Over the past year, I’ve spoken with around 500 EHS leaders. One theme comes up again and again in those conversations: the role is expanding faster than ever before.
What’s striking is that while EHS managers are very aware of this shift, many people in the wider organisation don’t see it. To them, EHS is still a department with a narrow, vertical focus on compliance and safety. However, the day-to-day reality couldn’t be more different.
EHS has become one of the most cross-functional roles in the organisation — connecting safety, quality, wellbeing, sustainability, and organisational resilience.
This evolution brings both opportunities and challenges. In this article, I want to share what I’ve observed from those conversations: what’s driving the change, what it means for EHS leaders, and how the leading organisations are responding.
The Drivers of Change: Why the EHS Role is Expanding
It’s something I have thought about quite a bit recently - the growing scope of EHS isn’t happening in isolation. It’s being shaped by a powerful mix of regulatory, organisational, and cultural pressures.
1. Growth in ISO Standards Adoption
The adoption of ISO standards has exploded in recent years. Frameworks like ISO 45001 and ISO 9001 put strong emphasis on leadership, improvement, and process management — much of which falls under the EHSQ umbrella (yes, I’m including the “Q” here because it’s often part of the reality EHS leaders face even if it isn’t explicitly in their title).
As an ISO-accredited organisation ourselves, I know how much effort goes into building and maintaining compliance. One of the clever features of the ISO system is how it creates a network effect: accredited organisations are strongly encouraged to demand the same from their suppliers. This dynamic has rapidly accelerated adoption — and in turn, placed even greater emphasis on EHS functions to lead the charge.
2. Evolving Legislation
Legislation continues to expand the remit of EHS teams. Some of the most impactful recent changes include:
- Building and fire safety regulations, including the Building Safety Act.
In care, healthcare, and housing, I’ve spoken with leaders who are now responsible for everything from mandatory occurrence reporting and formulating policy to implementing audit regimes and liaising with the fire service. - The Equality Act 2010 Amendment (2023), effective October 2024.
The Worker Protection Act 2023 was a significant amendment to the Equality Act and introduced a proactive duty on employers to prevent harassment, even by third parties. Increasingly, this responsibility is being placed under the “wellbeing” hat of EHS leaders. I’ve seen this, especially in hospitality, where the risks can be heightened. - Sector-specific compliance requirements.
From chemical management in manufacturing to the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) in healthcare, these require deep domain knowledge. When I spoke at the NASHICS annual conference recently, this point came through strongly: EHS leaders are being asked to master increasingly specialised areas alongside their core responsibilities.
Each of these legislative shifts pushes EHS further into the centre of organisational life.
3. Wellbeing, Training & Employee Engagement
Another big driver is the growing recognition that safety isn’t just physical. Wellbeing and mental health have become core pillars of organisational safety.
EHS leaders are often tasked with integrating wellbeing programmes, embedding training, and driving engagement. The focus on mental health is particularly significant: when you look at the statistics for lost time linked to mental health, or the tragic suicide rates in industries like construction, the importance of this shift is undeniable.
This broader perspective is welcomed by many leaders I’ve spoken to, but it is another hat to wear, and another area where expertise must be built quickly.
4. ESG and Sustainability
Finally, the rise of ESG has brought sustainability to the boardroom. These goals often overlap with traditional EHS responsibilities. In many organisations, the EHS team is the natural home for ESG reporting and initiatives, ensuring credibility and compliance.
Together, these drivers are creating a new reality: EHS leaders are no longer confined to managing risks within a narrow scope. They are shaping how organisations function, engage their people, and position themselves externally.
Implications: What This Means for EHS Leaders
So, is this broadening of responsibilities a good thing? As with many complex topics, the answer is: it depends.
On balance, I’d say yes — it represents a fantastic opportunity for EHS managers to step into a more elevated role in their organisations. In many ways, it reminds me of how IT and Infosec (the industry I started in) leaders rose in prominence during the digital revolution of the 2000s and 2010s. What was once seen as a technical support function became a board-level priority.
The same is happening now for EHS. But like IT and Infosec before it, the opportunity can only be realised if leaders are given the support, tools, and influence they need. The encouraging news is that I’m seeing this happen more and more.
Here are three areas where the leading organisations are embracing the new EHS reality.
1. EHS is Becoming a Senior Leadership Role
The first shift is visibility. Increasingly, EHS leaders are represented at director and board level, with a mandate to shape strategy, influence culture, and report into executive committees.
This elevation brings new influence, but it also raises expectations. Leaders now need to think in terms of business outcomes, not just compliance outcomes. As my friend Michael Rasmussen has long emphasised, the real power of risk management lies in enabling the organisation to achieve its strategic and commercial objectives, not simply in avoiding fines or failures.
I see leading EHS teams achieving this in three ways:
- Building a strong safety culture across your organisation makes it easier to gain support for EHS initiatives and adapt to compliance-driven changes.
- Embracing digital transformation to streamline business processes around EHS, removing manual admin and making data visible.
- Leveraging data strategically, showing how EHS insights can drive commercial results — a theme I’ll return to in point three.
The key is empowerment. Just as IT and Infosec were given board-level backing to lead their transformation, EHS needs that same senior management representation to handle its expanding remit effectively. The broader the responsibilities, the stronger the case for EHS to sit at the top table.
2. Cross-Functional Networking is Essential
EHS is becoming one of the most cross-functional roles in modern organisations. Success now depends as much on building relationships across HR, Operations, ESG, Risk, Sales, IT, and Finance as it does on technical knowledge.
A few months ago, we analysed our 100 largest customers and were struck by the sheer diversity of roles engaging with us. In many cases, the cross-functional impact of EHS became even more pronounced once the platform was implemented.
I’ll give you an example. Some of our customers started using our platform primarily for incident reporting or inspections. But over time, they realised it could also add value to other areas:
- Fleet managers using asset tracking and vehicle audits.
- Claims teams adopting the case management workflows.
- Data Protection Officers managing data breaches and subject access requests.
These weren’t the original use cases, but sharp EHS leaders identified the opportunities, connected the dots, and built a horizontal framework that benefited the whole organisation.
One of my favourite moments is when I visit a customer site and see how well networked the EHS leader is. You can tell instantly they’re not operating in a silo — they’re a connector, creating alignment across the business and unlocking new sources of value.
3. Making the Business Case for EHS
The third implication — and perhaps the most important — is that EHS leaders must become adept at making the case for investment.
The leading teams don’t just manage compliance; they demonstrate how EHS creates tangible business value.
One example we see often at Vatix is customers using EHSQ data to support bids for new projects or contract reviews with key accounts. A robust, best-in-class approach to EHS management can now be a differentiator in competitive tenders, particularly in B2B sectors where quality standards and compliance frameworks are scrutinised heavily.
This is especially true in industries like civil engineering, healthcare, and the third sector. I’ve seen business development teams build custom dashboards using our in-application AI assistant to showcase compliance data, trends, and performance for individual customer accounts. In these cases, being able to support claims with data has directly influenced commercial outcomes.
This reframes EHS from being a cost centre into a strategic enabler of growth.
How Leading Teams Are Handling the Evolution
The organisations ahead of the curve aren’t just coping with these changes — they’re capitalising on them. From my work with clients, I see four common patterns:
- Investing in EHS software and processes that cut admin and free leaders to focus more on strategy.
- Building internal partnerships, framing EHS in terms of shared goals rather than isolated responsibilities.
- Using data to tell the story, showing executives and customers how EHS supports resilience, culture, and commercial success.
- Reframing EHS as value-add, shifting the narrative from compliance cost to strategic advantage.
These teams are not just adapting to the expanding role; they are redefining what organisational leadership looks like.
The Bigger Picture: The Future of EHS Leadership
The trajectory is clear: EHS leaders are moving from compliance specialists to strategic connectors.
I think this evolution will only accelerate as standards, legislation, ESG, and wellbeing add new layers of responsibility. But this isn’t just a challenge — it’s an opportunity.
Organisations that empower their EHS leaders with the resources, systems, and influence they need won’t just stay compliant. They’ll unlock resilience, build trust, and gain a competitive edge.
The role of EHS has never been more complex — or more important.
Conclusion
From hundreds of conversations with EHS leaders, the message is clear: the role is evolving rapidly, and the leading organisations are those that treat EHS as a strategic function at the heart of the business.
From ISO adoption and new legislation to wellbeing and ESG, EHS leaders are being asked to wear more hats than ever before. The implications are profound: greater influence, deeper cross-functional collaboration, and a stronger business case for investment.
The challenge now is ensuring leaders have the tools and support they need to succeed in this new era.
Give your EHS leaders the resources they need to succeed – book a demo today and explore solutions that turn today’s challenges into tomorrow’s opportunities.
