Businesses have long struggled to meet safety standards in their respective fields, and sometimes have fallen short of completing their goals. As a result, each year tens of thousands of workers die from work-related diseases and more than 4.6 million are seriously injured on the job.

To get a clearer picture of occupational safety and health management problems, IMT recently spoke with James J. King, a consultant with more than 30 years' of experience in quality, environmental, health and safety management systems.

IMT: In today's uncertain economic climate, companies are finding they cannot afford to ignore risk management and assessment strategies. What are some of the steps required for performing an environmental liability risk assessment? Are there certain technologies or tools that can help in the process?

JK: Not knowing your organization's environmental regulatory exposure and risk can be devastating to your organization — both as an organization and personally to the owners and stakeholders.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides a wealth of information regarding environmental liability and risk. A good place to start is EPA.gov/risk. Utilize the guidebooks and databases provided. Take some time to wander around the EPA Web site, as there are many freely available resources there.

In addition, the Massachusetts Highway Department has put together a wonderful environmental facility handbook that provides insight to their Environmental Management System. And don't forget the deep bench on your own Web site, ThomasNet.com.

One last idea: Don't hesitate to use the local community college or university. Many professors are looking for real-world training experiences for their environmental technology or environmental engineering students, and a facility might be a great class project location for identifying environmental risks and liability. I've had consulting clients do it, and it was essentially free consulting. However, for environmental legal liability, contact a competent environmental legal counsel, which is the final word when it comes to environmental liability. The risks can be great, so be careful.

IMT: Although initially viewed as costly burdens, certain regulatory requirements and management systems have emerged as competitive tools for manufacturers in recent years. What are some of the competitive advantages to be gained by organizations that embrace the ISO systems?

JK: The ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards are business risk management tools. The management systems are intended both to be a minimum requirement to achieve certification and to improve organizational performance. Organizations that implement these standards are challenged to continually improve their organizational operations and provide the quality products and services to ensure customer satisfaction, reduce operations costs and distinguish themselves from their competitors through meeting the rigorous requirements of certification.

For ISO 9001, a well-crafted management system brings manufacturing or service consistency to the organization for meeting customer requirements and improving customer satisfaction. Scrap or waste reduction may provide substantial savings to the organization, thereby reducing costs. I have seen well-documented quality management systems save millions of dollars over time through introducing efficiencies and challenging operational status quo.

IMT: What are some of the repercussions these management systems may have on the way organizations perform their day-to-day operations?

JK: Questioning status quo is challenging. You may be changing the DNA of the organization by implementing a management system. Push-back may sound like: "That's the way we've always done it here; why do we need that?" or "We tried that ISO stuff and suffocated in the paperwork." The negativity goes on.

First of all, by not critically evaluating who you are as an organization, you are probably giving up competitive ground. How long can you continue like that without the risk of going out of business?

Secondly, if the ISO process becomes a paperwork nightmare, you probably did it wrong. The number of documented procedures is minimum: six in ISO 9001 and nine references to "maintain a procedure," of which one reference is made to a "documented procedure."

IMT: The ISO 14000 family addresses various aspects of environmental management. The first two standards in the family, ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 14004:2004, deal with environmental management systems (EMS). What are the top challenges in implementing ISO management systems? Where does an organization start?

JK: ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management Systems - Requirements with Guidance for Use is the standard that registrars use to certify organizations. ISO 14004 Environmental Management Systems - General Guidelines on Principles, Systems and Support Techniques, a guidance document that has the ISO 14001 standard embedded within, provides invaluable examples of what the standard is looking for in the way of a certifiable management system. Organizations are not certified to ISO 14004. (The same holds true for ISO 9001:2008, which is the standard. ISO 9004:2008 is a "general principles" document and is still under development.)

The implementation of an ISO 14001:2004 EMS can be a daunting exercise, depending on the size and complexity of your business. The resistance to change in any organization is difficult to overcome. As with ISO 9001, you are building a business risk management system that will require creating or modifying existing procedures and work instructions.

Start by purchasing a copy of ISO 14004:2004, and create a core team of representatives from across the organization. Study the guide and discuss how it applies to your organization. Collective wisdom almost always pays off, and the diversity of the team's makeup will shed light on those areas of the organization that need the EMS. By creating a core team, the evaluation of the requirements becomes a team effort and not any one individual's pet project, thereby creating broader organizational buy-in of the EMS.

IMT: Speaking of buy-in, an important step in developing a corporate culture of safety involves gaining the participation of employees across every level of the organization, including those at the top. What are key ways safety leaders can develop stronger health and safety engagement from the workforce?

JK: Getting buy-in at any level of an organization begins by answering the question, "What's in it for me?" Going home every evening in one piece was not always the case in the U.S., and in some industries, the risk of injury and death is still a factor.

The rule-of-thumb cost for a single lost-time injury is about $40,000-$50,000 per injury. Businesses have two basic goals: create customers and make a profit. Maintaining a safe work environment is not only the right thing to do, but it will also provide savings to the bottom line — and that gets management's attention.

Management teams generally are an easy sell on safety and occupational health. Unlike the environmental programs, which may be unclear where risk management and savings intersect, safety has to be "in your face" to be successful. Employee resistance may be subtle; they buy in with the "head nod" and continue to do as they please. I have witnessed employees fired on the spot for performing an unsafe act. Effective training and orientation to the organization's safety management plus management's consistent support are the key ingredients to a successful program.

James J. King has more than 30 years' of experience in quality, environmental, health and safety management systems consulting throughout his career. Jim's areas of expertise include business management system development, change management, environmental compliance, environmental and quality cost accounting and organization-wide communication. His experience further includes training and auditing for a wide variety of industries, including many of the Fortune Top 50 corporations. Jim is the author of The Environmental Regulatory Dictionary, 4th edition (2005), published by John Wiley and Sons. Jim can be contacted at Jim@JimKing.Biz. For more, visit JimKing.biz.