Technology Converges with Emergency Management to Improve Fire Safety

I had the opportunity earlier this month to moderate a panel discussion at the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS2024) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (EHS Today, in fact, was the only US-based B2B media brand at the Summit.)

As you can tell by the name, GMIS is an international event that’s held in different corners of the world from year to year, with previous Summits held in such places as Russia, Germany, Dubai and Pittsburgh, Pa. Each Summit has its own unique theme, and this year it focused on industrial safety (hence, the reason I was invited as part of a small contingent of global media people).

The biggest news at the Summit was the launching of a global initiative called the Manifesto for Global Industrial Safety. The main goal of the Manifesto is to advocate the adoption of technology to make workplaces safer—technologies such as AI, IoT sensors, data analytics and drones.

The Manifesto is centered on five guiding principles:
1.    Uphold the human right to safe working conditions.
2.    Ensure that safety is central to technology decisions.
3.    Exploit new technology-enabled safety solutions.
4.    Share, monitor and promote safety best practices.
5.    Support safety improvements in developing countries.

Much like EHS Today’s Safety Leadership Conference, the GMIS event promoted best practices that highlighted the return on investment companies and organizations gain by focusing on workplace safety. A common theme at GMIS, in fact, was how the prioritization of safety standards and technologies can result in improved workforce protection, stronger operational resilience, and a more sustainable workplace environment.

The Manifesto is a group effort developed by the Global Initiative for Industrial Safety (GIFIS) in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and the Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy (CIIP), and GMIS.

Luomei Shu, a director at UNIDO and one of the keynote presenters, told the roughly 400 global leaders in attendance at the Summit, “We need to ensure that access to technologies is evenly distributed and secured. This is certainly possible, if the international community responds to it. However, it’s not just one employee, one company, or one country that can improve industrial safety—it must be a shared responsibility.”

Indeed, a central point was driven home a number of times throughout the Summit that the adoption of safety technology is not a “nice to have” but a “need to have,” particularly in developing countries where getting buy-in from senior leadership might require a lot of convincing—hence the emphasis on establishing a solid ROI for workplace.

The GMIS session that I moderated focused on Emergency Response 2.0, specifically looking at crisis management and fire safety. Major Ali Hassan Almadfai, head of the Executive Affairs Branch at the Abu Dhabi Civil Defence Authority, explained how his organization is using Internet of Things-based smart fire detection systems and localization technology to better orchestrate the evacuation of buildings during emergency situations when it is critical to be able to pinpoint exactly how many people are in a building and where they are.

Two other speakers, Arkan Al Bayiati from NAFFCO and Richard Pearson from SIBCA, offered insights into the types of high-tech emergency equipment that are being used for fire safety. For instance, NAFFCO, which manufactures fire trucks and other fire safety products, has developed a facial recognition device to help secure establishments and protect assets. The system can locate and measure face features from an image to authenticate individuals through ID verification services.

Similarly, SIBCA, a provider of fire, life safety and information and communication technology (ICT) solutions, has worked with UL Solutions to earn a Smart System Verified Platinum rating for its SIBCA Connect: Internet of Things (IoT) Platform. The integration of IoT technologies into fire detection systems can help organizations better monitor their buildings and detect fires and other emergency situations in a more timely manner.

In addition to the Manifesto, the previously-announced international safety initiative called the Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health (which also has UN sponsorship) has as one of its goals the promotion of safety management systems—in other words, developing a global standard for the adoption of safety management systems. Here in the U.S., OSHA has also been championing the adoption of safety management systems. It would be exaggerating the point to suggest that technology will become the be-all and end-all of workplace safety, but safety tech will definitely become a dominant global issue in 2025.