ABSTRACT
In high-risk industrial sectors, health, safety, and environment (HSE) management systems play an important part in corporate responsibility management. Such importance has recently been reinforced with the oil-drilling platform and equipment problems of BP and the world’s largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (McNulty and Crooks 2010). HSE management systems support companies in at least minimising and at best eliminating adverse health effects, injuries, and environmental damages as well as complying with legislation, standards, and requirements of external stakeholders. Key elements in HSE management systems are risk assessment and risk control through implementation of preventative and protective measures, the preparation of emergency situations, and investigation of accidents as well as the integration of facilities into the surrounding environment (Rikhardsson 2006). HSE management systems have also become a common element of supply chain audits and management (Beske, Koplin, and Seuring 2008; Piplani, Pujawan, and Ray 2008). By increasing environmental and social transparency across the supply chain and gaining control over their contractors, companies aim to align compliance of suppliers with their corporate HSE goals and policy (NZBCSD 2003; BSCI 2009).
