I highly recommend the article by Dakota Software’s Jay Finegan Safety: The Neglected Corporate Sustainability Metric.
If you are going to strive for sustainability or corporate responsibility or life cycle thinking – whatever jargon you want to call it – you have to think and act holistically. Awareness of the consequences of your actions and attempting to minimize risks in everything you do is imperative. Safety matters for your and your employees’ health and well-being, productivity and loyalty. It matters for the reputation and success of your company. It also is a critical component of a culture that cares about doing the right thing. If you are sloppy about safety, you are sloppy about a lot of other things - not being careful about how and why you make your products and interact with others. It's no surprise that companies that are successful and respected have good safety records, as noted in Finegan's paper.
As individuals we need to always think about safety. Think about the consequences of what and how you are about to do something. Teach your kids to be aware and thoughtful about how their actions impact themselves, other people and the environment. The world would be a whole lot better place if we all practiced life cycle thinking.
The "S" in EHS Strategies, Inc. stands for Safety.
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