Louder than words
Assessing the impacts of a company’s operations on
In order to measure their impacts,
companies recognize the need to set
the health of local communities is the first step to appropriate benchmarks – and the
managing those impacts in the most positive way.
earlier the better. Health impact
assessments are a way of gauging
public health issues so that they can be
addressed to benefit both the population
W
hile the public debate about multinationals. Increasingly, companies and the company itself. The World
the role of corporate are monitoring the impact of their Health Organization is now advocating
responsibility programs is operations on the environment and on a more systematic use of health impact
ongoing, most would agree that their the people they affect. Often this is not assessments as a means to ensure that
prominence has increased significantly only because their actions will be all economic sectors contribute to
in recent years. Being a responsible scrutinized by an array of stakeholders, improving the health and well-being
corporate citizen is a key indicator of but also because of a real commitment of communities around the world.
business success for large to sustainable development.
A broad-based case
Francesca Viliani is Director of Public
Health Services at International SOS
and has carried out health impact
assessments for companies across a
range of sectors. “There are many
different imperatives for companies
wanting to carry out a health impact
assessment”, she explains. Often there
are regulatory compliance reasons; for
example the Equator Principles make
it a requisite for companies seeking
international financing to demonstrate
how they will develop projects in a
socially and environmentally
responsible way.
There can be other reasons too – such
as reducing operational risk, the risk of
litigation, or risks to the company’s
reputation. Whatever the reason, the
focus of a health impact assessment is
on the health and well-being of people
out in the community. “That doesn’t
mean the workforce”, adds Francesca.
“Occupational health risks ‘inside the
fence’ are considered by a separate
assessment process.”
Managing the impacts
Health impact assessments are usually
done by public health specialists who
understand the industry and
HotlIne - Issue 2 11
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