Embedded EHS: The Blueprint for Safer, More Profitable Operations

Manufacturers can no longer afford to keep traditional EHS approaches when cost pressures, rising incident rates, and escalating expectations from customers and regulators alike have become a harsh reality. After years of investments across industry-improved workplace safety, we are seeing alarming increases in Significant Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs) across manufacturing. With 75% of industrials reporting that EHS programs are failing, executives must act to drive meaningful improvements and protect the license to operate.

In sharp contrast, 24% of manufacturers have been able to successfully leverage digital technologies to drive step-change safety, sustainability, product performance, and profitability. EHS Leaders have fully embraced Embedded EHS within the operations strategy to deliver meaningful business and accelerate business growth.

Executives must reassess strategic priorities like economic fears, combined with a fast-changing regulatory environment, and compete with a rapidly changing technology landscape. EHS Leaders have proven that when the focus is expanded beyond compliance, the entire organization can be engaged in scaling innovation across the value chain to accelerate sustainable growth.

Embedded EHS for a Competitive Advantage

Companies that have tried to backtrack on sustainability commitments have seen backlash from stakeholders, including customers and employees. Manufacturing executives must recognize that expectations will only increase as workforce dynamics and consumer preferences shift. Falling short is not an option, prompting many to re-evaluate current approaches for future success.

EHS Leaders have embraced Embedded EHS, establishing safety and sustainability as a profitable growth engine to create a culture that embraces Operational Excellence, lifecycle innovation, and product stewardship to leapfrog the competition. The performance improvements achieved were dramatic and far exceeded peers across several areas of performance. EHS Leaders were able to accelerate step-change safety and sustainability, as well as successfully introduce new products to the market, far better than Followers (Figure 1).

Figure 1: In addition to step-change safety and sustainability, EHS Leaders
were 382% more likely than Followers to report successful NPI is ≥ 90%

These results prove that Embedded EHS isn’t just about doing what’s right for the planet — it’s a smart business strategy that reduces risk and strengthens operational capabilities for long-term profitability.

Accelerating Safety and Sustainability for Step-Change Growth

The LNS Research Embedded EHS framework (Figure 2) provides a blueprint of how EHS Leaders built a culture focused on protecting people and the environment to boost the bottom line. Executives didn’t just set 0 Harm, 0 Waste, 0 Net Carbon, and step-change productivity improvement goals; they empowered employees to continuously challenge current ways of working with innovative technology that fostered cross-functional collaboration to drive product innovation and more sustainable operations.

Figure 2: The blueprint for Embedded EHS

Three critical enablers are essential in empowering every employee, process, and system to deliver results that are both safe and profitable:

• • • Creating Safety & Sustainability Ownership. Prioritizing workforce development and cross-functional alignment improves ownership and fosters continuous improvement across the organization.

    • Integrating EHS into Operations. Maturing Operational Excellence, real-time process optimization, and decision intelligence capabilities enable seamless value chain integration.

    • Leveraging AI-Powered Technologies. Building AI-led continuous learning, Agentic AI-connected architecture, and integrated EHS management systems fosters continuous supply chain optimization.

The Embedded EHS framework allows manufacturers with a proven path towards ingraining safety, sustainability, and operational excellence into the fabric of operations. Today’s Enterprise EHS management systems have become pivotal in enabling organizations to proactively manage both risks and opportunities, enhancing data-driven decision-making at every level to fuel business growth.

Building an Agentic AI-Connected Architecture

The journey to Embedded EHS is not just about making things safer; it’s about producing products better, faster, and more sustainable than the competition. Agility will be key in adapting operations to meet changing consumer preferences, increased regulatory expectations, and a less experienced workforce. The good news is that newer techniques and technologies are enabling manufacturers to build competencies much faster by connecting employees with the best-known practices from across the plant network.

LNS Research found four focused investments turned operations into an engine designed to protect safety, improve sustainability, and drive profitability:

1. 1. 1. Enabling real-time data-driven decision-making. Role-based dashboards, AI-enhanced analytics, and in-context alerts allow teams to identify risks earlier, respond faster, and align decisions with both operational goals and sustainability outcomes. Over 50% of EHS Leaders have deployed nine Connected Frontline Workforce (CFW) capabilities across the enterprise, while only 47% of Followers have deployed one capability (digital work instructions).

      2. Using Virtual Operations Centers to scale safety innovation. Standardized best practices can empower real-time risk mitigation and proactive measures for step-change EHS performance improvements. EHS Leaders are over two times more likely than Followers to have shifted towards digitally connected networks of knowledge, expertise, and resources.

      3. Automating management capabilities across the enterprise. Providing workers with the most up-to-date data and information seamlessly enables employees to accomplish tasks safely and efficiently while achieving business outcomes. Nearly 40% of EHS Leaders are applying automation to the eight capabilities standardized across the company to improve risk management, operations efficiency, and workforce competency, compared to 50% of Followers who have only standardized audits and inspections.

      4. Connecting Advanced EHS & Sustainability Technologies. Industrial software solutions play a key role in embedding environmental, health, and safety considerations across business strategy and manufacturing operations. EHS Leaders are 1.8 times more likely to deploy advanced technology to accelerate EHS and sustainability goals, with 50% having implemented Data Analytics for Predictive Insights, 3D Visualization systems, and AR / VR across the enterprise.

Strong commitments aren’t enough to motivate employees or build the competencies needed to accelerate strategic goals. Embracing Embedded EHS can cultivate both the core belief in and a commitment to safety and sustainability for profitable operations. EHS Leaders have dramatically improved enterprise EHSS by building an Agentic AI-connected architecture (Figure 3), integrating industrial software solutions to provide personalized support to workers across the organization.

Figure 3: Integrating Enterprise EHSS software with industrial applications is
critical to standardizing best practices and empowering employees at every level

Aligning Executive Priorities for Embedded EHS

For COOs, CSOs, and EHS Leaders, the mandate is clear: embrace Embedded EHS — or risk falling behind. Companies can expect higher workforce turnover and fewer resources available at each site to train newer generations of employees. Whether facing rising incident rates, skill gaps, or sustainability mandates, the answer lies not in doing more of the same — but in building safety and sustainability into the very DNA of operations.

To create a competitive advantage, LNS Research recommends that executives prioritize the following:

• • • Create Safety & Sustainability for a Success Culture. Embrace the Journey to Zero+ as a catalyst for agility, innovation, and accelerated business growth to shed the compliance-driven mindset.

    • Build Leadership & Ownership at Every Level. Expand workforce development initiatives across the value chain for an inclusive environment focused on continuous improvement.

    • Adopt Agentic AI & Virtual Operations Centers. Invest in strategic scaling of Industrial AI to automate knowledge management and mature capabilities across the enterprise.

    • Align Strategic Initiatives & EHS KPIs. Create balanced scorecards to align cross-functional efforts and corporate decision-making priorities.

Manufacturers setting safety as non-negotiable and redefining sustainability as a strategic enabler are creating critical capabilities to unlock unlimited potential. EHS Leaders actively engage employees in ensuring safety is core to operations to foster innovation and drive profitability. Embedded EHS can enable executives to link safety goals to production targets to ensure strategic planning and capital investments recognize the role EHS performance plays in maintaining a competitive advantage.