Written by Mary Hallock, IMEC Technical Specialist and OSHA Authorized Trainer
For our most recent Rockford area Waste-to-Profit meeting we combined the areas of safety and environmental compliance into one program. We presented the Chemical Safety Workshop material and added some material that focused on hazardous waste recycling and pollution prevention.
The more I worked on my material and tied it into the Chemical Safety Workshop material, the more I realized how the sustainable aspect of handling chemicals goes hand in hand with the safety aspect. If we minimize exposure to our employees, then we minimize exposure to the environment.
The safety workshop material presents ideas on how to engineer controls into our systems to make sure we avoid exposures. Pollution prevention is all about avoidance as well. If you can minimize or eliminate air and water emissions you may be able to reduce reporting and permit requirements.
As you implement a safety program in your company and focus on avoiding accidents, you can indirectly deliver a secondary benefit to the environment.
Please call me if I can offer any tips and practices for improving the sustainability of your operations.
