Xabier Uriagereka
For years, Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) and Product Compliance have been relevant but secondary areas within organizations. Necessary functions, yes, but usually managed from technical departments, with little connection to strategic decision making. Compliance was important, but not decisive. That balance changes definitively in 2026.
Not because a single disruptive standard appears, but because the set of regulatory changes consolidates a new compliance model. A model in which safety, occupational health, sustainabilityand product compliance are no longer evaluated in isolation, but are understood as a single, traceable and auditable system. In this new EHS and Product Compliance framework in 2026, compliance is no longer enough: you must continuously and consistently demonstrate compliance.
The end of the fragmented model
Many organizations continue to operate under a legacy approach. Risk prevention is managed as an internal obligation; sustainability as a reporting exercise; product compliance as a technical function linked to quality, legal or engineering. Each area generates its own documentation, its own indicators and its own narrative.
For years, this model has been sufficient. As of 2026, it will no longer be sufficient.
The new regulatory requirements do not analyze isolated areas, but the coherence of the whole. People, processes, product and data are evaluated in an integrated manner. When this information is not connected, the problem is no longer operational. It is strategic.
What really changes after 2026
The progressive tightening of the regulatory framework introduces requirements that directly affect the way companies operate and the way they manage compliance. Among the most relevant changes are:
- Increasingly individualized risk assessments, incorporating variables such as age, gender, special conditions or new risks associated with teleworking, digitalization and climate change.
- Strengthening of health surveillance and mandatory evaluation of psychosocial risks, regardless of the size of the organization.
- Requirement for real digital traceability in the face of inspections and audits: it is no longer enough to have documentation; it is necessary to demonstrate consistency, updating and systematic control.
- Obligation to publish carbon footprint and define emission reduction plans, directly linking sustainability and market access.
These changes do not add up in isolation. They overlap. And it is in that overlap that EHS and Product Compliance can no longer be managed as separate disciplines.
When EHS and Product Compliance become the same problem
In the new scenario, a failure in safety and health management no longer remains in the preventive area. It has an impact on product traceability, on the credibility of environmental data and on the company’s ability to justify its compliance to customers, administrations and partners.
Similarly, a product whose sustainability cannot be substantiated by reliable operational data is no longer viable in certain markets, tenders or supply chains. It does not matter that the design is correct or that the process is documented if the evidence is not defensible.
This is the real tipping point for EHS and Product Compliance in 2026: any inconsistency between prevention, product and data translates into a direct risk for the organization and its management.
The limit of current models
Many companies still rely on tools and processes designed for another context. Scattered documentation, spreadsheets, unconnected repositories and manual controls may be useful for day-to-day management, but not for sustaining the level of demand that is coming.
The problem is not efficiency. When compliance depends on fragmented systems, the company does not control risk; it simply relies on not being inspected. In 2026, that is no longer a valid strategy.
The instinctive response to this new scenario is usually to add more procedures, more controls and more administrative burden. Such an approach increases complexity, but does not solve the underlying problem.
The real challenge is architectural: to have systems capable of connecting people, processes and product, generating unique, coherent and governed data. Only from this integration is it possible to move from reactive compliance, based on gathering evidence a posteriori, to a preventive model, where evidence is generated as a natural part of the operation.
Anticipate or assume the cost
In 2026, the difference between organizations that control compliance and those that suffer from it will not be in their knowledge of the standard, but in how they have prepared their systems to sustain it.
Companies that maintain fragmented models will assume greater risks: sanctions, marketing blockages, loss of strategic contracts and reputational exposure. Those that integrate EHS and Product Compliance as a single control and traceability system will operate at an advantage.
Because in the new scenario, data is the audit. And understanding the impact of EHS and Product Compliance in 2026 is no longer a technical issue, but a strategic decision that conditions the company’s ability to operate, compete and grow.
