
Robert W. Campbell Award

The international Robert W. Campbell Award honors companies that achieve business excellence through the integration of EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) management into business operations. Built upon rigorous scientific evaluation, the Campbell Award uses an evidence-based case study approach to serve as a catalyst toward transforming the landscape of EHS worldwide. To promote leading-edge integrated management systems, and to educate and influence leaders across national and cultural borders, exemplary Campbell Award submittals are shared with organizations and educational institutes through the Award's network of twenty-two Global Partner organizations.
The ultimate goal of the Campbell Award is to educate leaders about the intrinsic value of EHS to the triple bottom line through rigorous, evidence-based case studies.
History and mission.
The Campbell Award was developed by the National Safety Council and is underwritten by the ExxonMobil Corporation. The National Safety Council is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1913 and given a congressional charter in 1953. Members of the Council include more than 51,000 businesses, labor organizations, schools, public agencies, private groups, and individuals. The Award was founded in 2003 by Dr. Mei-Li Lin, in collaboration with the ExxonMobil Corporation's charitable Foundation.
The Award is named after Robert W. Campbell, an early 20th-century pioneer in the safety movement of the United States and the first president of the National Safety Council. Campbell recognized the humanitarian benefit of safety, but realized that there were also economic benefits of EHS. His belief that striking a balance between these two benefits would convince a larger audience of the importance of safety serves as the basis for the ideals of the Campbell Award. The Award's official site maintains a page with biographical informational about Campbell.
To continue Campbell's work, the Campbell Award seeks to "collect and highlight the best examples of safety, health, and environmental management in successful business management worldwide."
The Award's official website lists the following mission and goals:
Mission
Goals
Award qualifications and criteria.
Award submission criteria
The Robert W. Campbell Award honors a business, enterprise, or entity that employs a management system in which EHS is well integrated and recognized as a key business value. Publicly or privately held organizations are encouraged to apply. Additionally, "stand alone" subunits or divisions of larger organizations may apply. These subunits must have business operations that are self-contained, report financial performance at least annually, and have independently – auditable EHS and business performance measurements. The subunits must be answerable to a board of directors or other singular top level entity which could range from an independent board to a proprietorship.
The submitting organization or subunit must:
Submitting organizations fall into two categories based on the number of employees. Organizations compete for the Award within their size category. Subunits are classified dependent on the number of employees in their parent organization, regardless of the size of the subunit.
Review process.
All applications for the Campbell Award are evaluated by a panel of reviewers consisting of experts representing management, labor, academic, and government perspectives, nominated and approved by the Award's Global Partners.
Reviewers are guided in their evaluation by a set of rigorous criteria. Based on these evaluations, Award finalists are selected. On-site assessments at finalists' headquarters and operations sites are then conducted by a team of assessors, and after further evaluation, winner(s) are named. Objective and confidential feedback is provided to each applicant.
Award presentation and continuing activity.
Winners of the Robert W. Campbell Award are announced at the annual National Safety Council Congress & Expo. Winning submittals are showcased by Award Global Partners at EHS, business, and leadership conferences and events around the world.
Winning companies work with Campbell Award administrators and business schools to develop university-level case studies based on their submittals. These case studies have been utilized in business and engineering schools worldwide.
Campbell Award Business Case Studies.
Currently, two Robert W. Campbell Award Business Case Studies have been produced and five are in development. The two finished Case Studies are: