Environmental, Health and Safety - Term Paper Example

ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH, AND SAFETY (EHS EXXON MOBIL AND SHELL OIL AND GAS and Rubric Number Introduction Companies around the globe are investing in environmental, health, and safety (also known as EHS) to incorporate a systematic and disciplined approach to manage waste, reduce carbon emission, or comply with various environmental regulations. This paper will discuss job functions and EHS representative responsibilities related to environmental protection, Worker health and safety, and Environmental protection as seen at Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil and Gas. Both the companies discussed in this paper are incorporated in Texas, USA. Environmental protection Exxon Mobil – The Company has a strong reputation in EHS standards. For decades, the management and professionals have worked together to make sure that all its contractors and employees perform all safety rules at work, protect environment, and improve health standard. It has also been able to achieve notable results in this aspect over the years. It is a very impressive achievement that the company’s contractors or employees in the Benelux are almost non-existent. The company has not reported any loss of life, or fatal accidents involving company contractors or employees. The company has increased the safety standards to a new level. To establish the safety level at Exxon, the representatives of EHS are presently measuring the number of accidents (that also includes minor injuries) for every 200,000 man hours of work. The value for safety standard has been varying between 0 and 1 for many years. Some of the business units have even been able to illustrate a mishap frequency of 0, which is the objective of Exxon EHS as a whole. However, the company also recognizes that no disaster is predictable. Risks can always be controlled or eliminated whatever the conditions. Shell Oil and Gas – Shell environmental job functions entails ongoing effort to uncover ways to help lessen the impact of trade actions all over the world. The company’s environmental professional works in tandem with their business contemporaries across various operations and projects. They also help to sustain the application and development of modern technologies and work together with external partners as well (Henriques and Sadorsky, 1999). The EHS representatives of Shell work to avert any incidents that may consequence in leakage of harmful and unsafe substances. The company’s policies have very strong foundations and it also recognizes that a significant oil spill (which is the main operation of Shell) disaster due to company’s negligence should be dealt by Shell and its representatives. The company outlines, prepares and practices disaster management policies in response to events that can create negative impact in environment or threaten public safety. Shell’s EHS representatives are committed to mitigate the consequences to the environment and people if there are any unfortunate accidents. The company is passionate about the safety standards both at sea and on land. Shell has been working for about over a century in the business of governments, industry shipping bodies and other private stakeholders to aid in developing strict global regulatory standards to mitigate and control oil spill risk at sea. Worker health and safety Exxon Mobil – Worker safety and health is the top priority in all operations of the company. The aim of Exxon is to make occupational illnesses, operational incidents, and injuries as close to 0 as possible. The company places scrupulous emphasis on altering employee actions to improve the standard of safety. This philosophy is intended to make sure that every staff takes accountability for their own actions and as well as other employee’s wellbeing, whether at work, on site, while driving or even in spare time away from work. All the contractors and staffs of Exxon are encouraged to intervene and speak up if they observe a potentially risky situation developing around them (Joseph, 1997). To illustrate the sincerity of the company to maintain worker safety consider Exxon Mobil, UK. The motorists working for the company in the United Kingdom must finish a driver safety course that is video-based. The company believes that this initiative will encourage some of the finest industry practices in terms of observation, defensive driving, and concern about the vehicle. Also, all those employees that drive regularly on business trips must also complete training “behind the wheel”, which is intended to strengthen safety standards in day-to-day driving. The contractors and employees in Exxon acquire thorough training previous to beginning of work in the company’s amenities. The employees at Exxon contribute significantly in safety squads, perform security observations and also propose improvements in safety procedures necessary for the ongoing process. Shell Oil and Gas - To accomplish uninterrupted performance progress, the different units and subsidiaries of Shell administer safety, health, security, and social and environment performance in a methodical way (also known as Shell HSSE assurance and risk management). The business managers in Shell are responsible for identifying various HSSE risks, documenting and assessing their probable impact, and also controlling or eliminating hazards using recovery and control measures. The company’s safety standards are audited by an internal team of experts that directly reports to the Chief Executive of the company at the end of every year (Cahill, 2015). All the plants and factories of Shell are classified as ISO 14001, which is the internal environmental standard. Shell also has external observers and panels that help it to monitor social and environmental performance. Figure 1: The Bow Tie Model in Shell (Shell, 2010) Shell follows the ‘Bow Tie’ model to manage worker health and safety standards. This model measures risk and how to deal with risk in term of prevention and cure. This model classifies risk management process into different categories or events like threat, hazard, or control barrier. The consequences and recovery measures are also classified under this model (Shell, 2010). The company has certain rules that prescribe what contractors and staffs must be acquainted with and also know how to avert fatality or serious injuries. For example, all the employees of Shell must abide the following safety regulations while driving:- Wear seat belts Do not rash drive or break speed limits Do not use mobile phones, hands free, Bluetooth, headsets, earphones, etc. while driving. If the above rules are not followed by any employee then he or she will face severe disciplinary action that can even lead to cessation of employment. The contractors that do not follow the above rules can be removed from their work site. They could also be debarred from future employment offers from Shell. Emergency or disaster management Exxon Mobil – Exxon has been working very innovatively to increase its ability to react to emergencies swiftly as it is a critical aspect of the business. The company believes that efficient emergency awareness and reaction depends on knowledgeable and experienced response teams. To practice and develop disaster or emergency response strategy and balance responders that work on-site, Exxon has established ESGs (strategic Emergency Support Groups) around the globe. It consists of a broad variety of Exxon staffs. The company routinely provides training to all its ESG team members on an array of likely scenarios. These scenarios include fires, simulated spills, explosions, security incidents and natural disasters. In 2014, almost 500 employees of Exxon had taken part in more than 50 ESG training conferences. Shell Oil and Gas - The Company aims to avert any incidents that may consequence in spills of dangerous substances. This means that the company makes sure that its amenities are well planned, properly and safely operated, maintained and inspected. The company also engages an efficient oil leak disaster response facility. Shell subsidiaries have also developed oil leak retort plans for mobile and fixed assets that tackle the credible problem of various oil leak scenarios. These plans critically describe procedures, responsibilities of each member of the disaster or emergency management team. All the facts, happenings, knowledgebase are thoroughly documented in the emergency or disaster management response plans. It also covers any issues related to oil spill incident plans. The company also has many programs to investigate oil leak response procedures and plans developed by the disaster management team on a usual basis depending on the level of risk. Shell also learns from previous incidents and exercises that help the company to develop and improve much better emergency management plans for future. Conclusion This paper discussed job functions and EHS representative responsibilities related to environmental protection, worker health and safety, and emergency/disaster management as seen at Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil and Gas companies. To sum up both these companies have included these three aspects in their respective companies. Environmental protection initiatives help the companies to act responsibly and protect natural resources from human-made errors. Exxon and Shell have been found to strictly follow worker safety and health standards. Regarding the third aspect, emergency and disaster management it can be said that accidents cannot be foretold but preventive measures can definitely lessen the extent of impact. Both the companies were found to be very proactive in incorporating emergency or disaster management programs. References Cahill, L. (2015). Environmental Health and Safety Audits: A Compendium of Thoughts and Trends. Lanham, United States: Bernan Press. Henriques, I. and Sadorsky, P. (1999). The relationship between environmental commitment and managerial perceptions of stakeholder importance. Academy of management Journal, 87-99. Joseph, A. (1997). Health, Safety, and Environmental Data Analysis: A Business Approach. United States: CRC Press. Shell. (2010). HSSE in shell. Retrieved from http://s08.static-shell.com/content/dam/shell-new/local/corporate/corporate/downloads/pdf/HSSE-in-shell.pdf. Read More