An organization pursuing excellence must see safety’s role in the big picture. Done the right way, improvement in EHS performance cultivates improvement in other business functions -- because safety performance closely relates to organizational culture. Getting safety right means building the culture. And building the culture paves the way for getting safety right. 

Not all approaches to safety improvement are equal. Building safety is a way to build culture. Leaders who understand this see its effects across the organization. They appreciate safety’s capacity to engage everyone at every level, and they intentionally lead with safety excellence to build a culture of excellence generally.