The Center for Safety and Health Sustainability (CSHS) has released a white paper titled The Accounting Revolution and the New Sustainability: Implications for the Occupational Safety and Health Professional. The paper offers OSH professionals a window into trends in sustainability and accounting, an analysis of current sustainability policies and practices, and an explanation of how these policies and practices affect OSH oversight and management.
Companies are increasingly realizing that nonfinancial functions such as OSH are significant to their businesses, transforming the way OSH is viewed and managed by organizations. In particular, OSH professionals can expect increasing emphasis on the importance of human capital to an organization, as well as an expanded definition of capital that moves beyond the financial and physical. Not only human capital, but natural, intellectual and social capital play important roles within organizations.
Integrating OSH performance into sustainability reporting will have a myriad of benefits. Executives and investors will develop a greater appreciation for the impact of OSH on human and other types of capital. At the same time, OSH professionals will enjoy a higher profile as well as expanded opportunities to move beyond compliance-focused responsibilities and into leadership roles.
To learn more about how companies can protect their most important resource—human capital—download CSHS’s white paper here.