Process Safety Culture

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crewmembers aboard. After extensive investigation, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) concluded that the organizational safety culture gaps contributed significantly to this loss. Upon review of The CAIB report, the CCPS Technical Steering Committee concluded that the same cultural factors that impacted NASA could also impact on the chemical and petroleumn industries. CCPS invites chemical, petroleum, and other companies to use these materials to evaluate their company's process safety culture and to develop improvement strategies.

Developing, sustaining, and enhancing the organization's process safety culture is one of elements in the RBPS pillar of committing to process safety. CCPS members invite you to start the journey by reviewing the Building Process Safety Culture Tool Kit and then explore resources listed below to understand the attributes of a sound culture, and how your organization might begin to enhance its own culture.