Tech and the Modern Environmental Health and Safety Team

As a nation, we've come a long way in EHS since the bad old days of "cheap accidents" on the assembly line 100 years ago. Now, thanks to new EHS technologies, we're even safer and more efficient.

Photo: Joel Winstead/Flickr

You can train, you can perform safety monitoring and you can learn from your incidents where the gaps lie in your EHS processes. But without technology, you're going to plateau at the crossroads of efficiency, capability, and safety, putting your workers at risk and jeopardizing your business as well.

Evolving and Safer Businesses, Thanks to Technology

Thanks to EHS software, companies now have the capability to move light years beyond mere compliance. Software offers EHS teams the ability to capture more data than ever before. Then, it offers incredible powers of analysis and reporting. Finally, by linking to compliance modules, EHS software has the capability of effectively multiplying the efficiency factor at a level unimaginable even a decade ago.

But what's the next step? Some say it's wearable technology.

The Future: Biofeedback Alerts, Anyone?

The impact on the workplace of EHS software is undeniable, but imagine for a second the possibility of incorporating wearable technology into the EHS systems you already know.

Workplace environment factors can be automatically reported via a smartwatch. Temperature, humidity, pressure, even gaseous components for an air quality assessment would be automatically transferred from each employee's smartwatch to continuously backed-up cloud storage.

Data retrieval would be fast and easy, thanks to powerful and reliable cloud storage, which can handle even vast amounts of data pouring in from hundreds of smartwatches.

Now imagine this wearable technology reminding employees to "stay healthy" on the job—stretch, sip water, or whatever it takes to remain safe and healthy against environmental factors like heat, working in uncomfortable positions, or repetitive situations common in assembly line scenarios. It's a future where technology, EHS software, biofeedback, and the health and safety of your employees and your company all come together in one small wearable—a smartwatch.

We're still a long way off from wearable EHS tech for all on the warehouse floor. However, we can hope for an even more efficient and safe future, thanks once again to the rapid development and exciting pace of today's technology.