We are pleased to announce that COMET has become a member of Step Change in Safety, the not-for-profit industry body. Which works to prevent incidents and injuries across the energy industry through active leadership, member collaboration and workforce engagement.
That mission, and the principles that underpin it, aligns closely with why COMET exists and what we do.
What Step Change in Safety stands for
Step Change in Safety was founded in 1997 by the UK offshore oil and gas industry with a bold ambition: to improve safety performance by 50% through a shared commitment to leadership and collaboration.
That goal was achieved in 2004, demonstrating what can be accomplished when an industry comes together with a shared purpose. The success of that approach has shaped SCiS’ evolution and established a lasting culture of improvement through collaboration.
Today, its membership spans multiple sectors, bringing broader experience and perspectives that help organisations share learning, strengthen safety culture and turn industry challenges into opportunities for improvement.
While the energy landscape continues to evolve, SCiS remains focused on its core mission: to prevent incidents and injuries across the energy industry.
Why this membership makes sense for COMET
COMET exists to help organisations move from reactive incident management to proactive prevention. Our investigation methodology, our software, our training, and our AI-powered tools are all built around a single principle: that what has already happened contains the intelligence needed to stop it from happening again, but only if it is investigated properly and the learning travels far enough.
That principle sits naturally alongside what SCiS does. The focus on human factors, on workforce engagement, on understanding the systemic and organisational conditions that make serious incidents possible, is also something we are passionate about here at COMET.
Mark Rushton, CEO of COMET, on what this membership means:
'Joining (re-joining!) Step Change in Safety brings back some fantastic memories for me. It was in our very early days that we responded to a need for the first ever accredited version of Safety Leadership Training, working closely with the IADC and SCiS to develop what became a mainstay of the Offshore Oil & Gas Industry. Joining now as COMET we look forward to contributing to the Step Change in Safety community. Failure prevention remains our passion, and in the technology-enabled world that didn’t exist way back then we have an opportunity to share our expertise to continue the push for safer and more efficient operations in what is a very different industry. We look forward to sharing data, practical insights, and to offering masterclasses on key topics like root cause, human factors, and AI powered advanced data analytics. All whilst learning from the wider membership in the process.'
What comes next
We are here to contribute, and we are looking forward to getting started. We will be participating in workgroups, engaging with the network of member organisations, and contributing what we know about investigation methodology, data analytics, and AI.
The energy sector faces a demanding period ahead. The transition brings new risks alongside familiar ones, and the organisations best placed to manage both are those that have built strong learning cultures where incidents and near misses are investigated thoroughly, where systemic causes are surfaced rather than buried under human error, and where the intelligence from past events shapes future decisions.
Learn more about Step Change in Safety at stepchangeinsafety.com
Find out more about COMET Investigate and our approach to incident investigation and root cause analysis at cometanalysis.com/software/investigations-and-rca
