QHSE brings together four deeply interconnected disciplines, Quality, Hygiene, Safety and Environment, all driven by the same engine: continuous improvement. As Tracy framed it from the outset, each pillar follows the same perpetual cycle of planning, execution, verification and action, making them stronger together than apart.
Nadia opened by reframing what quality actually means. Far from being limited to end-of-line checks, quality management has evolved considerably over the past century, from basic sorting and conformity inspection, to planned quality control, to a fully strategic management discipline aimed at driving continuous improvement across the entire organisation.
Building a quality management system, whether or not a company pursues ISO 9001 certification, requires a structured approach: mapping current practices, identifying gaps, assigning responsibilities, setting target dates, and tracking performance through relevant indicators such as non-conformity rates, internal audit completion and customer satisfaction scores.
"You cannot build a quality management system without clear milestones. That's why it's essential to define target deadlines and relevant performance indicators."
— Nadia Hakizayezu
Tracy took the floor to explore hygiene through the lens of the food industry, where the stakes are particularly high. Controlling hygiene means systematically identifying and managing four categories of hazard: physical (foreign bodies such as glass or metal fragments), chemical (cleaning products, pesticides, heavy metals), biological (bacteria, moulds, parasites) and allergenic (the 14 mandatory allergens defined by EU regulation, including gluten, milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and sulphites).
The central tool here is the HACCP method (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). It is a seven-step framework that maps every stage of production, identifies the points where contamination risks are highest, sets critical limits, and defines corrective actions when those limits are breached. Originally developed by NASA, it remains the gold standard for food safety management worldwide.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Companies cannot focus solely on their economic activities without taking this essential aspect of hygiene into account."
— Tracy Nketa
With over 500,000 workplace accidents and 764 fatalities recorded in France in 2024 alone, occupational health and safety is far from a formality. Nadia and Tracy outlined the seven general prevention principles that underpin any solid approach: from identifying hazards and assessing risks, to training employees, organising emergency response, and monitoring health through regular medical check-ups.
The key operational tool is the DUERP: the mandatory professional risk assessment register that every company must maintain. It covers all work activities, including remote working, and evaluates each risk based on frequency, probability and severity, tracking both existing and new prevention measures over time.
What stood out in this section was the emphasis on communication: safety rules must be visible, accessible and understood by everyone in the organisation, from senior leadership to every operational team member.
The environmental pillar has never been more relevant. Tracy and Nadia were clear: the goal is not only to meet regulatory requirements, but to actively reduce the negative impact that business activities have on the natural world: across waste management, pollution prevention, energy consumption and the handling of hazardous products.
The reference framework is ISO 14001, which requires organisations to conduct a full environmental impact analysis, distinguishing between direct impacts (such as business travel by plane) and indirect ones (such as outsourced waste management) and to implement a continuous improvement plan accordingly. Importantly, Nadia emphasised that companies can take meaningful environmental action without necessarily pursuing certification: the mindset matters as much as the label.
One of the session's most valuable insights was the concept of the Integrated Management System, a unified framework that combines the three core ISO standards: ISO 9001 for quality, ISO 14001 for environment, and ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety. Rather than running three separate systems, organisations can align their processes, reduce duplication, and track compliance and performance across all three dimensions simultaneously.
It is an approach that reflects exactly what Tracy and Nadia demonstrated throughout this webinar: that QHSE is not a bureaucratic constraint to be managed around. It is a coherent, operational framework for building organisations that are safer, more responsible, and more resilient, for their people, their clients, and the world around them.
This article is based on the Ekkiden Connect webinar "QHSE 360°: A Global and Operational Approach", presented by Tracy Nketa and Nadia Hakizayezu, Quality Consultants at Ekkiden, as part of our Learning Month 2026.