Kayce Board
Kayce Board is an EHS leader with over 20 years of experience. At Springs Window Fashions, she oversees the strategy, governance, and performance of EHS programs across its global manufacturing network.
In an interview with Environmental Business Review, Board shared her insights on strengthening operations through EHS, integrating safety into daily operations, aligning strategies with environmental objectives, and the future of EHS leadership.
EHS as a Driver of Operational Performance
For over a century, Springs Window Fashions has been delivering the best experience to customers and associates, and EHS serves as a critical foundation. Our approach focuses on three pillars: people, systems, and leadership capability. I work with operations, engineering, and executive leadership to position EHS as a strategic driver of operational excellence.
Our programs strengthen frontline engagement, build resilient safety systems, and ensure regulatory compliance across all regions. This includes oversight of safety performance, environmental stewardship, and risk management. At a global level, we are intentional about the elements that directly protect people and ensure compliance while allowing flexibility in how these are implemented locally.
Enterprise-wide initiatives include human factors training, ergonomic risk reduction, and the implementation of a unified data management platform.
Balancing Global Standards with Local Ownership
Each site operates within different cultural, regulatory, and operational contexts, making it critical to balance consistency with flexibility. While global standards define the “what” and “why,” local teams are empowered to determine the “how.” This approach builds ownership at the site level and ensures that programs are not only compliant but also practical and effective in real-world conditions.
This balance is especially important in a global manufacturing network where a one-size-fits-all approach can limit effectiveness. What drives engagement in one region may not resonate in another, whether due to workforce dynamics, regulatory expectations, or operational complexity. By allowing sites to tailor how training is delivered, how communication happens, and how programs like WeCare are implemented, we create systems that feel relevant and actionable.
Ultimately, consistency is maintained through clarity in defining expectations and trust in local leadership to execute them effectively. This sustains compliance and fosters stronger accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement at the site level.
Integrating Safety into Daily Operations
We align our EHS programs with the operational management system to ensure safety is embedded into daily work. By positioning EHS alongside operations and engineering, safety becomes a design input rather than a post-process check. This allows teams to design processes that are safe, efficient, and sustainable from the outset rather than retrofitting solutions later.
Our proactive, risk-based safety systems improve productivity and create a workplace where people feel valued and protected.
Our proactive, risk-based safety systems improve productivity and create a workplace where people feel valued and protected. Clear long-term targets are set to reduce injury rates and strengthen leading indicators like hazard identification and corrective action closure. We have also shifted from relying primarily on lagging indicators to enabling real-time visibility of safety data at the point of work.
We invest in initiatives that strengthen data visibility across our global operations. Through accessible safety data systems, frontline teams can identify risks, track corrective actions, and make informed decisions during each shift to create a proactive and responsive safety environment. The system is accessible across shop floors through digital kiosks, ensuring that all associates, not just leadership, can act on real-time safety insights.
Operating as one team and creating systems that make it easy and natural for associates to participate in safety is essential. This approach is grounded in our “One Springs Team, All In,” philosophy, reinforcing shared ownership across all levels. WeCare, a structured near-miss and learning program, encourages associates to identify risks before incidents occur. Each submission is tied to clear ownership, defined timelines, and visible follow-through, ensuring concerns are not only reported but also resolved. Associates are expected not only to report risks but also to take immediate action where possible. Closing the feedback loop with associates strengthens trust and reinforces engagement.
Human factors training helps associates understand how everyday conditions like rushing, fatigue, or frustration influence decision-making. Rather than slowing production, applying human factors helps stabilize performance by reducing error-prone conditions through small adjustments such as improving task clarity, balancing workloads, and enhancing visual controls.
Leadership engagement is equally critical. Plant leaders are expected to participate in safety conversations, reinforce positive behaviors, and ensure concerns raised by associates lead to action. When associate input drives improvements, engagement grows naturally.
Aligning Strategies with Broader Environmental Objectives
Environmental responsibility is an integral component of our EHS strategy. We build systems that reduce environmental impact while supporting efficient operations. Our environmental initiatives include improving waste segregation and recycling programs, optimizing material utilization in manufacturing, and ensuring robust environmental permitting and emissions management.
We establish clear, non-negotiable environmental standards across all sites covering compliance, risk control, and core processes, while using a tiered framework to guide sites in advancing beyond baseline requirements toward optimization and sustainability.
Our Grayling, Michigan, facility operates as a zero-waste site and generates its own heat and energy. We ensure that sustainability becomes a long-term business advantage rather than simply a compliance requirement. Through shared learning approaches, such as replicating successful practices across facilities, we accelerate progress while maintaining consistency. By collaborating with engineering and operations teams, we identify opportunities to align environmental stewardship with operational performance.
Why EHS Leadership Must Evolve Beyond Compliance
Emerging trends require leaders to think beyond compliance and build resilient safety systems. Increasing regulatory complexity demands stronger systems for environmental compliance, reporting, and risk management. The integration of data and digital safety systems will become increasingly important. Organizations that leverage safety analytics effectively will be better positioned to identify risks and prevent incidents.
Future-ready EHS functions will also be defined by their ability to integrate seamlessly into operations from the outset, simplify systems for usability, and build capability at the frontline leadership level.
As workforce dynamics evolve and new generations enter manufacturing, EHS leaders must adapt how they communicate risk, engage employees, and build safety ownership. The growing emphasis on human factors and ergonomics will continue to reshape organizations’ approaches to injury prevention.
Advice for Aspiring EHS Professionals
Your people are your greatest asset. Technical knowledge and regulatory expertise are essential, but real impact comes from understanding how work happens and partnering with people. Effective leaders engage with associates and design systems that support them. When safety solutions make work both safe and efficient, adoption happens naturally.
Avoid overcomplicating systems. Simple, well-executed processes consistently outperform complex frameworks that are difficult to sustain. Focus on building capability early, particularly at the supervisor level, where day-to-day decisions have the greatest impact.
EHS professionals should demonstrate how safety systems improve quality and long-term business performance rather than positioning them as obstacles to production. Through this approach, they move from being compliance managers to becoming true drivers of organizational excellence.
