically 1-2%).

The top eight industries represented by respondents were: Manufacturing, Semiconductor / Semiconductor Equipment, Healthcare / Life Sciences, Chemical / Petroleum, Education, and Government.

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Also in this Issue...

Planning Business Continuity Across Multiple Locations

Increasing the ROI of Your Ergonomics Program

Mold Management: A Proactive Overview
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Question 1: Company-wide Initiatives

The survey started with a big picture question. “What types of initiatives are being planned or are currently in place at your company?” Possible responses included: Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Business Integration, Just-in-Time, 5-S, ISO or other Management Systems, and Other.

Of the respondents answering this question, these are the top three initiatives:

Chart 1: Current or Planned Company Initiatives

Chart 1: Current or Planned Company Initiatives

* Initiatives that were mentioned multiple times in the Other section included Behavior-Based Training and Business Continuity Planning.

Question 2: Current EHS Initiatives

We were curious to know what kinds of initiatives Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) leaders are currently focusing on. Possible responses were:

  • EHS Strategic Planning

  • Business Continuity Planning

  • Maintaining Compliance with Current Regulations

  • Scaling EHS Programs Nationally or Worldwide

  • Design for EHS / Sustainable Development

  • Safety Leadership EHS Outsourcing

  • HSE Mgmt. Systems (ISO / OHSAS / VPP Prep)

  • Human Factors Engineering (Ergo)

  • New EHS Program Implementation

  • Corporate Social Responsibility

  • Product Take-back

  • International EHS Requirements

     

As illustrated in Chart 2, the top five EHS initiatives that respondents' companies are addressing today, in order of preference, are:

  • Maintaining compliance with current regulations

  • Safety Leadership

  • Ergonomics

  • EHS strategic planning

  • HSE Mgmt. Systems (ISO / OHSAS / VPP Prep)

Chart 2: Current EHS Initiatives
Chart 2: Current EHS Initiatives

Question 3: What’s Coming Up?

With the economy recovering and a changing political climate, we asked readers to comment on the future — their top 3-5 initiatives over the next 18 months. Possible responses were the same as in Question 2.

Readers selected these top five initiatives, shown below in order of preference:

  • Maintaining compliance with current regulations

  • Safety leadership

  • EHS strategic planning

  • Ergo

  • HSE management systems (ISO, OHSAS, VPP certification preparation)

Other responses included: Behavior-based safety training, ISO 14001 implementation, and ERT (emergency response training).

Chart 3: Future EHS Initiatives
Chart 3: Future EHS Initiatives

Question 4: Future Trends

We were interested to see how respondents viewed future trends in relation to their business. These seven possible business influencers were offered and respondents graded each on a Very Important to Not Important scale.

  • Global Outsourcing

  • Offshore Manufacturing

  • Proactive EHS Management (i.e., companies doing more than legally required)

  • Use of Voluntary EHS Standards (e.g., ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001)

  • Company Imposed EHS Standards on Suppliers

  • Use of EHS achievements as a marketing tool or product differentiator

  • Use of EHS initiatives as part of a cost leadership strategy

Based on the responses to this question, these four trends were important to our readers.

  • Proactive EHS management (companies doing more than legally required) (49%)

  • Use of EHS initiatives as part of a cost leadership strategy (40%)

  • Company imposed EHS standards on suppliers (37%)

  • Use of voluntary EHS standards (ISO, OHSAS, etc.) (33%)

One area that is beginning to emerge as an important trend is the use of EHS achievements as a marketing tool or to differentiate a product. This resonates with the kinds of corporate responsibility-type of messaging that Fortune 500 companies are including in their ad and public relations campaigns. We anticipate that we will see this trend continue to increase on next year’s survey.

Chart 4: Future Trends
Chart 4: Future Trends

Question 5: Upcoming Priority Press Articles

Our thanks to those respondents who commented on topics they’d like to see covered in upcoming issues of Priority Press. Ergo, business continuity, international standards and requirements, and integrating EHS into business are just a few of the subjects we plan to write about in 2005.

Once again, we appreciate the survey responses and comments from our readers. It was interesting to learn about the kinds of EHS initiatives that you are currently focused on and planning for in the future. The next issue of Priority Press, with articles on changing ISO Standards, management consulting trends, and motivating EHS leaders is scheduled to be out in early December.

In the meantime, if you have additional questions on the Priority Press Industry Survey, please direct them to prioritypress@eorm.com.

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