Author: sHq_LoGiNz
MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, has been recognized by the Business Intelligence Group (BIG) with a 2026 Sustainability Product of the Year Award (Physical Category) for its bio-based solvent portfolio for High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
Launched in April 2026, the award-winning portfolio is the first-of-its-kind, patent-pending line of bio-based HPLC solvents. The portfolio helps laboratories deliver on average 25.9% lower carbon dioxide equivalents compared with conventional fossil-fuel-based HPLC-grade solvents. Designed as true drop-in replacements, the solvents enable customers to advance their sustainability goals without changing validated methods, modifying instruments or disrupting laboratory workflows.
The BIG Sustainability Awards recognize companies, products and teams that are translating sustainability commitments into measurable business and environmental outcomes. This year’s winners represent organizations that are embedding sustainability into the way they design products, operate their businesses, and create long-term value.
Judges said the submission stood out because it, “clearly demonstrated a strong technical innovation with measurable sustainability benefits and a well-defined value proposition.” They also noted it, “delivers a meaningful carbon reduction without forcing laboratories to redevelop validated methods.”
This recognition underscores MilliporeSigma’s commitment to embedding sustainability into product innovation by developing solutions that help customers reduce their environmental impact while maintaining the quality, precision and reliability essential to scientific research and manufacturing.
To explore this year’s BIG Sustainability Award winners, visit the BIG’s website.
Learn more about MilliporeSigma’s Sustainability & Social Business Innovation initiatives.
Hunger. It’s a word that defines my “why.”
Our latest Shared Table guest has spent his life unleashing the “hunger” inside people to chase their potential. But when New York Times Best-Selling Author, Entrepreneur and Hunger Advocate, Tony Robbins, and I sat down, we focused on a different kind of hunger – the physical kind. The lack of meals that should never happen.
We explored the threads that connect a rainy night in Brazil to a Thanksgiving door in California – and how those moments turned into a movement. From the Protein Revolution to the three decisions that shape every leader’s life, this is a conversation about what happens when you stop managing circumstances and start creating the future.
Moments Matter: Two Doors, A Common Thread
I’m a firm believer that moments matter. They create threads in you that never go away.
For me, that moment was April 4, 2000, in Brazil. A security guard named Joaquin knocked on my door. He worked in the community where I lived as an expat and had become a bit of a language mentor. That night, Joaquin arrived with his young daughters, who hadn’t eaten for two days. That night changed my life. My family and I still fast for 48 hours every January to keep that memory and mission alive.
Tony’s moment came when he was 11. Thanksgiving Day. His family was eating crackers and peanut butter for dinner. A stranger knocked on the door with groceries and a turkey. Tony’s father, driven by pride, tried to slam the door. The stranger stopped him with a line Tony never forgot: “Sir, don’t let your family suffer because of your ego.” The meaning behind that event – that the world was full of strangers who cared – changed Tony’s world and drove his commitment to pay it forward. Just seven years later, he delivered his first two Thanksgiving meals to families in need.
It turned a moment into a movement and ultimately, Tony’s creation of the 100 Billion Meals initiative.
Best Quote: “I realized that my worst day was my best day. Because if my father had not left, would I be out here feeding people? I don’t know.”
The Protein Gap – and the Coalition to Close It
Hunger can’t be solved with carbs and day-old bakery goods. Tony learned this through his own health journey – moving from years as a vegan, often supplementing with highly processed foods, to vegetarian, to ultimately, coming full circle back to animal protein.
This shared conviction led us to the Coalition to Close the Protein Gap. Protein is the most requested food in the charitable food system, but only 14% of food is distributed, leaving many without access to this essential nutrient. The biggest barrier to closing the gap is improving accessibility and logistics to support distribution.
Alongside Tony, the USDA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), CDC Foundation and U.S. farmers and protein producers, we’ve launched the Coalition to Close the Protein Gap. Our goal? 3 billion protein-rich meals a year.
The Coalition will provide $40 million in funding to expand cold storage and infrastructure. In addition, America’s farmers and protein producers are stepping up to bridge the 800-million-pound gap. HATCH will operationalize the effort, providing infrastructure and logistics. The best part? HATCH isn’t charity; it’s a sustainable system, using a cost-plus model where farmers sell high-quality, lower-demand protein at a small margin. This allows food banks to stretch their budgets further while providing families with consistent, nutritious protein.
Stat to Remember: If hunger were a country, it would be the third-largest country in the world. We have the resources to address hunger, but it requires all of us to come together to serve and give.
The Power of Impossible Goals
When I first met Tony in 2024, HATCH delivered about 20 million meals a year. He shook me up and insisted 100 million meals were possible. He didn’t want incremental improvement, but massive action. His belief: impossible goals force creative thinking and eliminate mediocre options. The Coalition was born from Tony’s challenge. A huge thank you to the American farmers and protein producers who answered the call to take massive action. Coalition members include: Cargill, Case Farms, Inc., Elanco, Hilmar, Koch Foods, Inc., Mountaire Farms, MPS Egg Farms, Perdue Farms, Rose Acre Farms, Sanderson Farms, Simmons Foods, and Tyson Foods, with the support of the American Egg Board, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Chicken Council, National Milk Producers Federation, National Pork Producers Council, National Pork Board and National Turkey Federation.
When we provide the right fuel, we change health and well-being forever.
The Number to Remember: 9
- 9 Amino Acids: Protein delivers the nine essential amino acids often called the building blocks of life.
- Age 9: If we can create the right dietary habits by age 9, we can permanently change a child’s health and cognitive trajectory.
- Genesis 9: The verse where God grants man the liberty to consume animal protein for nourishment.
The Hunger in Us: Focus, Meaning, Action
Our focus shifted from physical hunger to our hunger to unleash people’s potential and leadership. Tony shared the three decisions we unconsciously make multiple times a day that change everything when you intentionally consider them:
- What are you going to focus on? (What’s wrong or what’s possible?)
- What does it mean? (Events are neutral; the positive or negative emotion we assign to them creates the meaning.)
- What are you going to do? (Consistently acting in support of your goals strengthens belief in your capability.)
Tony, thank you for the partnership, the push and for being one of those rare people who take others to places they wouldn’t go on their own. Your lifelong dedication to feeding billions is more than philanthropy – it is a masterclass in turning a personal “why” into a global “how.”
Big Takeaway: A meal is more than just food – it’s the connection that happens when we come together around the table. We aren’t just filling plates; we are fueling the human potential that builds healthy communities.
Will you join our table? We’ve launched ‘The Missing Piece’ crowdfunding campaign. Tony has committed $8 million in matching funds. Your support builds the infrastructure to connect animal protein – meat, eggs and dairy – to families in need.
Donate to The Missing Piece here.
Risk management has changed dramatically in recent years. What was once often viewed through the lens of emergency response, compliance audits, or isolated risk assessments has become a much broader business conversation. Today, risk moves faster, crosses borders more easily, and affects everything from workforce health and safety to supply chain performance, regulatory exposure, reputation, and business continuity.
In Episode 3 of Season 3 of Rethinking EHS, host Keith Knoke, Chair of the Board for Inogen Alliance and Executive Vice President at Antea Group USA, is joined by Alizabeth Aramowicz Smith of Antea Group USA and Chris Trim of Peter J. Ramsay & Associates in Australia to discuss how organizations are moving from reactive compliance toward proactive resilience.
Together, they explore why EHS leaders are playing a more strategic role, how leading indicators can help organizations act earlier, why management of change is becoming a critical risk tool, and how global collaboration with local expertise helps companies manage increasingly complex risks across regions.
Key Takeaways
- Risk management is no longer episodic. It is continuous, interconnected, and increasingly shaping business decisions at the highest level.
- EHS risk now touches areas beyond traditional compliance, including workforce resilience, procurement, supply chains, cybersecurity, environmental performance, and business continuity.
- Leading indicators are becoming more important for executives and boards as organizations seek earlier visibility into whether systems are likely to fail.
- Organizations are increasingly using data, Management of Change, and proactive due diligence to identify operational risks before they become costly disruptions.
- Global risk management requires both consistency and local expertise, especially when regulatory expectations, business culture, and operational realities vary by country.
Listen to the full episode: The New Era of Risk Management: From Compliance to Resilience
Why is risk management changing so quickly?
Keith Knoke: Risk feels fundamentally different today. It is faster, more interconnected, and always present. What has changed most?
Alizabeth Smith: One of the biggest changes is speed. A situation at one facility can quickly magnify through social media and other channels, creating impacts across the workforce, supply chain, customer relationships, and broader business performance.
Risk has also expanded beyond the traditional boundaries of EHS. It is no longer limited to emergency response plans or risk assessments. It now touches financial resilience, cybersecurity, environmental health and safety, procurement, and the broader resilience planning of the company.
That shift makes risk management more complex. Instead of one function managing risk in isolation, many stakeholders now need to contribute. The challenge is keeping those voices aligned across corporate offices, regional teams, and local facilities.
Why has EHS become more relevant in the boardroom?
Keith Knoke: Many organizations have large global footprints and relatively small EHS functions. How has EHS become more relevant at the board and strategy level?
Alizabeth Smith: Boards and executive teams are increasingly focused on leading indicators. They want to understand not only what happened last year, but what might happen next. That includes whether systems are about to fail, where staffing or budget decisions may be needed, and how emerging risks could affect business continuity.
Several pressures have elevated EHS conversations, including workforce availability, employee retention, geopolitical issues, supply chain requirements, and regulatory complexity. In that environment, failure is not just a compliance concern. It can affect business performance, staffing, budgets, and long-term resilience.
How did COVID-19 change the way organizations think about risk?
Keith Knoke: Did the pandemic permanently change the role of EHS and organizational risk management?
Chris Trim: COVID-19 created a step change in how people understood risk. It reinforced that there is no such thing as eliminating risk entirely. Instead, organizations need to understand risk, identify issues early, and be as proactive as possible.
Alizabeth Smith: COVID also brought workforce risk to the forefront. Psychosocial risk, employee stress, workforce availability, and the broader relationship between worker wellbeing and business continuity gained a much more prominent role.
While the intensity of EHS influence may have reduced slightly from the peak of the pandemic, many of the indicators, responsibilities, and reporting expectations created during that period remain.
What does it mean to move from compliance to resilience?
Keith Knoke: Traditionally, EHS functions were often focused on downside risk, such as preventing injuries or avoiding environmental harm. Are you seeing a shift toward business resilience?
Chris Trim: Yes. Organizations are increasingly planning ahead and recognizing the value of looking forward. Instead of only asking whether they are compliant today, they are asking what could disrupt operations, what risks are emerging, and what indicators should be monitored.
That shift requires organizations to get people involved early, align management around expectations, and identify the key indicators that need to be communicated to the rest of the business.
For global organizations, resilience depends on more than regulatory compliance. It requires understanding operational risk, workforce risk, supply chain risk, business continuity, and the cultural and regional contexts that influence how risk is managed.
How is due diligence becoming more risk-focused?
Keith Knoke: Are organizations evaluating operational EHS risks earlier during business decisions, such as acquisitions or major investments?
Chris Trim: Yes. Due diligence is increasingly moving beyond a narrow focus on environmental liabilities or regulatory requirements. Organizations want to understand what could interrupt the business, what controls are in place, and how likely certain risks are to occur.
In one example, a due diligence assessment of bus depots identified an underground fuel leak that affected remediation planning and transaction negotiations. The lesson is that reliable information early in the process helps organizations make better business decisions.
Alizabeth Smith: Sustainability, health and safety, occupational health, supply chain resilience, packaging, PFAS, and other operational risks are also showing up earlier in due diligence conversations. These areas can reveal important information about company culture, resilience, and the potential cost of integrating a business into an existing portfolio.
For organizations involved in M&A or global investment decisions, check out Inogen Alliance EHS Due Diligence services, which help clients identify, assess, and prioritize EHS and ESG risks to support informed business decisions.
What leading indicators are helping organizations manage risk earlier?
Keith Knoke: Companies no longer have the luxury of waiting to react. What leading indicators are proving useful, especially for health and safety?
Alizabeth Smith: Some leading indicators have existed for years, but they are gaining traction because organizations now need better visibility into system health. Examples include preventive maintenance completion, corrective action closure, completion of key risk training, and employee improvement suggestions.
These indicators help organizations see whether the system is healthy in the moment. If preventive maintenance slips, for example, it may signal a larger issue before an incident occurs. Digital systems can help aggregate this information across sites, business units, and corporate leadership levels.
This is more than tracking near misses. It is about identifying weak signals, understanding patterns, and acting before something becomes a business interruption, compliance issue, or safety event.
Check out Incident Prevention Programs and Investigation, focusing on reporting, investigation, data analysis, claims management, return-to-work processes, and compliance reporting.
How should companies use EHS data more effectively?
Keith Knoke: Many organizations rely on environmental or EHS information management systems. Are companies becoming more sophisticated in how they interpret that data?
Chris Trim: As organizations build stronger reporting systems and gather more experience, they can start using judgment and trend analysis to anticipate where risks may be heading. Instead of simply reacting after something is recorded, they can begin to interpret data and predict potential changes.
The value is not just in collecting data. The value comes from understanding what the data means and translating it into action.
Why is Management of Change becoming so important?
Keith Knoke: What role does Management of Change play in modern risk management?
Alizabeth Smith: For one client, the Management of Change process became the most important piece of data in the environmental management system because it showed whether critical risks were being evaluated early.
A new piece of equipment, a new chemical, or a change in process can create many downstream requirements. It may require new standard operating procedures, training, documentation, engineering controls, visual safety updates, and regulatory review.
The investment is often much larger than the initial purchase cost because the organization must also manage the risk of bringing that change into the facility.
Chris Trim: Successful change management also depends on involving the right people early. If a change is simply enforced after the decision has already been made, it may not stick. Bringing stakeholders into the process helps create continuity and better outcomes.
Inogen Alliance’s EHS Management Systems services support organizations with ISO standards, management system implementation, internal audits, corrective action tracking, global program development, and site-specific procedures.
How does global collaboration strengthen risk management?
Keith Knoke: Global organizations rarely manage risk alone. What does effective collaboration look like on the ground?
Chris Trim: Effective collaboration depends on communication and a shared understanding of the client’s risk profile. When teams communicate well, they can develop better information, assess risks more effectively, and support consistent decision-making.
Alizabeth Smith: One of the strengths of Inogen Alliance is the ability to reach out across the network when a client faces a unique situation. Local experts can provide insight into how similar risks have been managed and how approaches may need to differ by country, culture, and regulatory environment.
That local context matters. The right solution in one country may not work the same way in another. A consistent global framework needs to be paired with local expertise so organizations can manage risk effectively while respecting regional requirements and expectations.
Chris Trim: Consistency is also essential. Global clients need localized expertise, but they also need a consistent approach that allows them to compare results across regions rather than receiving reports that cannot be evaluated side by side.
What emerging risk should EHS leaders be watching?
Keith Knoke: If EHS leaders should watch one emerging risk right now, what would it be?
Chris Trim: Psychosocial risk.
Workforce wellbeing, stress, changing expectations, and psychosocial health are becoming increasingly important to organizational resilience. As regulations and expectations continue to evolve, psychosocial risk is moving from a human resources issue into a broader enterprise risk and EHS conversation.
How can organizations start building more resilient risk management programs?
Organizations looking to move from compliance to resilience can begin by asking a few practical questions:
- Where are risks emerging faster than our current systems can respond?
Organizations should assess whether existing EHS and operational systems provide early enough visibility into workforce, facility, supply chain, and regulatory risks. - Are we using leading indicators that truly reflect system health?
Preventive maintenance, corrective action closure, key training completion, improvement suggestions, and Management of Change activity can help reveal where systems may be weakening. - Do we understand risk early enough in due diligence and investment decisions?
Operational, health and safety, sustainability, supply chain, and environmental risks can affect transaction outcomes and long-term business continuity. - Is Management of Change connected to real decision-making?
Changes in equipment, materials, workflows, or processes should trigger risk review, stakeholder input, documentation updates, training, and controls. - Do global teams have both consistency and local expertise?
A global risk framework is strongest when paired with in-country specialists who understand regulatory requirements, business culture, and practical implementation.
How Inogen Alliance Can Help
Risk management today requires more than a compliance checklist. It requires earlier insight, better data, proactive planning, strong Management of Change processes, and the ability to translate global strategy into practical local action.
Through a global network of local EHS and sustainability experts, Inogen Alliance helps multinational organizations identify, assess, and manage risk across countries, facilities, supply chains, and regulatory environments. Our Associates bring local knowledge, technical expertise, and practical implementation support to help organizations strengthen resilience while maintaining consistency across regions.
Explore related Inogen Alliance services:
- Regulatory Compliance and Registers
- EHS Management Systems
- EHS Due Diligence Services
- Incident Prevention Programs and Investigation
- Inspection and Auditing
Ready to strengthen your organization’s risk management approach?
Inogen Alliance
Inogen Alliance is a global network made up of over 70 of independent local businesses and over 6,000 consultants around the world who can help make your project a success. Our Associates collaborate closely to serve multinational corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and we share knowledge and industry experience to provide the highest quality service to our clients. If you want to learn more about how you can work with Inogen Alliance, you can explore our Associates or Contact Us. Watch for more News & Blog updates, listen to our podcast and follow us on LinkedIn.
Risk management has changed dramatically in recent years. What was once often viewed through the lens of emergency response, compliance audits, or isolated risk assessments has become a much broader business conversation. Today, risk moves faster, crosses borders more easily, and affects everything from workforce health and safety to supply chain performance, regulatory exposure, reputation, and business continuity.
In Episode 3 of Season 3 of Rethinking EHS, host Keith Knoke, Chair of the Board for Inogen Alliance and Executive Vice President at Antea Group USA, is joined by Alizabeth Aramowicz Smith of Antea Group USA and Chris Trim of Peter J. Ramsay & Associates in Australia to discuss how organizations are moving from reactive compliance toward proactive resilience.
Together, they explore why EHS leaders are playing a more strategic role, how leading indicators can help organizations act earlier, why management of change is becoming a critical risk tool, and how global collaboration with local expertise helps companies manage increasingly complex risks across regions.
Key Takeaways
- Risk management is no longer episodic. It is continuous, interconnected, and increasingly shaping business decisions at the highest level.
- EHS risk now touches areas beyond traditional compliance, including workforce resilience, procurement, supply chains, cybersecurity, environmental performance, and business continuity.
- Leading indicators are becoming more important for executives and boards as organizations seek earlier visibility into whether systems are likely to fail.
- Organizations are increasingly using data, Management of Change, and proactive due diligence to identify operational risks before they become costly disruptions.
- Global risk management requires both consistency and local expertise, especially when regulatory expectations, business culture, and operational realities vary by country.
Listen to the full episode: The New Era of Risk Management: From Compliance to Resilience
Why is risk management changing so quickly?
Keith Knoke: Risk feels fundamentally different today. It is faster, more interconnected, and always present. What has changed most?
Alizabeth Smith: One of the biggest changes is speed. A situation at one facility can quickly magnify through social media and other channels, creating impacts across the workforce, supply chain, customer relationships, and broader business performance.
Risk has also expanded beyond the traditional boundaries of EHS. It is no longer limited to emergency response plans or risk assessments. It now touches financial resilience, cybersecurity, environmental health and safety, procurement, and the broader resilience planning of the company.
That shift makes risk management more complex. Instead of one function managing risk in isolation, many stakeholders now need to contribute. The challenge is keeping those voices aligned across corporate offices, regional teams, and local facilities.
Why has EHS become more relevant in the boardroom?
Keith Knoke: Many organizations have large global footprints and relatively small EHS functions. How has EHS become more relevant at the board and strategy level?
Alizabeth Smith: Boards and executive teams are increasingly focused on leading indicators. They want to understand not only what happened last year, but what might happen next. That includes whether systems are about to fail, where staffing or budget decisions may be needed, and how emerging risks could affect business continuity.
Several pressures have elevated EHS conversations, including workforce availability, employee retention, geopolitical issues, supply chain requirements, and regulatory complexity. In that environment, failure is not just a compliance concern. It can affect business performance, staffing, budgets, and long-term resilience.
How did COVID-19 change the way organizations think about risk?
Keith Knoke: Did the pandemic permanently change the role of EHS and organizational risk management?
Chris Trim: COVID-19 created a step change in how people understood risk. It reinforced that there is no such thing as eliminating risk entirely. Instead, organizations need to understand risk, identify issues early, and be as proactive as possible.
Alizabeth Smith: COVID also brought workforce risk to the forefront. Psychosocial risk, employee stress, workforce availability, and the broader relationship between worker wellbeing and business continuity gained a much more prominent role.
While the intensity of EHS influence may have reduced slightly from the peak of the pandemic, many of the indicators, responsibilities, and reporting expectations created during that period remain.
What does it mean to move from compliance to resilience?
Keith Knoke: Traditionally, EHS functions were often focused on downside risk, such as preventing injuries or avoiding environmental harm. Are you seeing a shift toward business resilience?
Chris Trim: Yes. Organizations are increasingly planning ahead and recognizing the value of looking forward. Instead of only asking whether they are compliant today, they are asking what could disrupt operations, what risks are emerging, and what indicators should be monitored.
That shift requires organizations to get people involved early, align management around expectations, and identify the key indicators that need to be communicated to the rest of the business.
For global organizations, resilience depends on more than regulatory compliance. It requires understanding operational risk, workforce risk, supply chain risk, business continuity, and the cultural and regional contexts that influence how risk is managed.
How is due diligence becoming more risk-focused?
Keith Knoke: Are organizations evaluating operational EHS risks earlier during business decisions, such as acquisitions or major investments?
Chris Trim: Yes. Due diligence is increasingly moving beyond a narrow focus on environmental liabilities or regulatory requirements. Organizations want to understand what could interrupt the business, what controls are in place, and how likely certain risks are to occur.
In one example, a due diligence assessment of bus depots identified an underground fuel leak that affected remediation planning and transaction negotiations. The lesson is that reliable information early in the process helps organizations make better business decisions.
Alizabeth Smith: Sustainability, health and safety, occupational health, supply chain resilience, packaging, PFAS, and other operational risks are also showing up earlier in due diligence conversations. These areas can reveal important information about company culture, resilience, and the potential cost of integrating a business into an existing portfolio.
For organizations involved in M&A or global investment decisions, check out Inogen Alliance EHS Due Diligence services, which help clients identify, assess, and prioritize EHS and ESG risks to support informed business decisions.
What leading indicators are helping organizations manage risk earlier?
Keith Knoke: Companies no longer have the luxury of waiting to react. What leading indicators are proving useful, especially for health and safety?
Alizabeth Smith: Some leading indicators have existed for years, but they are gaining traction because organizations now need better visibility into system health. Examples include preventive maintenance completion, corrective action closure, completion of key risk training, and employee improvement suggestions.
These indicators help organizations see whether the system is healthy in the moment. If preventive maintenance slips, for example, it may signal a larger issue before an incident occurs. Digital systems can help aggregate this information across sites, business units, and corporate leadership levels.
This is more than tracking near misses. It is about identifying weak signals, understanding patterns, and acting before something becomes a business interruption, compliance issue, or safety event.
Check out Incident Prevention Programs and Investigation, focusing on reporting, investigation, data analysis, claims management, return-to-work processes, and compliance reporting.
How should companies use EHS data more effectively?
Keith Knoke: Many organizations rely on environmental or EHS information management systems. Are companies becoming more sophisticated in how they interpret that data?
Chris Trim: As organizations build stronger reporting systems and gather more experience, they can start using judgment and trend analysis to anticipate where risks may be heading. Instead of simply reacting after something is recorded, they can begin to interpret data and predict potential changes.
The value is not just in collecting data. The value comes from understanding what the data means and translating it into action.
Why is Management of Change becoming so important?
Keith Knoke: What role does Management of Change play in modern risk management?
Alizabeth Smith: For one client, the Management of Change process became the most important piece of data in the environmental management system because it showed whether critical risks were being evaluated early.
A new piece of equipment, a new chemical, or a change in process can create many downstream requirements. It may require new standard operating procedures, training, documentation, engineering controls, visual safety updates, and regulatory review.
The investment is often much larger than the initial purchase cost because the organization must also manage the risk of bringing that change into the facility.
Chris Trim: Successful change management also depends on involving the right people early. If a change is simply enforced after the decision has already been made, it may not stick. Bringing stakeholders into the process helps create continuity and better outcomes.
Inogen Alliance’s EHS Management Systems services support organizations with ISO standards, management system implementation, internal audits, corrective action tracking, global program development, and site-specific procedures.
How does global collaboration strengthen risk management?
Keith Knoke: Global organizations rarely manage risk alone. What does effective collaboration look like on the ground?
Chris Trim: Effective collaboration depends on communication and a shared understanding of the client’s risk profile. When teams communicate well, they can develop better information, assess risks more effectively, and support consistent decision-making.
Alizabeth Smith: One of the strengths of Inogen Alliance is the ability to reach out across the network when a client faces a unique situation. Local experts can provide insight into how similar risks have been managed and how approaches may need to differ by country, culture, and regulatory environment.
That local context matters. The right solution in one country may not work the same way in another. A consistent global framework needs to be paired with local expertise so organizations can manage risk effectively while respecting regional requirements and expectations.
Chris Trim: Consistency is also essential. Global clients need localized expertise, but they also need a consistent approach that allows them to compare results across regions rather than receiving reports that cannot be evaluated side by side.
What emerging risk should EHS leaders be watching?
Keith Knoke: If EHS leaders should watch one emerging risk right now, what would it be?
Chris Trim: Psychosocial risk.
Workforce wellbeing, stress, changing expectations, and psychosocial health are becoming increasingly important to organizational resilience. As regulations and expectations continue to evolve, psychosocial risk is moving from a human resources issue into a broader enterprise risk and EHS conversation.
How can organizations start building more resilient risk management programs?
Organizations looking to move from compliance to resilience can begin by asking a few practical questions:
- Where are risks emerging faster than our current systems can respond?
Organizations should assess whether existing EHS and operational systems provide early enough visibility into workforce, facility, supply chain, and regulatory risks. - Are we using leading indicators that truly reflect system health?
Preventive maintenance, corrective action closure, key training completion, improvement suggestions, and Management of Change activity can help reveal where systems may be weakening. - Do we understand risk early enough in due diligence and investment decisions?
Operational, health and safety, sustainability, supply chain, and environmental risks can affect transaction outcomes and long-term business continuity. - Is Management of Change connected to real decision-making?
Changes in equipment, materials, workflows, or processes should trigger risk review, stakeholder input, documentation updates, training, and controls. - Do global teams have both consistency and local expertise?
A global risk framework is strongest when paired with in-country specialists who understand regulatory requirements, business culture, and practical implementation.
How Inogen Alliance Can Help
Risk management today requires more than a compliance checklist. It requires earlier insight, better data, proactive planning, strong Management of Change processes, and the ability to translate global strategy into practical local action.
Through a global network of local EHS and sustainability experts, Inogen Alliance helps multinational organizations identify, assess, and manage risk across countries, facilities, supply chains, and regulatory environments. Our Associates bring local knowledge, technical expertise, and practical implementation support to help organizations strengthen resilience while maintaining consistency across regions.
Explore related Inogen Alliance services:
- Regulatory Compliance and Registers
- EHS Management Systems
- EHS Due Diligence Services
- Incident Prevention Programs and Investigation
- Inspection and Auditing
Ready to strengthen your organization’s risk management approach?
Inogen Alliance
Inogen Alliance is a global network made up of over 70 of independent local businesses and over 6,000 consultants around the world who can help make your project a success. Our Associates collaborate closely to serve multinational corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and we share knowledge and industry experience to provide the highest quality service to our clients. If you want to learn more about how you can work with Inogen Alliance, you can explore our Associates or Contact Us. Watch for more News & Blog updates, listen to our podcast and follow us on LinkedIn.