This year’s National Safety Congress & Expo in San Diego featured a tech hub of approximately 25 vendors that seemed a world away from the usual exhibits of PPE, training services and facility equipment.

ESG ratings, rankings and grades have been around for some years, and the whole “ESG industry” is growing, driven by Wall Street investors, media coverage, consumer and employee demands for responsible corporate behavior, and the need for both public and private companies – though primarily at this point public entities – to be able to access capital by scoring well on ESG scorecards.

A major session at the NSC was introduced by OSHA chief Doug Parker, moderated by NIOSH director Dr John Howard, and had six panelists. The subject? Diversity, equity and inclusion, better known these days as DEI.

It’s not too early to start marking your calendar and gathering information about the professional conferences you plan on attending in 2014. Here’s a sampling of the occupational safety and health-related conventions scheduled for this year.

With a five percent increase in attendance, this year’s National Safety Council NSC Congress & Expo had the highest attendance yet.

Talking to vendors at last week’s National Safety Congress & Expo, sponsored by the National Safety Council, it’s clear a safety pro who comes to work without a smartphone is going to lost in the dark.

Coverage of the 2013 NSC Congress & Expo in Chicago, the government shutdown’s affect on OSHA and hearing loss stories were among the top EHS-related articles featured last week on ISHN.com: