Carrol Dugan took interest in the environment around her at a young age after realizing that “we only have this one environment that we live in.” This interest eventually led her to a successful career in environmental health and safety (EHS).
“I felt it was really interesting all the different ways that people could contribute in their daily lives to make it a better place,” Carrol explains on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE.
Carrol now serves as the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at Hocking International Laboratories, one of the leading custom chemical manufacturers in the world. Having worked in the business for more than 20 years, Carrol is a seasoned environmental health sustainability leader, helping organizations optimize their operations and excel in environmental health and safety (EHS) as a way to grow their business.
In her role at Hocking International, Carrol emphasizes how influential the EHS department can be on business practices.
“The power of influence is so critical for EHS professionals. We're not just technical resources that can interpret rules and standards or design engineer equipment. We really serve as a resource for the company to help them understand what it means to be compliant, but also move beyond that and really help drive the business.”
For Carrol, safety is not a standalone department, but something that must be integrated into all aspects of business functionality in order to increase efficiency, employee and customer engagement and larger market share.
“[EHS] really needs to be integral as part of an organization’s operations. It should be built into the way that people work so that it's not separate,” she explains.
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Carrol Dugan
👉 What she does: As the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at one of the leading custom chemical manufacturers in the world, Carrol helps companies achieve strategic EHS operational excellence by embedding best practices into core business practices.
👉 Company: Hocking International Laboratories
👉 Key quote: “[EHS] really needs to be integral as part of an organization’s operations. It should be built into the way that people work so that it's not separate.”
👉 Where to find her: LinkedIn
Safe Takes
⚠️ EHS is crucial to business operations. Carrol argues that environmental health and safety protocols should be built into the way people work to ensure a safe workplace and that employees are meeting all standards.
⚠️ Safety positively affects product quality. Efficiency is always important, but never at the expense of product quality. Optimizing operations and production increases efficiency and naturally reduces the likelihood of generating excess waste or creating hazards.
⚠️ Communication is key. It is important not only what EHS professionals communicate but also how they communicate. Keeping employees up to code on the latest safety standards is imperative.
Resources
⛑️ Hocking International Laboratories' LinkedIn –– See the company’s latest news stories, job postings, and insights.
⛑️ United States Environmental Protection Agency — Stay up-to-date on the latest environmental regulations and requirements.
⛑️ Occupational Health and Safety Administration — Carrol says Hocking International abides by both EPA and OSHA standards.
Top quotes from the episode:
“[EHS] really needs to be integral as part of an organization’s operations. It should be built into the way that people work so that it's not separate.”
“You really have to help people understand that in order to grow your business and have a safe workplace for the employees and meet all of your environmental requirements, it is critical that you conduct business in a way that achieves all those goals.”
“If you optimize your operations or your production and you're really increasing efficiency, you naturally reduce the likelihood that you're going to generate a lot of waste or that you're going to have a lot of hazards associated with that particular process.”
“If you have a terrible safety record, what does that mean for your product quality? It's all related. You can't have a really terrible safety record but really excellent product quality or really great turnaround time.”
“The power of influence is so critical for EHS professionals. We're not just technical resources that can interpret rules and standards or design engineer equipment. We really serve as a resource for the company to help them understand what it means to be compliant, but also move beyond that and really help drive the business.”
“There's some sales pitching that we have to do to help [the higher ups] understand why we want to do things this way versus just giving all of EHS the responsibility to just take care of it.”
“It's really important, not only what we communicate, but how we communicate so that the team can really come together and work as one.”
“I tend to think of safety not as a standalone thing. I really think about and try to help others see it this way as well. Safety is not something you do. It's not an action. It's a result of how you do things.”