Tanvi Bhushan, a top EHS specialist who won the title of Sustainability Champion in 2025, shares helpful tips on keeping workers safe based on her experiences on large construction projects that were worth a staggering $468 million.
These days, many companies are focused on worker safety. Why? New regulations are changing their minds about safety and even such a universal experience as last fall’s pandemic. So they have to change their safety protocols. This is thanks to tough environmental laws as well as massive federal construction projects.
For example, countries like India are passing legislation, such as the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 to make sure workplaces are safer. They believe that working spaces that are safer will contribute to a nation’s development and the stability of a country. It is, though, only an EHS specialist like Tanvi Bhushan who can carry out those laws.
Tanvi is an Indian chemical engineer. Later, she moved to America to work on making massive construction projects safer. There, she worked on creating safety plans for federal construction jobs totaling a sum of over $468 million. This minimised accidents on the construction site by 75%, resulting in minimal work injuries.
This experience is a good lesson for Indian firms that desire to catch up on new safety practices. Currently, she is studying advanced certifications like ASP and CSP. This will help her better understand the challenges that Indian firms face.
Recently, she won the Achievement Award for Sustainability Champion at the 2025 CatalyX Champions Series Awards. This award honoured her good leadership. It also accredited her work on creating solutions to make labourers secure.
Helping Companies Understand and Follow Rules
Just act like you’re playing two games according to two different rules simultaneously. This is about as responsive as firms are to environmental legislation. Indian laws are not exactly similar to Californian laws.
In California, for example, firms have new EPA and new OSHA rules to abide by. And then in India, a new Code on Occupational Safety integrates labour laws. And these laws just keep changing, and this makes life a good deal more difficult for firms to keep pace.
EHS experts such as Tanvi can also do their part here. For example, at AARC Environmental Inc., a well-established environmental consulting firm in America, she helped them understand and comply with these mystifying rules.
She ensured that they were well within the rules. She also advised them on better practices of doing things so that they were always within the rules and were steadily expanding their company.
“To manage tricky rules, you will need to plan and think ahead,” she says. “It’s all about foreseeing the issues and solving them before they even arise.”
Managing Large Projects
There’s always a safety issue with whatever you’re doing. This is doubly so if you’re working on a piece as large as a government complex. When Tanvi was part of the $250 million Cyber Engineering Center, for example, a very specific plan was required. Blowing out rock was just among the tough conditions that they had to face.
Next, she aided Dannick Inc., a premier U.S. company for safety consulting and training for construction, in making safety plans for each site. She planned emergency exits and how to keep everyone safe in case of a crisis. These safety precautions minimised hazards by 75%, and this told us that having site-specific plans for each job makes a difference.
“Every site has its own issues,” she explains. “So, I pay attention to designing safety plans according to the needs of each project.”
Ensuring Safety During the Pandemic
Then arrived the COVID-19 pandemic and everything was thrown into a state of topsy-turvy. Even in the midst of all that confusion, massive construction activity could never possibly cease. It had to go on and thus introduced special precautions. People had to don masks and keep a distance to comply with the new rules.
Tanvi acted terrifically at this time. In Dannick Inc., she special-ordered so that people got out of locations and ensured all COVID-19 measures were set. She used her occupational safety knowledge so everything was ready to rock and roll. It was a massive puzzle, and its goal was rescuing people while getting emergency work achieved.
“Emergency plans must be based on the risks and safety needs of each location,” she adds. “We have developed safety plans that are sound but flexible to meet the demands of different projects and to be able to follow strict government regulations.”
Developing a Safety Habit
It is not easy to prioritise people’s safety above everything else if people have to hurry and do their work. This is harder in jobs where working as fast as possible is more important than following procedures. When people work in construction and industry, hurrying to work as quickly as possible usually involves cutting corners. This makes people more likely to injure themselves on the job.
At FreshDirect Inc., an online grocery delivery company based in New York, Tanvi assisted in changing the company’s culture. In her role as an EHS practitioner, she facilitated streamlining the health and safety systems of FreshDirect LLC. She made sure their procedures followed rules of health and promoted environmentally friendly practices within day-to-day operations. These efforts didn’t just reduce risks.
These made workplaces secure and showed efforts by companies toward protecting the environment. Programs like Mission Zero reduced workplace injuries by using training sessions and inspections. This reduced accidents and also made individuals accountable for safety. Similarly, India’s National Safety Week tries to embed safety as a key part of a firm’s operations.
“Safety takes teamwork,” she concludes. “It begins by creating trust and responsibility at every level.”
To ensure people are safeguarded while working, a few things have to be done. We must achieve a balance between adhering to procedures and reducing risks and changing workplace norms. We can learn from experts such as Tanvi Bhushan to adopt viable strategies to reach these safety goals.
Work demonstrating to us the importance of EHS experts in making industries more resilient was one that earned her an award at the 2025 CatalyX Champions Series Awards. Her work encompasses understanding of rules, site-specific control of hazards, and emergency response to worldwide emergencies.
As countries such as India modernize their safety infrastructure, lessons can be gleaned from high-pressure situations to reach a work environment that is safer and much more sustainable.
