In December, ISN and ISN CEO Joseph Eastin were recognized with the Pinnacle Award at the 2021 Oil & Gas Safety, Health and Environmental Conference.
The History of the Conference
The late Linda Berryman, a third-generation Texas oil field woman, knew the dangers faced by oil workers and was committed finding a way to send every worker home injury-free. In 2008, Linda saw that the Oil and Gas industry was fragmented and important information was not being shared among the many stakeholders. Together with colleagues in industry, academia and government, Linda helped organize the first OSHA Oil and Gas Safety Conference to allow safety professionals to come together and build a safety community for the Oil and Gas industry.
Today, the conference is a collaboration between industry and the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH). It brings together key decision makers within management and executive positions to cultivate a better understanding of how industry and regulators can work together on topics such as short-service employees, behavioral-based safety, ESG, fatigue management, base beam safety, climate change, leadership and education.
The Pinnacle Award
This year, the conference’s Pinnacle Award recognized ISN's ongoing commitment to the industry and event. Persuaded by Linda in 2008, ISN became one the first companies to come on board as an in-kind sponsor. Through the years, ISN has supplied volunteers to help run the event, manage the conference website and spread the word amongst customers.
“The mission and values of the conference organizers and participants align with ours at ISN,” said Eastin. “We support better safety and environmental operations and regulatory compliance in the industry, and we value the opportunity to partner with the event as an in-kind sponsor to help provide a platform to exchange new ideas.”
What has grown in size from a few hundred attendees in 2008 to more than 2,000 attendees, is a testament to Linda’s efforts to fill a knowledge-sharing and educational gap in the industry and the union between industry and OSHA to work together to provide tools to foster an incident-free workplace.