How Machine Intelligence is Transforming EHS & Sustainability
Natasha Porter
September 23, 2025
- Increasing demands from investors and regulators for real-time, transparent reporting on environmental and safety performance
- An accelerating need for intelligent automation to preserve institutional knowledge and ensure continuity
- The rise of digitized workflows generating massive datasets
- The need to stay competitive, compliant, and ahead of shifting regulations
- Predictive Risk Identification: AI can detect precursors and patterns that signal high-potential incidents before they occur.
- Operational Efficiency: Using AI to automate manual, repetitive tasks like SDS indexing or breaking down detailed reports into high-level summaries frees up teams for higher-impact work.
- Decision Support: AI tools can surface insights from large datasets, enabling faster, data-driven decisions.
- Scalable Safety Culture: With natural language processing and multilingual capability, AI makes it easier to gather, understand, and act on frontline feedback across global sites.
- Start with a Pilot: Identify a high-impact use case (e.g., incident reporting, audit triage, or risk prediction) and run a contained AI pilot to demonstrate ROI.
- Partner with Proven Platforms: Use AI-enabled platforms that are already trusted in EHS to accelerate adoption with built-in best practices.
- Focus on Data Foundations: Prioritize standardizing data inputs, metadata tagging, and structuring for AI-readiness.
- Upskill Your Team: Provide training on how AI works, what it can do, and how to interpret AI-generated insights.
- Measure and Share Success: Track outcomes—like reduced response times or predictive accuracy—and communicate wins to drive momentum.
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About the Author
Natasha Porter
Benchmark Gensuite
Natasha Porter is the Chief Customer Officer at Benchmark Gensuite, with over 25 years in EHS and digital solutions. She's been pivotal in developing Benchmark Gensuite applications, now aiding over 425 companies globally. Her work in AI and ML has significantly advanced workplace safety technology, leading to her recognition in the Environment+Energy Leader 100 Honorees list of 2021. Natasha holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S.E. from Johns Hopkins University.