Advanced HSE Due Diligence and Corporate Governance Training Course

Course overview

Corporate transactions, capital projects, supplier appointments and portfolio reviews can transfer significant health, safety and environmental liabilities into an organisation. Senior HSE leaders and governance professionals must be able to identify material risks before decisions are approved, distinguish documentary assurance from operational reality, and present findings in terms that boards, investment committees and audit functions can act on. This course addresses the challenge of converting HSE evidence into defensible due diligence conclusions, risk-adjusted recommendations and post-transaction governance controls.

Participants examine HSE due diligence across mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, contractor and supply-chain oversight, asset acquisitions and major project investments. They learn to define a risk-based scope, build a data-request list, assess legal compliance evidence, test management-system maturity against ISO 45001 and ISO 14001, evaluate environmental liabilities, and use BowTie analysis to examine critical controls. The course also covers materiality assessment, ESG and HSE governance reporting, board assurance, integration planning, remediation-cost estimation and escalation of red-flag findings.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical briefings with a running acquisition case involving a high-hazard industrial site. Participants review a virtual data room, interrogate incident and permit records, map critical controls, score findings in a due diligence risk register and prepare an executive-level report. Each participant leaves with a practical HSE Due Diligence Pack: a scoping template, document-request schedule, site-verification checklist, risk register, red-flag escalation protocol and 100-day integration action plan that can be adapted for their organisation.

The course is designed for experienced HSE, risk, legal, assurance, procurement and investment professionals who contribute evidence or recommendations to high-consequence business decisions. It is particularly relevant where organisations acquire assets, manage complex contractor ecosystems, operate regulated facilities or need stronger board visibility of HSE exposure.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define a risk-based HSE due diligence scope using transaction context, asset risk profile and regulatory exposure
• Construct a targeted HSE data-request list covering permits, incidents, audits, liabilities and management-system evidence
• Evaluate ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 management-system maturity using documented and operational evidence
• Apply BowTie analysis to test critical controls for major accident hazards and environmental events
• Calculate and prioritise HSE remediation liabilities using risk ratings, cost assumptions and implementation timeframes
• Develop an HSE due diligence risk register with red flags, deal conditions, owners and escalation routes
• Prepare a board-ready HSE due diligence report that distinguishes findings, uncertainties and decision implications
• Create a 100-day HSE integration and assurance plan for an acquired asset, joint venture or strategic supplier

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• HSE Directors and Senior Managers — who must provide defensible assurance on material operational and environmental risk
• Corporate Development and M&A Managers — who need HSE findings translated into transaction risk and deal protections
• Internal Audit and Assurance Managers — who assess governance, control effectiveness and evidence quality
• Environmental Managers — who evaluate permit compliance, contamination exposure and environmental remediation obligations
• Procurement and Supply Chain Risk Managers — who need proportionate HSE due diligence for strategic suppliers and contractors
• Legal, Compliance and Company Secretariat Professionals — who support board oversight, disclosures and governance decisions

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working experience in HSE management, operational risk, internal audit, compliance, environmental management or transaction/project governance. The course assumes familiarity with risk registers, incident investigation terminology, corrective-action tracking and the basic purpose of ISO 45001 and ISO 14001. Experience reviewing audit reports, contractor records, permits or management-system documents is useful. No prior M&A role, legal qualification, finance modelling expertise or BowTieXP licence is required. Participants do not need to be ISO lead auditors, but should be comfortable interpreting evidence and discussing risk with operational and senior stakeholders.

Training methodology

The instructor uses a high-hazard acquisition scenario to connect governance theory with the evidence available during real due diligence. Short technical sessions introduce standards, liability methods, control assurance and reporting frameworks; participants then work in teams through data-room extracts including permits, incident trends, audit findings, contractor records and environmental reports. Facilitated challenge sessions simulate discussions with operations, legal and investment stakeholders. Each day adds to a working due diligence pack, culminating in an individual application plan for a live or anticipated organisational decision.

Course outline

Day 1: HSE Due Diligence in Corporate Decision-Making

• Transaction, investment and supplier due diligence use cases
• Board duties, delegated authority and HSE governance lines
• Materiality thresholds for safety, environmental and regulatory exposure
• Risk-based scoping by asset type, jurisdiction and operating profile
• HSE due diligence workplan and stakeholder responsibility matrix
• Data-room architecture and HSE document-request schedules
• Red-flag definitions, escalation criteria and deal-protection options

Workshop: Participants scope the HSE workstream for a proposed industrial-site acquisition and produce a prioritised data-request list with escalation triggers.

Day 2: Testing Management Systems and Compliance Evidence

• ISO 45001 leadership, consultation and operational-control evidence
• ISO 14001 aspects, obligations and environmental performance evidence
• Permit registers, consent conditions and regulatory correspondence review
• Incident trends, high-potential events and corrective-action closure testing
• Audit-report reliability, sampling limitations and evidence triangulation
• Contractor management and supply-chain HSE assurance records
• Site-verification planning and management-interview question design

Workshop: Teams review a simulated data room and produce an evidence matrix identifying verified controls, missing records and priority interview questions.

Day 3: Major Hazard, Environmental Liability and Control Assurance

• Major accident hazard identification and loss-of-containment scenarios
• BowTie barrier mapping for safety-critical and environmental events
• Critical control performance standards and verification activities
• Environmental baseline data, contamination indicators and legacy liabilities
• Remediation-cost estimation assumptions and uncertainty ranges
• Climate, natural-hazard and transition-risk considerations for assets
• Risk ranking using likelihood, consequence, control confidence and exposure

Workshop: Participants build a BowTie model for a major environmental release and create a prioritised liability and control-assurance assessment.

Day 4: Findings, Governance Reporting and Transaction Protections

• Due diligence finding taxonomy and root-cause classification
• Risk register design with owners, evidence sources and residual-risk ratings
• Quantifying remediation, compliance and integration cost exposure
• Representations, warranties, indemnities and conditions precedent
• Board-paper structure for HSE risk and decision recommendations
• Assurance mapping across management, internal audit and board committees
• Disclosure considerations for material HSE and ESG-related matters

Workshop: Teams convert their findings into a board-level HSE risk register and a two-page investment-committee recommendation.

Day 5: Post-Decision Integration and Sustainable Assurance

• Day-one HSE controls and immediate risk-containment actions
• 100-day HSE integration roadmap and milestone planning
• Target operating model for acquired assets and joint ventures
• Governance cadence, committee terms of reference and escalation pathways
• Leading indicators for integration progress and critical-control health
• Independent assurance plans and follow-up verification sampling
• Lessons-learned reviews and continuous improvement of due diligence protocols

Workshop: Participants finalise a 100-day HSE integration plan and present a board assurance update for the acquisition case.

Tools & standards covered

ISO 45001, ISO 14001, BowTieXP, Enablon

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions