Sustainability & EHS Summit Europe: Speaker Insights From Marieta Yordanova

Sustainability & EHS Summit Europe: Speaker Insights From Marieta Yordanova

As regulatory and public scrutiny intensifies, achieving excellence in environment, health and safety (EHS) is a multifaceted challenge. Leaders must grapple with escalating demands for reporting, navigate complex regulatory requirements, keep employees healthy, ensure operations are safe and sustainable, and confront the formidable task of digitizing and streamlining processes. To help the European EHS community respond to these complex requirements, the Sustainability & EHS Summit Europe is coming to Amsterdam, Netherlands on the 4^th and 5^th of June.

Ahead of the event, Verdantix gathered insights from one of the speakers at the summit, Marieta Yordanova, to provide a sneak peek at the kind of expertise to expect in Amsterdam. Marieta is Group Health & Safety Director at Asahi Europe & International, and she will be participating in a panel on "How to Implement Impactful Organization-Wide Training to Drive up Performance".

Who are you and what are your main responsibilities?
My name is Marieta and I’ve been working in EHS for over 15 years. Currently, I am the Group Health & Safety Director at Asahi Europe & International – beer and caring for people seem to have become my destiny! I’ve spent all of my working life in the beer industry and I am a passionate safety, health and wellbeing ambassador. I love working with people, spending time with our employees, talking to them and then working out with leadership how we can help.

At the Sustainability & EHS Summit Europe, you will be speaking on a panel about implementing organization-wide EHS training to improve EHS performance, alongside representatives from Amazon and INA Group. What would you say are the most challenging aspects of implementing EHS training?
We often find that it actually takes a while before you start training people – and I want to reflect on that. As in anything we do, there is the WHAT and the HOW. In training, you have to be confident that the content is right, that it is right for the audience and right for the purpose. And then you have to make it memorable and build confidence so it will grow roots. That’s the art, isn’t it?

Safety training is not just a case of simply ‘read this and sign it, please’. I don’t think that has ever actually worked – at any time or in any geography. For me, I think the most challenging aspect is how we attract people’s attention, and how to make sure that what we teach turns from seeds into grass. How we can actually turn the ‘students’ into teachers for themselves. I am looking forward to discussing this with everyone at the Summit.

How do you measure the return on investment on training programmes you have rolled out?
The best measure for me is when I hear people repeating unknowingly what they learned, whether through their actions or speech. Personally, the best measure I’ve ever received myself was when leaders who had taken part came to me and said, “this was the best training I’ve ever attended”.

What is the role of technology in improving EHS training? Are there any technologies you’re currently very excited about?
I know everyone’s excited about AI, and I’d say we should use it with care. I actually really like the opportunity for ownership that technologies on the shop floor offer. Since last year, we’ve implemented a Connected Worker Platform and I’m really happy hearing employees explaining how they use it and how they can actually own processes and change instructions or One Point lessons. Indirectly, this is a kind of training, as improvement here is a result of personal experience – which is a form of training I like a lot.

How does EHS training engagement vary throughout Europe? How can it be improved?
Training engagement is as varied as organizational culture is, as well as different countries’ maturities. One can’t judge EHS training in isolation. Across Europe, you can observe training from a minimum of ‘read and sign, please’ to robust, holistic EHS training programmes, which balance legally required training with awareness training that leads to better understanding and ownership of the subject.

What are you most looking forward to at EHS Summit Europe?
I’m most looking forward to sharing and learning. That’s also a form of training, isn’t it? Meeting common-minded people, people from other organizations, hearing experiences and gaining insights, which might help me build further programmes. And equally to share my own insights with others.

Marieta Yordanova will be attending the Verdantix Sustainability & EHS Summit Europe, which is taking place in Amsterdam on the 4^th and 5^th of June. Book your pass here to join Marieta Yordanova, the Verdantix research team, corporates such as AkzoNobel, Amazon, Chevron and Netflix, and leading environment, health and safety vendors. See the full speaker line up and event agenda here.

If you are providing or selling services, technologies or products that improve environment, health and/or safety performance and want to attend the event, please fill in the Sustainability & EHS Summit Europe Sponsorship Enquiry form. Alternatively, register your interest in vendor tickets.

For any further questions on this please contact Moses Makin - [email protected].