Want to prepare your organization for the future of safety and sustainability? Start by understanding the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.
While this may sound like a simple enough task, the reality isn’t always so straightforward. With the fast pace of regulatory changes, the complexities of reporting, and the emergence of new and unfamiliar technologies, staying on top of your responsibilities may feel overwhelming.
So, how can you navigate this shifting landscape and maintain a leading edge?
This is what we explored in our recent webinar Prepare for 2025: The Future of Safety and Sustainability.
The event began with a workshop led by Karen Buttigieg, EcoOnline’s Group Manager of Product Marketing and John Maynard, Sales Engineer at EcoOnline. Karen took us through the key regulatory updates from 2024 and provided insights on the current attitudes of EHS leaders. She also highlighted critical changes expected in 2025 that will shape the future of health, safety, and sustainability management.
John covered ways to help organizations improve their EHS, ESG, and Chemical Safety programs and provided useful tips for those looking to optimize these in 2025. One of the main subjects John covered (which was a hot topic throughout the event) was the use of AI and other advanced technologies.
Following the workshop, an expert panel discussion took place. Panelists included David Picton, SVP of ESG & Sustainability, as host and moderator, Gary Morgan, VP of Product for Chemicals, and John Maynard. The panelists shared valuable insights they’ve gleaned from their time in the industry.
Below, we’ll explore the key takeaways from the webinar:
What are the challenges facing EHS, ESG, and Chemical Safety leaders in 2025?
How can I prepare for expanding regulations in ESG and chemical management?
How can digital solutions/AI simplify my organization’s safety and sustainability processes and help us to prepare for compliance?
What are trending EHS, ESG, Chemical topics for 2025?
What are the challenges facing EHS, ESG, and Chemical Safety leaders in 2025?
The first topic covered in our workshop was regulations around health and safety, chemical, and sustainability. “The health and safety landscape is increasingly becoming more complex to manage,” said Karen Buttigieg before touching on the four key OSHA updates of 2024 that have had a significant impact on businesses. These included electronic submission requirements for illness and injury for high hazard industries, a 3.2% increase in OSHA penalties, updates to the Hazards Communications Standard, and a restructuring of regions.
In the chemical sphere, expected updates for 2025 focus on improving chemical safety. These consist of measures such as stricter TSCA enforcement, updates to the Hazard Communication Standards, PFAS regulations, state-led initiatives (such as California’s Safer Consumer Products Program and New York’s Toxic Chemicals in Children’s Products Act), and emerging chemical categories.
Karen noted that sustainability is becoming a greater priority, with reporting compliance in particular receiving a 150% increase in legislation. Measures are being taken at a global, federal, and local/state-wide scale to make business practices more environmentally sound. “With these changes present challenges and opportunities to innovate and adopt greener, safer practices,” noted Karen, “…Organizations are continuing to move forward with a focus on sustainability to lay down the foundation for better business.’
In fact, 74% of EHS leaders expect a positive impact on revenue growth from sustainability initiatives and 93% dedicated budgets for sustainability reporting and compliance. Not surprisingly, 0% of EHS leaders surveyed will be waiting for climate and sustainability laws to be enacted before building a sustainability program or team.
With all this in mind, businesses must be proactive.
How can you prepare for expanding regulations in ESG and Chemical Management?
Now that you’re aware of just how much things are changing, it’s time to learn what you can do about it. For this, we turned to John Maynard, who took us through some useful tips for tangible improvements within your business.
There are four key steps that businesses should be taking in order to prepare for what the next year has in store:
1. Stay up-to-date: Government changes around the world will lead to new rules and regulations. There are also state and local guidelines your business must follow. Aim to not only meet, but to exceed, your obligations.
2. Standardize procedures: Work to make sure that everyone within your organization is on the same page. Standardizing will make things much clearer. It will be easier to understand risks and mitigate them because your team will be aligned.
3. Increase efficiencies: Cut down on the things you don’t need. Ask yourself what is really necessary and also what can be done faster and more efficiently.
4. Utilize available tools: Use tools to find efficiencies and automate data collection, data reporting, data delivery and alerting capabilities. Aim to cut down on excel time so that you can focus on more important tasks such as improving processes and streamlining them.
“You’re a health and safety professional, not an excel professional,” John reminded attendees, “So try to cut down on the cutting and pasting and making your own graphs and charts and emailing that out, sending it out to people. Really try to work within an ecosystem that does all that work for you and really cuts down and frees up your time to do what lines up with your job title, which is working in health and safety.”
Worried that the above steps might cost you excess time and money? There’s no need to fear. “If you already have a robust and effective health and safety process in place,” said John, “It’s more about working those new requirements into your workflow as opposed to having to start from scratch or scrap what you’re already doing.”
How can digital solutions/ AI simplify my organization’s safety and sustainability processes and help us to prepare for compliance?
One of the main themes of our webinar was the use of AI, its possibilities and its limitations. ‘Things like AI and machine learning and neural networks – we’re really starting to see those be active tools that will help you on your safety journey,’ John expressed. .
He emphasized the opportunity that companies have to embark on what he called a data led-transformation with these emerging technologies. Companies have traditionally operated in a descriptive mode of thinking, but part of the beauty of machine learning is that it enables users to shift toward predictive insights and prescriptive recommendations, anticipating future outcomes and suggesting real-time actions.This is a powerful use of AI, and one that will have a major impact on those who adopt it.
What can you expect from EcoOnline’s AI and Machine learning tools?
SDS sourcing and indexing: Streamline SDS management by building a constantly updated global library, automating SDS indexing, and retrieving supplier SDSs through AI-driven sourcing.
Chat bots: Accessible via any ‘chat’ based software Guides users through processes and submissions.
Template sourcing: Simplify the creation of accurate, standardized EHS checklists, saving time while ensuring regulatory compliance and promoting a safer work environment.
Inform, prescribe, delight: With an augmented analytics solution, you can automatically and dynamically analyze the relationships between inspections, training, and incidents, offering a single, easy-to-understand score.
Facilitate and connect: A generative AI-powered virtual assistant enhances efficiency, ensures consistency, and improves compliance by offering insights, suggestions, automation, and context-aware guidance.
AI was also heavily discussed during the panel discussion between David Picton, Gary Morgan, and John Maynard. While it was acknowledged that AI is a relatively new technology, the panel was enthusiastic about what its future holds. The panelists addressed the benefits of AI as well as some of the barriers.
Some of the main benefits of AI discussed by the panel were:
Speed and efficiency
Help with compliance monitoring
Cost-effectiveness
Personalized assistance
The power to engage the workforce
Informed decision-making
Some of the challenges of AI that were mentioned included:
A lack of budget for AI investment
Concerns over AI’s explainability/traceability
AI integration vs. transformation
Lack of trust in AI
Balancing AI’s flexibilities with strict regulations
A question was posed to the panelists regarding how organizations can combine the unregulated world of AI with the highly regulated world of safety. In response to this, John Maynard stressed that it’s important to make sure AI isn’t going too far. The goal is not to have AI doing all the work – the goal is to just give the user more capabilities.
“We’re not asking the AI to do the work, we’re asking it to present you with information, we’re asking it to present you with suggestions,” John Maynard underscored. “We still want that health and safety professional to be part of the process and to be the decision maker during that process.”
What are trending EHS, ESG, Chemical topics for 2025?
While AI is on everyone’s minds, there’s plenty of additional developments emerging. Our panel wrapped up the webinar by discussing interesting trends they’re expecting to see more of over the next year.
An increase of in-state or local regulations: A predicted trend, especially in the U.S., is the shift towards state-level health and safety regulations (similar to California’s Cal-OSHA guidelines). This decentralized approach could create challenges for multi-state or multinational companies who will need to navigate a growing number of varying regulations, making compliance even more complex.
Environmental compliance and its close ties with chemical safety: This trend highlights the close connection between ESG/sustainability and chemical safety, with environmental compliance heavily reliant on accurate chemical storage, safety, and reporting practices. Automation and tools that ensure timeliness and accuracy in processes like Tier 2 reporting, emissions tracking, and waste management are increasingly in demand, emphasizing how chemical safety plays a critical role in meeting environmental compliance goals.
“So bringing that chemical automation from your inventory side, from your chemical storage side, pushing it through environmental models, et cetera, for emissions, et cetera, and waste, that’s really critical,” said Gary, “but it just shows the incredible link between chemicals and environmental compliance. That’s something that we’re hearing constantly.”
Merging of health and safety with more operational processes: Another trend in health and safety is the merging of health and safety roles with broader operational tasks. This may include tracking inspections for fire safety or eyewash stations – tasks which were traditionally seen as operations-focused.
“There’s going to be more and more functions within health and safety beyond just hazard analysis and near-miss reporting,” John stated, reiterating that EHS professionals must be “aware of that greater workflow and more responsibilities in the health and safety realm.” This integrated approach combines various functions while emphasizing resilience through collaboration and the adoption of new technologies.
Navigating the future of safety and sustainability requires more than awareness – it demands cutting-edge tools that boost efficiency, enhance compliance, and engage your workforce.
EcoOnline’s advanced software is built to meet these needs, providing solutions that are always at the forefront of innovation and adapt to emerging trends like AI integration, evolving regulations, and operational shifts. Let EcoOnline help you stay ahead of the curve as you prepare for a safer, greener, and more resilient future.
