April 28 is the World Day for Safety and Health at Work and this year’s theme will focus on exploring the impacts of climate change on occupational safety and health.

It’s an important day in the calendar for Gabriela Mills, NPSG’s Global Director of Health, Safety, Environmental and Risk Management. She believes NPSG is “uniquely poised” to implement health, safety and environmental changes which will bring meaningful improvements to the work the company does. 

That’s why she and her Safety Team have already begun a month-long campaign designed to build up awareness around the many issues involved in workplace health and safety leading up to April 28. 

Specifically, says Gabriela, the team has developed a safety and environmental initiative that will assess the chemicals present within the company’s work processes and their potential health and environmental impacts.  

“The goal of this initiative is to identify those chemical substitutions which may be more user-friendly and more environmentally-friendly.”

The team will report back to the NPSG Leadership on April 30 with suggested chemical substitutions. 

She says the Safety Team has also launched a new global environmental committee which “will be in place for years to come and is sure to create more unity among the NPSG Operations and Safety departments worldwide.”

The team has been recruiting volunteers from Operations to become part of the Committee and who are participating in this year’s initiative.

They will then develop ongoing environmental initiatives that will have the potential to have “positive lasting impacts on this beautiful world in which we live,” says Gabriela. 

She also notes that changing weather patterns have had notable impacts on the workplaces internationally which can affect workers safety and health. 

“Examples of occupational risks exacerbated by climate change include heat stress, UV radiation, air pollution, major industrial accidents, extreme weather events, an increase in vector-borne diseases and increased exposure to chemicals.”

“With more than 700 employees worldwide and offices established in both hemispheres and multiple countries, NPSG is dedicated to living-out our commitment to our workforce and to our environment for the purpose of making the workplace and our world a better and safer place to be”

Gabriela says NPSG’s alignment with the International Labour Organisation, along with the day of awareness on April 28, provides an opportunity to “unify around initiatives that touch us all.”

*Gabriela Mills has been with NPSG for five years and has been in the environmental, health and safety field for nearly 30 years. An Ergonomist by education, Gabriela has held a number of key roles including corporate-level positions at Coca-Cola and Kellogg as well as  health and safety consulting roles for hospitals, municipalities and private industry companies.