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This April, chemical engineers, process safety professionals, and industry leaders will gather in Dallas, TX, for the 2025 AIChE Spring Meeting and 21st Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS). As AIChE’s premier event for practicing chemical engineers, the Spring Meeting and GCPS will feature over 200 technical sessions, showcasing advancements and innovations that drive safety and efficiency in the chemical process industries (CPIs). A key component of GCPS is the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) International Conference, one of five parallel sessions dedicated to identifying emerging process safety issues and promoting best practices in process safety management.
This year marks CCPS’ 40th anniversary, a milestone that highlights decades of progress in process safety. Lauren Moyer, CCPS Symposium Chair, joins us to discuss the 40th anniversary session, the future of process safety, and key takeaways to enhance safety culture and risk management.
CCPS is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Looking back, what do you see as some of the most significant milestones in process safety that CCPS has helped shape?
CCPS was founded following the tragic events that occurred in Bhopal, India, in December 1984, and since then it has been a global force in shaping the chemical industry’s view and practice of process safety. In these 40 years, CCPS has promoted collaboration between industry leaders, generated numerous publications to increase awareness of process safety issues, and implemented training and development programs to push the practice of process safety forward towards "A World Without Process Safety Incidents.” Personally, there are two significant milestones that I use almost daily in my own practice as a process safety engineer. First, the Risk Based Process Safety (RBPS) framework of twenty essential elements has become a part of my everyday vocabulary as I communicate how best to manage process safety risks within my company. That model shows that every activity and decision within a chemical process facility – from the board room to the frontline workers – can have an impact on process safety risk. Secondly, I have seen tremendous value and impact from the monthly Process Safety Beacons. This free resource has been the source of numerous “safety moment” talks throughout my career and has broad applicability to employees in various roles in my facilities – everyone can learn and apply the lessons conveyed in these bulletins.
This year’s programming includes the special session “40th Anniversary of CCPS: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future.” What can attendees expect from this session?
We will be kicking off the 40th CCPS International Conference with this special session on Monday morning, April 7. We will have a presentation by Cheryl Grounds, CCPS Emeritus Member, with a review and refresh of one of the seminal projects for CCPS, Vision 20/20. Additionally, we are planning a series of video interviews with past CCPS leaders, volunteers, and staff on their views of the impact of CCPS, and then will close with a panel discussion with Scott Berger, past Executive Director of CCPS, and Shakeel Kadri, current Executive Director & CEO of CCPS, on the next horizons for CCPS. I am excited and proud to have this opportunity to celebrate this significant anniversary with some of the past and present leaders of this outstanding organization.
With the increasing focus on sustainability, digital transformation, and evolving safety regulations, how do you see process safety adapting in the next decade?
This year’s programming addresses all three of these key issues. For example, there will be sessions around RAGAGEP and inherently safer design based on the new requirements in the US EPA Risk Management Plan regulation. Forums like the GCPS give industry practitioners a chance to benchmark and learn about new standards and implementation strategies from each other.
Many sustainability innovations, such as evolving battery technologies, carbon capture, and green hydrogen, have brought new types of hazards to chemical process facilities and introduced chemical process hazards to non-traditional companies and industries. The process safety community has a role to play in helping to identify new hazards in emerging climate-friendly applications, reducing risk in these rapidly evolving industry segments, and sharing learnings with industry and academic partners.
The possible applications of new digital tools and artificial intelligence within process safety has been an increasingly popular topic in our community, as we look at how these tools could be used to help assess risk more effectively in real-time, to monitor and more quickly mitigate hazard conditions, and protect workers by using automation to reduce their exposure to hazards.
As Symposium Chair, what key takeaways do you hope attendees will leave with from this year’s CCPS programming?
The focus of the CCPS International Conference has historically been sharing best practices in process safety management systems. Our planning committee has done fantastic work curating innovative and informative presentations from a variety of industry leaders. We will have sessions highlighting elements from each of the four pillars of the RBPS model: Commit to Process Safety, Understand Hazards and Risk, Manage Risk, and Learning from Experience. I hope attendees will be able to learn about strategies and methods to build robust and resilient management systems as a foundation for success in preventing process safety incidents. With the 40th Anniversary of CCPS session and additional sessions on culture and effective process safety management, I hope everyone will return to their organizations inspired to try new things and elevate their own risk management programs. I also hope that everyone takes advantage of networking opportunities at the GCPS to keep the conversation going with colleagues on the things they’ve learned in the conference sessions.
Learn more about the 2025 Spring Meeting and 21st GCPS.
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