Verdantix EHS Summit 2024
Verdantix EHS Europe Summit 2024 – A Few Thoughts
I was fortunate enough to attend the Sustainability and EHS Summit Europe 2024 hosted by Verdantix 4 – 5 June 2024 in Amsterdam. The agenda over the two days covered a variety of issues and allowed discussion, reflection, and networking. I gained knowledge and contacts that I hope will be useful in my research and professional practice.
Key Takeaways:
Date – review the data I collect, analyse, and report on
AI – it can help; I need to research and see how it can enhance my professional practice
Research – areas and resources to help me with my Professional Doctorate studies
Data, Reporting, and CSRD. We need data to assess how we are doing, what works and what does not work. That data is from a mix of sources, and can be leading and lagging, quantitative and qualitative. And there is reporting we must do for various regulatory, investor, and standards perspectives. CSRD was new to me – Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. As UK is now out of EU it is not a requirement for me, as my organisation operates only in the UK. However, I think that I will take note of these because who knows in the future? Investors may want to see my organisation through this lens, and maybe we could expand into the EU? From a H&S perspective the CSRD requirements are quite minimal, the main metrics required are:
the percentage of total employees covered by the health and safety management system;
the number of fatalities as a result of work-related injuries and work-related ill health;
the number and rate of recordable work-related accidents;
the number of cases of recordable work-related ill health; and
the number of days lost to work-related injuries and fatalities from work-related accidents, work-related ill health and fatalities from ill health.
So I will look at the metrics I collate, assess, and report on to ensure the above are captured.
AI. Weaving through the summit was the issue of AI or perhaps more accurately Large Language Modules (LLM) is the correct term.. But let us stick with AI as that is the phrase we now use! AI is H&S can be used to simulate human intelligence using algorithms to interpret, predict, and respond. Benchmark Gensuite split AI into three areas:
Enablement – assist users to be more effective and impactful in tasks
Analysis – Enhance data quality and decision making
Intelligence – Identify trends and potential issues before they occur
AI is certainly an area that I need to look at more; I see it as an assistant to help be make assessments and decisions.
Safety Culture. A very thoughtful, engaging, reflective presentation from the founder and president of AlleTrust, Juan Jose Salamanca about their concept ThroughSafety and the Four Keys to a Stronger Safety Culture:
1. The Journey Starts With You
2. Communicate With Emotions
3. Find The Intrinsic Motivation
4. Never Stop Focusing on People
Verdantix Vantage. The organisers carry out a lot of research and they offer much of this through their platform ‘Verdantix Vantage’. From a personal perspective I am looking forward to searching their articles as I develop my thesis on my Professional Doctorate journey.
In summary, I really enjoyed the summit. That is also spurred me to take a few days holiday around it to explore and relax on a mini city break was a great value added benefit.