Center for Safety and Health Sustainability releases metrics to advance standardized reporting

The Center for Safety and Health Sustainability (CSHS) is pleased to announce the release of its Best Practice Guide for Occupational Health and Safety in Sustainability Reports, which provides occupational health and safety professionals with metrics and best practices in OHS sustainability reporting.
“Investors and other key stakeholders are demanding more transparency, which translates to higher expectations for reporting on corporate performance, including materiality. This presents important implications for OHS performance reporting,” said CSHS chair Kathy Seabrook.

With this end in mind, CSHS has launched an initiative to standardize OHS reporting that allows for comparison among organizations worldwide. CSHS views this campaign as a critical step in improving OHS performance and, ultimately, preventing worker injuries, illnesses and fatalities.

These metrics proposed by CSHS, developed through global collaboration among the world’s largest occupational health and safety professional bodies, are currently being used in some format by a multitude of organizations around the world. They are standards of performance which are already accepted, understood and operationalized by those managing health and safety at work.

The CSHS metrics have a broader scope and wider applicability in assessing workplaces worldwide across all geographical boundaries. In addition to addressing OHS needs at large organizations, they are scalable and therefore applicable to small and medium-sized enterprises, extend coverage to temporary or fixed duration contract workers, and increase focus on workers for suppliers in the developing world, according to the centre. They present the recommended minimum level of OHS performance reporting that is applicable to all organizations.

The Canadian Society for Safety Engineering (CSSE) has been a supporter of the CSHS since its establishment.

“Canadian companies are leading in Canada and internationally in the field of safety and sustainability. By adopting the centre’s leading edge research, Canadian safety professionals are learning, implementing and supporting our workplaces,” said Peter Sturm, CSSE past president and also a member of the CSHS board of directors. “The CSSE board of directors and our over 5,000 members promote the importance of safe and sustainable companies resulting profitable, innovative and prevention focused workplaces.”