Assessing Risk & EHS Compliance in Global Retail Stores
Challenge
A global Beauty industry client wanted to ensure regulatory compliance with local regulations within retail stores in four EU countries. Their key objectives were to identify appropriate regulations, assess locations for risks, and evaluate potential exposures from fragrance products within select retail stores. Antea Group worked with partners in Inogen Alliance to meet the international scope of work.
Solution
Antea Group supported the development of bilingual legal regulatory registers for four priority countries. They also created user-friendly risk ranking reference tools for retail site teams to better understand common risks and associated risk levels (low, medium, high) for specified location types.
After the development of the retail regulatory registers, local Inogen Alliance in-country assessors visited client-designated retail stores to assess compliance with environment, health, and safety (EHS) regulations, including but not limited to the storage of flammable goods, required environmental permitting, evacuation plans, and appropriate signage.
Qualitative chemical exposure assessments were then carried out at retail stores to evaluate occupational exposure limits, working conditions and processes, and the efficacy of protective measures in place on-site.
Result
The assessment process helped to inform corporate and retail site teams about the types of risks and relative risk levels that may be of higher prevalence in retail locations. It also provided the client with clear action items to improve practices on-site to ensure compliance with local regulatory requirements.
The chemical exposure assessment helped client teams to better understand potential exposures associated with the way certain fragrances are managed on-site and informed them on safer practices to ensure both regulatory compliance and a safe work environment for retail teams and store guests. These tools are maintained as working documents within the client teams and have since been extended to additional retail sites and teams in other global regions, allowing a consistent, user-friendly, and practical approach to site-specific retail EHS needs.
