About GEMI HSE Web Depot

ABOUT THE GEMI HSE WEB DEPOT

The GEMI HSE Web Depot is a web-based resource for the development and continual improvement of Health, Safety & Environment Management Information Systems (HSE-MIS).  The GEMI HSE Web Depot presents a framework for HSE-MIS planning, development, system rollout and improvement and organizes company experiences within these areas. 

The GEMI HSE Web Depot contains information on:

• Strategies for planning, designing, evaluating, and improving HSE systems
• Planning and development processes
• Evaluating business benefits
• Examples of best practices.

For more information about the GEMI HSE Web Depot contact GEMI at info@gemi.org or 202-296-7449. 

HOW TO USE THE HSE WEB DEPOT

The HSE Web Depot is based on a Plan, Do, Check, Advance (PDCA) lifecycle. The order of these steps is completely dependent upon how the Web Depot is being used. A visitor to the Web Depot may find value in going through the entire tool or by selecting a topic of interest and diving in a bit deeper.  

FINDING VALUE IN THE GEMI HSE WEB DEPOT

Companies around the world are rapidly discovering that proactive HSE management makes business sense. Leading edge companies have moved corporate EHS professionals from their basement offices to the boardroom, and are reaping the benefits of improved profitability and competitiveness resulting from the integration of HSE management into traditional business functions and decision-making. Effective HSE – Management Information Systems (HSE-MIS) are a critical success factor in this process.

Corporate HSE professionals, however, still face an uphill battle in persuading senior management that investments in HSE-MIS do indeed lead to an improved bottom line. Unfortunately, the benefits of improved information management (e.g. innovation and process improvements, increased employee productivity, enhanced brand image, reduced regulatory liability, etc.) are difficult to measure and are often dispersed among different functional units of a company. This means that benefits, both tangible and intangible, must be carefully and deliberately identified, measured, and documented to demonstrate the value of investments in HSE-MIS to senior management.

Additional information can be found in other GEMI tools at http://www.gemi.org.

Communicating the Value of HSE-MIS Investments. An effective business case requires data, and getting good data depends on careful measurement and documentation. The primary purpose for measuring the benefits is to demonstrate to executive management the economic business case associated with developing or improving an HSE-MIS. Measures should tie in with the defined processes and they should be measured consistently, both at the facility and corporate roll-up levels. Benefits may be specific to the HSE organization, the functional areas, or the company as a whole. The better an HSE manager is able to articulate benefits to all areas, the more likely the business case can be made.

Generally, those items easiest to measure and to equate to dollar values are time-sensitive: time for inputting data, time for each user to access, time for each user to complete a given transaction. These are easily converted to a dollar value by quantifying the number of users involved and applying the proper labor rate. These are tangible benefits.

Other benefits are more subjective and translated less easily to a dollar value: increased quality, increased safety, and enhanced company image. These are intangible benefits. Tying measures to business objectives and converting intangible benefits to dollars enables:

• An improved ability to articulate benefits to HSE, functional areas and entire company;
• An increased potential for covering development and implementation costs;
• A stronger business case justification; and
• A greater likelihood for justifying budget increases due to project scope changes.

The more an HSE manager can convert intangible benefits to dollar values and articulate benefits the better the business case justification. For a thorough discussion of building the business case for HSE-MIS investments, please see Environment: Value to Business (available on the GEMI website).

Examples of HSE-MIS Project Benefits

• Company intranet and internet applications provide business units with vital links to legal and regulatory requirements when siting new or expanding existing domestic and international facilities.
• Company intranets provide up-to-date access to the latest environmental policies, procedures, technology and best management practices.
• Internet, intranet and extranet applications coupled with health, safety and environmental modules of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) put vital environmental information in the hands of suppliers and customers. This is of increasing importance as e-business to business transactions expand.
• Company HSE-MIS networks allow for efficient collection and roll-up of environmental, health and safety performance information for periodic reports.
• Design-for-environment models allow companies to consider health, safety and environmental requirements early in the R&D/product development pipeline, assuring there is no negative impact on time to market for new products and processes and products have the desirable environmental, health and safety attributes.
• Web pages provide important health, safety and environmental performance information to employees, customers, suppliers, investors, community groups, regulators, local/state/federal governmental officials and special interest groups.
• Internet offerings complement trade publication services and are an efficient way for tracking legal and regulatory developments by government regulatory agencies and communicating this information through the company, especially for international requirements.
• Environmental information management applications are essential to support the documentation, record-keeping and communications requirements for ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard certification, a growing business in some market sectors.
• Environmental module applications in ERP systems are critical to the exchange of health, safety and environmental information through the value chain.

ACCESS THE GEMI HSE WEB DEPOT