Forces and Opportunities Shaping EHS and Sustainability
Meghna Chaudhary, CSP, PMP
October 6, 2026
1. Scope Expansion
The scope of the EHS&S function keeps expanding because materials that were unregulated a few years ago are now regulated, and that pattern is becoming the norm rather than the exception. The challenge is that scope is growing faster than headcount. Most EHS leaders are being asked to cover more hazard types, more sites, and more reporting with the same team or a smaller one, which turns the job into triage.
2. Continued Specialization
The expertise required for the EHS&S function has fragmented into specialties: waste, industrial hygiene, process safety, transportation, permitting, biosafety, etc. Very few organizations can properly staff each of these specialty areas.
3. Knowledge Loss
People who hold institutional knowledge are retiring faster than their organizational systems can capture that critical information. Letting essential site knowledge live in one person's head is one of the most common mistakes organizations make.
Key Steps to Address These Challenges
- Stop treating EHS&S as a compliance cost center
Start treating it as an operational cost lever. Most organizations have never measured what the program actually costs fully loaded. Waste characterization is the clearest example. A meaningful share of what gets shipped as hazardous is over-classified simply because the profile has not been revisited since it was written, and correcting that reduces cost and regulatory exposure at the same time. - Reduce hand-offs
When multiple functions each own a piece of EHS, nobody owns the outcome. Closing that gap of accountability is where the real gain sits, whether you solve it within your function or with outside support.
How to Get Started
Start assessing gaps in your EHS&S function by asking yourself these four questions:
- How many of your critical programs depend on a single person?
- How many hours do your technical staff spend on work outside their job descriptions?
- How many vendors and internal functions touch your EHS scope?
- When was the last time your waste profiles were genuinely reviewed?
Meghna will be moderating a keynote panel on this topic at FORUM26! Don’t miss “The Future of EHS & Sustainability,” on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, from 8:30 - 10:15 AM.
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About the Author
Meghna Chaudhary, CSP, PMP
Triumvirate Environmental
Meghna joined Triumvirate Environmental as Consulting Commercial Leader, Life Sciences & EHS. She brings 14 years of EHS, sustainability, and risk leadership experience across highly regulated manufacturing, R&D, healthcare, and distribution environments. She formerly worked as:
- Senior Manager, Environmental Health & Safety at Amneal Pharmaceuticals, leading a team of seven across nine sites supporting 3,500+ employees, and setting EHS strategy, governance, and metrics enterprise-wide
- Regional Manager, EHS at Hologic, where she built a multi-site EHS program that reduced workplace incidents by 86% and delivered $500K in annual savings
- Enterprise Program Manager, EHSS at PerkinElmer, providing EHS leadership across North America, EMEA, and APAC, including sustainability-linked initiatives
- Strong track record leading cross-functional teams and translating complex regulatory and technical requirements for senior leadership