From ideas to impact

While 1% change might sound small, it could save 29,000 lives every year. PROFESSOR ANDREW SHARMAN explains how. 

Every year, nearly 2.93 million people around the world die because of work, through accidents, exposures or occupational diseases. That’s one person every 10 seconds.

Think about that: while you read this paragraph, another worker somewhere on our planet will die because of their job. Behind each number is a name, a face, a family, a community – lives changed forever.

As someone who has spent three decades in occupational safety, health and leadership across more than 100 countries, I find that statistic both staggering and deeply personal, because I know that every one of those deaths was preventable.

That’s what drives me, and One Percent Safer, every single day.

Small improvements, exponential impact

The idea behind One Percent Safer is disarmingly simple: if every organisation, every leader and every worker made the world of work just 1% safer, the cumulative effect would be transformational.

Imagine that – small, consistent improvements across millions of workplaces; a culture of marginal gains applied not just to productivity, but to safety, well-being and dignity at work.

We often think that to make a difference, we need radical change. But revolution is rare, and rarely sustainable. Real progress is built through evolution – small, deliberate, measurable steps taken every day by people who care.

That belief became a movement.

The book that started it all

When we created the One Percent Safer book, it wasn’t meant to be just another safety book. It was a call to action. We gathered 142 leading thinkers and practitioners – psychologists, CEOs, engineers, academics, policymakers and safety professionals from around the world – and asked each one a simple question: “What’s the one thing you’d do to make the world of work 1% safer?” Their answers filled 250 pages with bold, practical and provocative ideas.

Every penny of profit from the book goes directly to the One Percent Safer Foundation, our registered charity that turns ideas into action through education, empowerment and evidence-based change.

Our focus is simple: use the funds to seed small, high-impact projects that create real, measurable change – especially in places and communities that need it most.

From ideas to impact: stories from the field

Since our launch, the One Percent Safer Foundation has awarded grants and bursaries to support practitioners and community projects in more than 12 countries. Over 2,000 lives have been touched directly, with ripple effects reaching far wider. Here are a few stories that capture what this looks like in real life.

Building safety leadership in Ukraine

In the midst of war, our funding supported transformational health and safety training in Ukraine. Working with the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) Global Union, European Society for Occupational Safety and Health (ESOSH) and others, we helped to train 75 Ukrainian trainers, delivered multiple courses and mobilised £80,000 of donated safety equipment. This all resulted from an £8,000 One Percent Safer grant – small investment, huge impact.

Educating and empowering in South India

Through the Deepam Trust, we funded training for 25 volunteer trainers in Tamil Nadu with support from the Red Cross and the Unorganised Sector Labourers Association. These trainers now deliver workshops on accident prevention, health risks and safe work practices – reaching workers who’ve never had access to such knowledge before.

The next phase will reach 250 more workers and supervisors, sharing multilingual safety materials and building a legacy of local safety leadership.

Strengthening small enterprises in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, our partnership with HopEthiopia enhanced safety in small community enterprises like bakeries, brickworks and workshops. With a modest grant, we funded a local H&S adviser, trained workers in PPE and silica awareness, and rewrote job descriptions to better fit local realities – real, sustainable change, led by the community itself.

Bursaries that change careers

Through our bursary programme with the International Institute of Risk & Safety Management (IIRSM), we’ve supported over 100 practitioners from Nigeria, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Ghana to join professional networks, gain mentoring and develop their skills. For many, this has been a gateway to employment, recognition and empowerment.

That’s the essence of One Percent Safer: giving people the means to make their workplaces – and their worlds – a little safer.

“Together, small steps save lives”

That’s not a slogan. It’s a reality. Every one of these projects began with someone saying: “Yes, I’ll do something.” That’s how a movement grows – one pledge, one project, one person at a time.

Building a community of changemakers

Beyond funding, One Percent Safer is about connection. Through our Live and Direct summits and ongoing online sessions, we convene a global community of safety professionals, leaders and changemakers.

Since 2021, we’ve hosted more than 30 Live and Direct events, with speakers such as Andrew Hopkins, Rosa Carrillo, Paul Verrico and Dominic Cooper. Thousands of participants have joined – live and on-demand – each making actionable pledges to make their organisations safer.

Each event closes with a commitment: one small, practical thing each person will do to make work 1% safer. Those pledges accumulate, forming a global web of intent and action. 

Measuring what matters

At One Percent Safer, we don’t just measure outputs – we measure real-world change. We look at:

• Access: Who gained opportunities, training or tools they didn’t have before?
• Capability: What new skills and confidence were built?
• Change: What tangible improvements were made?
• Sustainability: Will the impact endure once our support ends?

This approach ensures that every pound, every project and every pledge delivers meaningful, lasting value.

Why this matters to you

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already part of the global OSH community – professionals dedicated to protecting others. You know the challenge: keeping people safe while balancing commercial realities, human behaviour and systemic pressures.

But here’s the truth I’ve learned in 30 years of leadership and culture work: you have more influence than you think.

Every time you simplify a process, listen to a worker, fix a small hazard or lead by example, you’ve made your workplace 1% safer. That might not sound like much. But multiplied across our profession, across nations and across industries, that’s how we change the world.

That’s the heartbeat of One Percent Safer. It’s not about waiting for permission or perfection. It’s about action – here, now, today. 

How you can get involved

Here’s how you can join us in making the world of work 1% safer:

• Get the book at onepercentsafer.com. It has 142 ideas you can apply today. Every purchase funds our charitable work.
• Join the conversation. Follow One Percent Safer on LinkedIn and share your own ideas and actions using #onepercentsafer.
• Partner with us. Bring our Live and Direct summits or One Percent Safer challenges to your organisation or sector.
• Donate or fundraise. Your support helps us fund bursaries, community projects and small organisations making a big impact.

Every act of engagement strengthens the movement – and saves lives.

Looking ahead

As we look to the future, the One Percent Safer Foundation is expanding its bursary and mentoring programmes, growing awareness of the mindset and philosophy of marginal gains and incremental progress through our Global Ambassador network and building peer communities where OSH professionals can meet regularly to share and support each other.

Our vision is simple: to keep growing a global network of safety champions – people like you – who choose progress over perfection, action over apathy and courage over complacency.

A final thought

None of us can make the world perfectly safe. But together, we can make it safer – one step, one choice, 1% at a time.

Every conversation you start, every hazard you fix, every moment you lead with empathy is a step towards a safer, fairer world of work. Because when we each do a little, together we achieve a lot. And those small steps? They save lives.

* This article marks the first in a new series for SHEQ MANAGEMENT, exploring the One Percent Safer philosophy in depth. In the next article, we’ll look at small ideas that make a big impact – and uncover how the science of marginal gains can transform the way we think about safety, leadership and improvement at work.