Resources
Industrial risk glossary
The terms you will come across in our reports, in regulations and in exchanges with administrations.
- Business continuityBCP
- An organisation's ability to keep its essential activities running during and after a major incident. The business continuity plan identifies critical processes, the impacts of an interruption and recovery strategies (ISO 22301).
- Classified installationICPE
- An industrial or agricultural facility likely to present hazards or nuisances, subject to a notification, registration or permitting regime defined by a nomenclature. The term comes from French law and has inspired many African regulations.
- Compliance
- The set of arrangements that enable a company to comply with the laws, regulations and commitments that apply to it, in particular on ethics, anti-corruption, international sanctions and human rights.
- The voluntary contribution of companies to sustainable development, by taking into account the social, environmental and economic effects of their activities and engaging with their stakeholders. ISO 26000 provides guidance on it.
- Crisis management
- The organisation that enables a company or an authority to make decisions and communicate in an emergency: crisis team, roles, resources, procedures and exercises.
- Domino effect
- The escalation of an accident from one facility to another, for example when a tank fire causes the failure of a neighbouring tank. Safety reports must assess it, especially on sites with several operators.
- Duty of vigilance
- An obligation on certain large companies to identify and prevent serious harm to human rights, health, safety and the environment resulting from their activities, those of their subsidiaries and their supply chains. In France, it derives from Law No. 2017-399 of 27 March 2017.
- Effect distances
- Distances, calculated by modelling, up to which the effects of an accident (heat radiation, overpressure, toxic concentration) exceed reference thresholds for people or structures. They underpin zoning around facilities and emergency plans.
- External emergency plan
- A plan drawn up by public authorities to organise rescue and protection of the population when an industrial accident has, or may have, effects beyond the site boundary.
- HAZID
- Hazard identification. A structured review to identify the hazards of a project or facility, conducted in a workshop with guidewords. It takes place early in design and ranks the scenarios to be analysed further.
- HAZOP
- Hazard and operability study. A method for the systematic analysis of process parameter deviations ("more pressure", "less flow", etc.), their causes, consequences and existing safeguards. It is governed by IEC 61882.
- Land-use planning
- The set of rules restricting construction and land uses around hazardous facilities, based on effect distances, so as not to expose new populations.
- Lessons learned
- The analysis of past accidents, incidents and exercises to draw lessons and improve prevention, emergency plans and training.
- LOPA
- Layer of protection analysis. A semi-quantitative method that assesses, for an accident scenario, whether independent protection layers reduce the frequency of the hazardous event sufficiently. It is used in particular to determine the SIL required for safety instrumented functions.
- Materiality analysis
- A process that identifies and ranks the sustainability issues that matter most to a company, according to their impact on society and the environment and their effect on the company's performance. It underpins CSR strategy and non-financial reporting.
- Nomenclature
- The regulatory list of activities and substances that determine the classification of a facility and the applicable administrative regime (notification, registration, permit), generally based on capacity or quantity thresholds.
- On-site emergency planPOI
- The operator's emergency plan for an accident whose effects remain within the site: alert, response and making-safe organisation, available resources, action cards. Known in French as the plan d'opération interne.
- Quantitative risk assessmentQRA
- A method that combines the estimated frequency of accidents and the magnitude of their consequences to produce numerical risk indicators (individual risk, societal risk). It is used to compare siting options and to check the acceptability of a facility.
- Routine flaring
- The burning, during normal operations, of gas associated with oil production when it is neither used nor reinjected. The World Bank's "Zero Routine Flaring by 2030" initiative aims to end it. It is distinct from safety flaring, which is essential in the event of an incident.
- Safety barrier
- A technical, human or organisational measure intended to prevent a hazardous event or limit its consequences: relief valve, emergency shutdown system, procedure, training. Barrier analysis is at the heart of safety reports.
- Safety instrumented systemSIS
- A set of sensors, logic solvers and actuators designed to bring a facility automatically to a safe state when a parameter exceeds a threshold: emergency shutdown, valve closure, depressurisation.
- Safety report
- A document that describes the hazards of a facility, analyses accident scenarios, assesses their likelihood and effects, and justifies the risk control measures. It is the central document of permit applications for hazardous facilities (étude de dangers in French).
- Scopes 1, 2 and 3
- Categories of greenhouse gas emissions defined by the GHG Protocol: a company's direct emissions (scope 1), indirect emissions from purchased energy (scope 2) and other indirect emissions in the value chain (scope 3).
- Seveso
- The name of the European directives (now Seveso III, 2012/18/EU) regulating establishments where dangerous substances are present in large quantities, after the Seveso accident (Italy, 1976). They are an international reference for major accident prevention.
- SIL
- Safety integrity level. A level from 1 to 4 required of a safety instrumented function according to the risk reduction it must provide. It is defined by IEC 61508 and IEC 61511.
- Special economic zoneSEZ
- A developed area benefiting from a specific economic and administrative regime to attract industrial investment. The coexistence of varied activities calls for siting rules and shared emergency plans.
