International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 5, No.

3, June 2014

The Relationship between Occupational Safety, Health,

and Environment, and Sustainable Development: A
Review and Critique
Zohreh Molamohamadi and Napsiah Ismail

 development has a general holistic point of view in sustaining

Abstract—This paper discusses the significant commonalities the world a habitable place for the next generation, while
of today’s two highly contentious concepts, occupational safety, attaining the satisfactory quality of life for the present
health, and environment, and sustainable development. communities. However, occupational safety, health, and
Although the major concern of both of these policies is human
welfare and wellbeing, they look at it from different
environment concentrates on the well being of the workforce
perspectives and try to reach this objective through different primarily, while its effects and consequences may encompass
ways. Moreover, it is shown that they are interrelated and the whole society and the whole world. Having similar
without pursuing one strategy, the other would not be objectives necessitates integrating these two critically
developed. So, this paper, firstly, aims at defining and exploring significant theories hoping that this integration intensifies
these concepts to find their relevance. Secondly, the relationship their power and fosters their goal achievement.
between these strategies and their approaches are explained.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II
provides the literature definitions of occupational safety,
Index Terms—Occupational health and safety, environment,
sustainable development. health, and environment as well as sustainable development.
In section III, the relation between these policies is studied.
Section IV is a discussion of the connection between
I. INTRODUCTION occupational safety, health, and environment, and sustainable
development and section V gives a conclusion of the paper.
Sustainable development and occupational safety, health,
and environment are the two controversial concepts which
have attracted the attention of many researchers in recent
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
years. They are also considered as essential elements in
running a successful business with the ability and This section reviews the definitions of occupational safety,
competency to survive in the market. However, there are health, and environment, as well as sustainable development
even some papers discussing the connection between these proposed in previous papers, in order to provide clarification
two approaches, directly or indirectly. on their concepts and similarities.
Reference [1] related organizational sustainable A. Occupational Safety, Health, and Environment
development to its production value, as well as economic Occupational safety and health, so-called workplace
effectiveness, utilization of resources, occupational safety wellbeing ([5] and [6]), is a controversial issue in industries
and health, and protection of environment. He also acting as a highly significant factor in succeeding in the
emphasized on the interrelationship and inseparability of competitive market. Furthermore, the German philosopher,
economic effectiveness and occupational safety and health. Schopenhauer (1788–1860), emphasized on the importance
Based on the viewpoint of reference [2], little consideration is of health by stating that „health is not everything, but without
given to the fact that they are both about conserving health, everything is nothing‟[7].
resources; Sustainability cares about environmental For further clarification on the essence of occupational
resources, while human resources are the main concern of safety, health, and environment, different definitions are
occupational safety and health. Reference [3] defines collected here from the literature.
sustainable development as continuously considering the According to reference [8], effective management of
implications of business decisions on environment, safety, occupational safety and health plays a pivotal role in running
occupational health, economy and society. Moreover, a successful business. Many studies also show that
reference [4] believes that the role of occupational safety and productivity levels and the general wellbeing of the
health in sustainable development is not widely considered. workforce are directly linked to one another [6].
In point of fact, the genuine desire of sustainable Based on the International Labour Organization–World
development and occupational safety, health, and Health Organization (ILO–WHO) Joint Committee,
environment is human welfare and satisfaction. Sustainable occupational safety and health must intend to promote and
preserve the highest degree of physical, mental and social
Manuscript received December 10, 2013; revised February 20, 2014. This well-being of the employees and workers in all occupations
work is supported by Universiti Putra Malaysia. [9]. As it is mentioned in [10]‟s global strategy, occupational
The authors are with the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing
Engineering of University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia (e-mail: zmmohamadi@ health involves occupational medicine, occupational hygiene,
gmail.com, napsiah@eng.upm.edu.my). occupational psychology, safety, physiotherapy, ergonomics,

DOI: 10.7763/IJIMT.2014.V5.513 198

 International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, Vol. 5, No. 3, June 2014

rehabilitation, etc. Moreover, reference [11] defined one of which is occupational safety and health, and the other
occupational safety as operating in a workplace that carries is the environment. Now, two major objectives can be
acceptably low probability of risks threatening people, distinguished; I) Preserving the employees‟ mental and
equipment, facilities, and the business. physical health by preventing working-related accidents,
Furthermore, workplace wellbeing is considered by the injuries, and diseases, and providing a safe working area; and
International Labour Organization (ILO) as what is related to II) Paying attention to the nature and the environment by
the aspects of working life, including safety and quality of the banning or limiting the usage of harmful materials to the
physical environment, workers‟ feeling about their work and environment, reducing environmental pollutants, and using
workplace, and their satisfaction level of work organization resources parsimoniously.
[6]. According to this definition, workplace wellbeing aims B. Sustainable Development
at ensuring the workers are safe, healthy, satisfied, and
There are several researches focusing on sustainability in
engaged at work.
recent years and numerous definitions can be extracted from
Considering environment as the third factor, occupational
the literature. Although in the past, sustainable development
safety, health, and environment is also defined in [12] as
was mostly used to address the environment and referred to
promoting the health of workers‟ and the company‟s host
the quality of sustaining the environment [16], today, it is
communities, making a safe working environment where the
recognized and identified by interlinked interactions at three
employees can work without being injured, using resources
major dimensions which are environment (planet), society
efficiently, preventing pollution, and improving biodiversity
(people), and economy (profit). These dimensions are mostly
protection. In this definition, community is also considered as
known as triple bottom line (TBL) and also sustainability
the fourth dimension, which addresses ethical business
pillars.
approaches, economic development, and essential human
Based on [10], sustainable development is a strategy to
rights. Reference [11] stated that occupational safety and
"meet the needs of the present world population without
health aims at protecting human and facility resources, as
causing adverse effect on health and on the environment, and
well as recognizing, evaluating, controlling, and eliminating
without depleting or endangering the global resource base,
hazards in the working environment to avert serious injuries
hence without compromising the ability of future generations
and damages. They also believed that besides moral issues,
to meet their needs". It is further declared that "human beings
occupational safety and health must includes economic issues
are at the centre of concern for sustainable development.
as covering the expenses of the accidents may far outweigh
They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony
the costs of administering a safe and healthy workplace.
with nature".
Reference [13] described occupational safety and health as a
Reference [17] argued that a useful definition of
management discipline concerned with assuring the safety,
sustainability is the one that includes dynamic efficiency
health and welfare of workers, organizations, and everyone
(non-wasteful consumption of resources), and
influenced by the business.
intergenerational equity (total welfare). Referring to [12],
Occupational safety and health is defined by the
human resources, specialized skills, organizational
International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) as
infrastructure, plant, equipment, technology, and financial
the science of anticipation, recognition, evaluation and
resources can be all considered as resources. Reference [18]
control of hazards of workplace that may endanger or
explained sustainability as providing a proper balance
threaten the employees‟ health and well being, all along with
between economic, social and ecological aims. According to
considering the possible influences on the environment [14].
this perspective, businesses need to sustain and expand
Reference [4] believes that occupational safety and health is
economic growth, shareholder value, corporate reputation,
generally concerned with the total well being of the
employees at work and besides physical safety and customer relationships, and the quality of products and
well-being, it embraces mental well being and psycho-social services to achieve sustainability. Reference [19] believed
wellbeing. Reference [15] states that from the economic, that tackling economic, social, and environmental issues in
legal, and moral points of view, occupational safety and isolation would result in unexpected consequences in other
health has become a critical issue applied in the enterprises to dimensions and proposed that assuring a sustainable future
help them remain profitable in the competitive global market. requires a systematic approach with interlinked interactions
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also applied at these three sustainability pillars.
the term “healthy workplace” to address occupational safety Reference [4] interpreted sustainable development as
and health and defined it as a place where continual utilizing resources ideally in all respects. Reference [20]
improvement for ensuring the workers‟ safety, health, and defined sustainable development as assuring a safe future
well being, and the sustainability of the workplace are with using resources, materials, and energy sparingly,
achieved by cooperation between the employees and regarding the present economic, social, and environmental
employers. This requires concerning safety and health at the well-being.
physical and mental working environment, personal health Generally speaking, sustainability accounts for resources
resources in the workplace, and the ways of participating in including natural resources, financial resources, and human
the community to improve all the members‟ health. resources. Human resources may contain the workers,
Based on the aforementioned definitions, occupational customers, shareholders, and all the stakeholders who affect
safety, health, and environment includes two major factors; the organization and would be influenced by its business.

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Therefore, sustainable development aims at preserving and social, and environmentally friendly businesses.
maintaining such resources as efficient as possible for the According to [12], sustainable development is an
application of the present communities and the future indispensable part of occupational safety, health,
generations. environment, and community, and aims at propelling
To sum up, the major concern of sustainable development constant improvement in performance. However, reference
is human beings and their quality of life. Thus, sustainable [22] suggested involving safety in a “safety-sustainability
development cares about society because people‟s level of continuum” where ensuring safety acts as a starting point in
satisfaction is important. It considers economy as the human achieving sustainable development.
and his satisfaction in life is absolutely paramount. And it Reference [23] refers to the occupational safety and health
regards environment since the quality of every single and environmental sustainability as parallel challenges.
person‟s life is affected by the nature, environment and the Moreover, they believe that worker safety and health may
resources. lead to sustainable improvements by utilizing the momentum
of the green movement and adapting successful intervention
approaches from the environmental sustainability area.
III. THE LINKAGES BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, Reference [24] also suggested to incorporate safety and
HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT, AND SUSTAINABLE health into sustainability patterns. They stated that
DEVELOPMENT integrating occupational safety and health with sustainability
Recently, some of the researchers are pointing to the practices is extremely important to the effective realization of
similarities and the connections between occupational safety, these endeavors.
health, and environment, and sustainable development. This Therefore, in one hand, providing the workers‟ safety and
section argues the preceding findings in this era of research health would establish the necessary infrastructure for social
and clarifies how these two contentious policies are and economic sustainability and without healthy workers and
interrelated. safe working places, the environment and the society would
According to [1], following occupational safety and health be exposed to danger. In another words, unhealthy
policies will lead to the development of health and safety employees in unsafe environmental working conditions
management system (OHSMS), which is considered as an cannot have the maximum productivity and efficiency, and as
indicator of safety management standard and sustainable the result, the organization would experience financial crisis
development for modern enterprises in China. Reference [2] which in turn brings difficult economic conditions for the
concludes that designing the future must be infused with workers and the stakeholders, including customers,
respecting for people and caring about their safety and health. shareholders, and the society as a whole.
They also stated that safety and lean processes can create a Moreover, workers‟ injuries and property damages not
powerful vision for a sustainable future. Reference [3] only do increase the company‟s costs, including medical
defined its commitments towards sustainable development as expenses, operational costs, and compensations to the society
sourcing from sustainable forests, performing risk and individuals, but also destroy its business reputation and
management procedures to identify the risks threatening decreases its market share. This, in turn, undermines the
people and environment, following global working standards employee morale and motivation, adversely affects the
in the operations, and protecting the safety, health, and quality of the products, and results in organization‟s
security of the workers. unavoidable disappearance from the market. Consequently,
It is disclosed in [10] that most of the environmental the occupational safety and health programs directly address
hazards endangering populace‟s health were first noticed in the employees, while indirectly affect the society, economy,
the working environment and/or among the working and environment in the long term.
populations. Moreover, the health of the workforce would be On the other hand, without social and economic
affected by the general environment and the family health is sustainability, safety and health would not be successfully
crucially susceptible to its working member‟s productivity managed and guaranteed. Populace having economic
and health. Occupational health is considered by this problems cannot be mentally and physically healthy
reference to be at the centre of sustainable development. employees at work. Besides, society and its inconsistency
Based on [21], a large preventable burden of diseases and may lead to lack of motivation and affect workers‟
loss of income-earning potential is caused by hazardous effectiveness. Environment may also influence the workers‟
working conditions and unemployment. Besides, it is health and their productivity at work. This is mainly because
indicated that systematic measurement of the occupational the company or the organization is a part and parcel of the
health indicators may assist in tracking the development of society and whatever affects one, directly or indirectly
employees‟ safety and health. Generally, references [10] and impacts the other.
[21] identified safe workplaces and healthy workers as the Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of the relationships
prerequisites for productivity, and social, economic, and between occupational safety, health, and environment, and
sustainable development. sustainability. This figure illustrates that working condition
Furthermore, reference [4] has indicated that the would influence the sustainability triple bottom line and it
enterprises with the best occupational safety and health would be also affected by the company‟s policy towards
practices are the most productive and the most economic, sustainable development.

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Business
reputation

Employee Employee Organizational Quality of

morale accountability productivity products

Sustainability
Working Workforce safety Family Human
Society Environment
conditions/policies and health health welfare
Economy

Organizational
Natural costs
resources

Fig. 1. The relationship between occupational safety, health, and environment, and sustainable development.

It can be now concluded that occupational safety, health, On the contrary, sustainable development has a holistic
and environment, and sustainable development are extremely approach and as it is mentioned in its definitions, it
interrelated and adopting one of these policies requires the principally aims at preserving the natural resources for the
other to be implemented properly. future generations while the present generation‟s needs and
the societies‟ requirements are being considered. This must
be considered along with economic issues to keep the
IV. DISCUSSION enterprises profitable. For reaching these goals, the healthy
It can be inferred from the previous discussions and employees and safe working sites would play an important
definitions of sustainability and occupational safety, health, role in providing motivation and commitment to work
and environment that they are attempting to reach the same efficiently. This viewpoint and the direction from which
goal through different processes. For further clarification, sustainable development views the issue is illustrated in Fig.
here, we discuss the differences between the approaches of 3.
these two policies.
Occupational safety, health, and environment primarily
addresses the employees. It attempts to assure that the
workers are working in a safe environment where nothing
threatens their health at workplace, the working area is free
from any risk to equipment, plant, and property, and the
surrounding environment is protected and would not be
polluted. As it is shown in Figure 1, working in safe and
healthy conditions enhances the employees‟ performance,
increases their motivation and effectiveness, raises the Fig. 3. The approach of sustainable development.
business productivity, and consequently improves the quality
of the product. Not only does this enhances the company‟s
reputation, but also reduces its costs and increases the sales V. CONCLUSION
and revenue in the long term. The quality of the products The essence of occupational safety, health, and
influences people‟s health in the society and significantly environment, and sustainable development represents the
affects the environment. Fig. 2 depicts a schematic existence of a mutual relationship between these two critical
framework of the viewpoint of occupational, safety, health,
concepts. They have both the same objectives and deal with
and environment.
the same issues, which is consistent welfare and wellbeing of
human beings, being looked from different angles and
defined in different terminologies. Moreover, the final
ambition of these two policies is sustaining continuous
mental and physical health of the people.
As occupational safety, health, and environment, and
sustainable development concern about the same issues,
integrating their research findings and adopting a common
approach to both concepts would be of great significance.
Future researches may focus on examining how the
Fig. 2. The approach of occupational safety, health, and environment. integration of these two discussed policies strengthen and

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at work: creating a positive work environment,” A report prepared for Z. Molamohamadi is a full time PhD. student of
the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Luxembourg, pp. industrial engineering at Universiti Putra Malaysia. She
1-118, 2013. graduated in 2007 with a bachelor of science in
[7] J. Hassard, J. Flintrop, T. Clausen, and K. Muylaert, “Motivation for industrial engineering from University of Science and
employees to participate in workplace health promotion,” A Report Culture in Tehran, Iran as the top student and got her
prepared for the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, master of science in industrial engineering in the same
Luxembourg, pp. 1-29, 2012. university in January 2010 with a high score.
[8] S. Kaluza, A. Hauke, A. Starren, L. Drupsteen, and N. Bell, She was a university lecturer in Iran from July
“Leadership and Occupational Safety and Health ( OSH ): an expert 2010 to January 2012 and has cooperated with the Institute of Technology
analysis,” A Report Prepared for the European Agency for Safety and Development at ACECR as a Researcher from September 2010 to March
Health at Work, Luxembourg, pp. 1-60, 2012. 2011. Her research interests include supply chain management, inventory
[9] ILO- WHO, “The joint ILO–WHO committee on occupational health,” control, metaheuristic algorithms, manufacturing, and sustainability.
presented at International Labour Conference, Geneva: International Ms. Molamohamadi has published some papers in AIP (American
Labour Office, 2009. Institute of Physics) in 2009, International Journal of Emerging Technology
[10] WHO. (October 11-14, 1994). Global strategy on occupational health and Advanced Engineering in 2013, International Journal of Materials,
for all: The way to health at work. Recommendation of the second Mechanics and Manufacturing in 2013, Journal of Basic and Applied
meeting of the WHO Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health, Scientific Research in 2013, HRM&PD Conference Proceeding in 2013,
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http://www.who.int/occupational_health/globstrategy/en/. Social Sciences in 2013.
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and Health, 4th ed., Maryland, United States of America: The
Scarecrow Press, 2007, ch. 1, pp. 1–8. N. Ismail is a professor and the deputy dean
[12] BHPbilliton, “Health, safety, environment and community (Academic), Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra
management standards: BHP Billiton HSEC management standards,” Malaysia. She was awarded MSc (Robotics and
no. 3, September 2005. Automation) from University of Leeds, UK in 1988 and
[13] P. Chaturvedi, Occupational Safety, Health and Environment and her PhD (advanced manufacturing technology) from
Sustainable Economic Development, Concept Publishing Company, University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia in 2000.
2007, ch. 1, pp. 4-6. Her research interests are in the areas of computer
[14] ILO, “ILO standards on occupational safety and health,” presented at aided design and manufacture, intelligent
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2009. articles in international journals and conferences and edited a few books.
[15] A. M. Leman, “Occupational safety and health: workers and industrial Professor Ismail is a graduate member, Institution of Engineers (IEM),
safety monitoring for sustainable work environment development,” pp. Malaysia, and also a member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers
34–36, May 2013. (ASME).

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