Those of you with long memories, if you’re old enough to remember back 25 years, might recall that Y2K was the dominant trend on everybody’s mind as the calendar was nearing the year 2000. Prince had it wrong when he sang that “we’re gonna party like it’s 1999.” Instead, the business world was filled with angst as to whether all computer systems were going to shut down when their internal calendars rebooted not to the year 2000 but backwards to 1900. The fear was that the world would go offline. Of course, those were simpler times so the total reliance on smartphones and Internet of Things-connected devices wasn’t a thing yet, but safety professionals still had plenty to worry about.
As it turned out, Y2K ended up being pretty much a non-event, but it certainly set the stage for a most tumultuous start to the 21st Century, from the 9/11 attacks of 2001 to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak from 2002-2004, to Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Harvey (2017), to the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020, to the recent California wildfires. Whether it’s natural disasters, workplace violence, or the disturbing rise in suicides, it’s hard to conclude that the world has become a safer place since 2000.
In the year 2000, there were 5,915 workplace fatalities in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or 16 workers per day on average. In 2023 (the most recent year for BLS’s reporting), there were 5,283, or 15 workplace fatalities per day. Looking at those numbers, one could conclude that workplace conditions haven’t dramatically improved since the dawn of the 21st Century.
Statistics don’t necessarily tell the full story, though. Despite everything just mentioned above, there is plenty of evidence that workplace safety has gained in prominence throughout companies large and small. What follows is a quick trip through the past quarter century to revisit some of the highlights (and lowlights) in environment, health and safety, based on coverage since 2000 in Occupational Hazards (our previous name) and EHS Today.
Safety Finally Earns Its Seat in the Boardroom
EHS professionals were always a valued part of any organization, but when the pandemic hit they were quickly ushered into the executives’ offices and asked to be an on-going presence. They became the heroes of that tumultuous time with their rapid response on how to keep employees safe while simultaneously ensuring that the company implemented state and federal regulations. While some had existing playbooks, most did not. Creating procedures and communicating them across stakeholders, they more than earned those seats. Many felt that their true value was finally realized.
Those chairs are still occupied as organizations feel more comfortable tying ROI to safety. Evaluation of the function has expanded from prevention of workplace injuries to creating a safety culture that is now an integral part of every company’s strategy. Safety culture has specific goals and actions with industry recognition based on the effectiveness of this culture.
The basis for this reorganization has been building over the past 25 years as safety has been baked into every job. The workforce is continually trained in improved safety methods and held accountable for safety records. Most managers’ performance reviews now include safety components. And investment in the culture has included capital expenditures on safety technology, through robots performing “unsafe” jobs, as well as analytics to better manage incident rates.
The number of stakeholders who are involved in safety analysis is increasing. Inside the building employees view safe working conditions as a term of employment. Outside the building, it’s a recruiting tool. And in the general economy, Wall Street views safety in its company valuation
Whatever Happened to Environmentalism?
Let’s go back further than 2000 for a moment—back to the 1970s, when Earth Day got its start, when ecology and pollution were frequent topics on the nightly news, and when environmentalism was a distinct political force. In 1970, under the watch of Republican President Richard Nixon, the Environmental Protection Agency was launched, an agency with a clear mission: to protect human health and the environment. The EPA got off to a quick start with a lot of impressive goals and accomplishments: cleaning up the burning Cuyahoga River, establishing the Clean Air Act and then the Clean Water Act, banning DDT as a pesticide, and similar efforts to make living conditions safer for everybody. The push to reduce pollution shifted to protecting the ozone layer to reducing carbon emissions to protecting the planet itself from global warming (or as it is now known, climate change).
Of course, from the very beginning of the movement businesses started challenging the EPA and other environment-focused initiatives for meddling in the affairs of private industry—and not just meddling, but tacking on significant costs to their bottom line. Over the years, new terms emerged to try to breathe new life into environmentalism: the green movement, sustainability, corporate social responsibility and more recently, environmental, social and governance (ESG). But as with just about everything that can be politicized, in the 21st Century it’s been one step forward, one step backward, and occasionally one step sideways in the monitoring and regulating of emissions, wastewater, hazardous chemicals and other nasty things that nobody in their right minds would want in their communities. At this writing, President Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change (for the second time; he did the same thing in 2017), pingponging President Obama’s agreement to participate and President Biden’s reversal of Trump’s first pullout.
Right now, with President Trump focusing on deregulating just about everything, the future of ESG as a standard for business investing is very much in doubt. What is not in doubt, at least if you put any faith in public polling, is that consumers are very much in favor of buying products that are environmentally and socially responsible; according to a recent McKinsey/NielsenIQ study, consumers prefer products with ESG-related claims over those that don’t. In a separate study of corporate CEOs, consulting firm KPMG discovered that sustainability initiatives improves financial performance for companies, particularly when it comes to access to new capital and customer loyalty.
While the term “ESG” itself is a political hot potato, consumers—especially, young consumers—are likely to continue to champion its cause. And EHS professionals, who of course are tasked with ensuring safe and clean environments for their employers, will continue to play an outsized role in fulfilling their companies’ sustainability initiatives.
Technology Offers an Exponential Leap in Safety
The walk across the factory floor today, as compared to 25 years ago, reflects the myriad ways technology has improved safety. Employees are outfitted with wearables that monitor their movements to improve ergonomics. They wear augmented reality glasses that provide training videos on how to correctly operate machinery. And those same glasses are teaching new workers, the group most likely to be injured, how to do their jobs properly.
Automated guided vehicles ferry materials across the factory floor, eliminating the physical wear and tear on employees. Exoskeletons aid employees with various tasks, protecting their muscles. And robots can do the heavy lifting in the warehouse, as well as performing repetitive tasks such as picking.
The ability to use sensors and cameras to provide real-time monitoring to identify potential hazards has been a game changer as it can provide environmental monitoring. Sensors can detect harmful fumes, noise levels and dangerous temperatures. They can trigger shutdowns to prevent harm. The technology also is able to detect body issues, such an improper use of PPE, stress levels and fatigue.
Smart helmets are keeping construction workers safety, while drones are busy inspecting dangerous areas. Drones are also keeping lone workers safer.
On top of these day-to-day operations, technology has given EHS professionals the ability to analyze data. Staffing and time constraint limit the ability to comb through massive amounts of data, yet algorithms are up to the job. Artificial intelligence, the latest step in rapidly advancing technologies, will be able to identify trends and ultimately prevent injuries.
Safety in Numbers
Over the past 25 years, collaboration between organizations to address specific issues has been increasing. The ability to share data, offer best practices and advocate for standards improves outcomes.
OSHA is involved in this trend creating programs such as the Alliance Program, the OSHA Strategic Partnership Program the popular Voluntary Protection Programs.
Associations have expanded their reach as well. The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), which changed its name from the American Society of Safety Engineers in 2018, works with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), Mechanical Contractors Association of America, The National Electric Contractors Association and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, among others.
Collaboration also takes the form of assessment tools. The National Safety Council (NSC) joined with Avetta to launch the Safety Maturity Index, which offers a systems-based approach to target health and safety weaknesses within the supply chain to help avoid serious injuries and fatalities.
Sharing data on technology is a more recent form of collaboration. The NSC’s Work to Zero program, created in 2021 with Safetytech Accelerator, shares cutting-edge research through pilots that incorporate data analytics, artificial intelligence and computer analytics. The initiative includes a free online assessment tool.
Creating coalitions is another tactic. The NSC’s Road to Zero Coalition, created in 2025, is a traffic safety alliance dedicated to eliminating roadway fatalities.
Advocating for policies, such as increasing awareness of the need for naloxone in workplaces, has led organizations to speak up on congressional bills as well as create internal programs, as the NSC did with its Respond Ready Workplace.
The greater cohesion among safety professionals, the safer the workplace becomes.
The ROI of Safety
Back at the turn of the century, Rick Fulwiler, president of Transformational Leadership Associates and formerly worldwide director of health and safety for consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, published an article in this magazine that set the tone for the EHS profession in the 21st Century. As Fulwiler observed then, and which still very much is the case today, regulatory pressures tend to ebb and flow depending on how the political winds are blowing at any given time. What matters most to companies, and what should matter most to the EHS professionals leading their companies’ safety initiatives, is the three-legged stool of People, Public Trust and Profit. Keeping workers safe not only makes it easier to attract and retain employees, and it not only builds a positive reputation, but it also (and this is when the C-suite starts to pay attention) delivers a substantial financial payback—what we call “the ROI of safety.”
The conventional wisdom holds that for every dollar spent on workplace safety, a company can expect at least a fourfold savings in terms of reduced workman’s compensation costs, reduced productivity when a worker is injured or work is suspended, lost revenue from negative publicity and difficulty in attracting new workers due to a poor safety reputation, and various other bad things avoided by focusing on establishing and maintaining a culture of safety.
Taking that three-pronged model of people, public trust and profit as the formative premise, in 2002 EHS Today launched the America’s Safest Companies competition. As we described it then, the goal for the new awards competition was to honor companies that went above and beyond the appearance of minimum-required compliance to “protect their employees and their bottom line through effective, well-defined safety programs, innovative solutions to challenges, a belief that safety is the ‘right thing to do,’ mutual respect between management and employees, and management commitment.”
Beginning with the Class of 2002 (which included such companies as Alcoa, General Electric, Georgia-Pacific and John Deere), to date more than 250 companies have been recognized as being one of America’s Safest Companies, which among other things means they’ve all substantiated the financial benefits of the safety process, while achieving injury and illness rates lower than the industry average. Since winning the ASC award in 2015, industrial manufacturer Victaulic Company opted not to sit on its laurels but instead invested more than $10 million on various safety technologies, doubled the number of full-time safety professionals, and began covering the cost of training for all employees interested in becoming emergency responders. The company was again named an ASC winner in 2024, and as William D’Amico, global director of safety and health, explained, “The ROI in these investments is not only financially measurable, but the signal sent to the employees on these investments is priceless.”
Digital Training
From dial-up internet on a device the size of a carry-on suitcase to lightning-fast WiFi on a device that can fit in your back pocket, it’s safe to say that we couldn’t have foreseen the rapidity with which technology would develop and evolve. Nor could we have fathomed what was possible. Technology has redefined our way of living, including how we learn.
Until the 21st century, all safety training was essentially delivered in a classroom or hands-on apprenticeship setting, under the watchful tutelage of an experienced instructor. Workers either had to physically go to the training or have the training brought to them. Both options were disruptive, timeconsuming and costly.
That’s radically different now, thanks to computers, tablets, smartphones, virtual reality (VR) headsets, smartwatches and smart personal protective equipment (PPE).
Whether it’s through the internet, cloud, software or an app, there are an ever-increasing number of ways to deliver safety training digitally, both synchronously and asynchronously. You can remotely participate in an entire degree program, hourslong certification, microlearning, periodic refreshers, gamified learning modules or 60-second safety moments.
All of this is to say that EHS professionals have many options for how best to teach and reinforce safety training for a diverse workforce using a variety of different learning styles that are minimally disruptive to operations.
It’s not an either-or mindset, but a yes-and mindset. These digital devices don’t replace training; rather, they are another tool that EHS professionals can use to enhance, reinforce or supplement existing safety training offerings. Thanks to digital training, EHS professionals have the ability to reach more people, including those who work by themselves or in remote areas. That’s allowing organizations to stretch their dollars and potentially free up more resources for additional trainings, take more proactive measures and ultimately make workplaces safer for more people.
There are seemingly limitless opportunities for digital training, but its effectiveness, engagement rate and long-term retention levels with employees still require a watchful eye and judicious implementation.
“It’s a time saver and a money saver, and I know a lot of inhouse EHS professionals that couldn’t live without it because they don’t have enough time in the day to do what they do,” says Natalie Fox, principal scientist at Roux, and a speaker at Safety Leadership Conference 2024. “But you can’t rely on it as your only training source.
“I really do think that all these different schools of thought need to be working together. [By delivering safety training through multiple methods], you hopefully touch on enough learning styles, so everybody takes in the knowledge they need to.”
Leading and Lagging Indicators
Businesses have long been required to report data surrounding the number of work-related injuries and illnesses to OSHA and, in some instances, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These metrics are lagging indicators because the numbers reflect incidents that have already happened.
Lagging indicators are one way to benchmark and compare the safety of a given business or industry with another. They helped improve safety in U.S. workplaces during the 20th century, but only to a point.
“For decades, companies have relied primarily on lagging indicators, such as total recordable injury rate, to measure safety performance,” says Perry Logan, senior director of networks at NSC. “While this approach has contributed to reducing overall injuries, it has not significantly decreased serious incident and fatality (SIF) figures, which have remained stagnant over the past decade across all industries.”
A growing number of organizations have started turning their attention from this historical measure of safety that sits in a binder, spreadsheet file or governmental database to trying to predict the future using new tools and technologies.
“To drive meaningful improvement in SIF prevention, organizations are shifting focus to proactive risk reduction strategies,” Logan says. “These efforts prioritize identifying and mitigating high-hazard activities and conditions, fostering strong leader and employee engagement, and cultivating a culture of safety ownership.”
In 2012, NSC’s Campbell institute surveyed safety leaders about leading indicators. Ever since, safety professionals have been mired in discussions about leading indicators. There’s consensus that preventing workplace injuries and fatalities is a good thing but, as is often the case, the devil is in the details.
What constitutes a good leading metric? How do you determine the ROI for machine guarding a piece of
equipment? How do you calculate the potential reduction in musculoskeletal disorders as a result of a new ergonomics initiative? How do multinational companies roll out meaningful change with metrics that need to be highly personal and specific to a given job or facility?
Safety professionals find themselves beholden to lagging indicators because they are a requirement and allow for easy comparison while struggling to make meaningful progress on leading indicators, because they are, by their very nature, a constantly moving target. And until or unless there is widespread agreement on how to get there, there’s going to be more attempts to raise the floor—and simultaneously reach for the stars.
Total Worker Health
During the Industrial Era, workers endured long hours, low wages, dangerous working conditions, little protections and no benefits. Labor conditions improved ;in the 20th century thanks to governmental reforms, worker advocates and efforts by organizations such as the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), which was founded in response to the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
Today’s workers have benefited from these hard-won protections, but occupational safety and health programs have long focused on worker’s physical safety. That begun to change in 2006 with a revolutionary new concept: total worker health.
This approach, brought forth by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), prioritizes a hazardfree work environment as well as worker well-being. Total worker health focuses on employees’ physical, mental and emotional health. It also “considers health influences that arise from outside the workplace, including interactions between work and non-work demands and circumstances,” according to NIOSH’s FAQ page.
In other words, total worker health recognizes that workers are human beings who are more than just their ability to perform consistent labor during their hourslong shifts. It recognizes that workers’ worries, frustrations, fears and concerns about what happens in their personal lives don’t disappear when they clock-in.
The concept of total worker health underscores that workers need to feel seen, heard, understood and respected to perform their best work. Total worker health supports psychological safety, the belief that workers can’t be productive if they don’t feel comfortable being themselves or the ability to speak freely. Instilling both requires buy-in, investment and a commitment to creating a culture of safety.
Indeed, total worker health is more than a singular idea. Rather, it’s an inclusive belief in wholeness and unity, both within an individual and across the organization. It’s recognizing the role of work within the totality of a person’s life.
