VelocityEHS Named to Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026

Recognition highlights a company-wide culture of innovation to advance workplace safety through human expertise and AI.

CHICAGO, Sept. 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VelocityEHS^®, the global leader in EHS & Sustainability solutions, today announced it has been named to Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026, recognizing organizations that have created cultures where employees are empowered to develop new ideas, improve how work gets done and turn innovation into meaningful impact.

VelocityEHS placed in the top 13 of Fast Company’s Emerging Enterprise category for organizations with 201 to 999 employees. Fast Company reviewed more than 1,200 applications for its 2026 program and selected 190 organizations as Best Workplaces for Innovators honorees.

For VelocityEHS, the recognition reflects a company-wide approach to innovation grounded in a simple principle: new technology should help EHS professionals identify risk earlier, make better-informed decisions and ultimately protect more workers.

“Being recognized by Fast Company is meaningful because innovation at VelocityEHS has never belonged to one department, title or technology,” said Matt Airhart, CEO, VelocityEHS. “It comes from giving talented people the trust, tools and opportunity to challenge assumptions, bring forward ideas and solve problems that matter. When that culture is paired with deep EHS expertise and a mission centered on protecting people, innovation creates real progress.”

VelocityEHS has built innovation into how teams ideate and work across the organization, bringing together the voice of customers, AI sciences, and EHS experts to address customer challenges, test ideas and develop practical solutions. Employee development, AI literacy and cross-functional collaboration further empower employees to challenge assumptions and bring new ideas to life.

One example of this culture in action is the development of VelocityAI, the intelligence layer within Accelerate^®, the VelocityEHS Connected Platform. Built around a human-centered approach, VelocityAI is designed to elevate EHS professionals, not replace them, providing AI capabilities, including predictive risk detection, insights into potential serious injuries and fatalities, root cause analysis, and intelligent task recommendations.

Vēlo, the embedded AI assistant, brings these capabilities into the everyday flow of work, empowering EHS professionals to surface potential risks, strengthen documentation, identify exposures and recommend corrective actions without manually analyzing thousands of individual data points.

“The value of AI in EHS lies in reducing the burden of professionals, so they can focus on what matters most,” said Dr. Julia Penfield, Chief AI Officer, VelocityEHS. “It is assisting them in seeing patterns they may not have been able to see before, connecting greater amounts of information, and focusing their expertise where it can make the greatest difference. The technology matters, but the human judgment matters even more.”

Innovation at VelocityEHS is also grounded in the evolving needs of the EHS profession. The company’s 2026 EHS 360 Benchmark Report, based on a survey of 1,008 EHS professionals alongside aggregated and anonymized platform data, found that 44% of respondents identified AI and automation as the largest force shaping the future of the profession, while 76% said AI can meaningfully reduce administrative burden.

The company is applying this same approach to emerging safety challenges across its unified portfolio. In April 2026, VelocityEHS introduced its AI Hands & Wrists Assessment within its Industrial Ergonomics solution, using video analysis to help ergonomics and safety teams identify risks associated with repetitive hand grips and wrist motions, and prioritize improvements.

VelocityEHS will continue to invest in its unified portfolio, connected platform, and human-centered AI, ensuring companies can reduce complexity, connect critical safety and risk workflows, and gain greater visibility into enterprise risk.

“Workplace safety challenges are not standing still, so neither can we,” Penfield said. “The opportunity ahead is to keep creating an environment where our people can ask difficult questions, test new ideas and use technology responsibly to solve real problems. That is how we intend to keep moving EHS forward.”

Learn more at www.ehs.com.

About Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators
Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators program recognizes organizations that foster cultures of innovation and creativity. For the 2026 program, Fast Company reviewed more than 1,200 applications examining organizations’ projects, investments, company-wide programs and workplace cultures, along with additional research, before selecting 190 honorees.

About VelocityEHS
VelocityEHS is the global leader in EHS & Sustainability solutions, pioneering human-centered AI to make workplaces safer, faster. Protecting over 10 million workers worldwide, Accelerate^®, the VelocityEHS Connected Platform, delivers AI-driven innovation across Safety, Ergonomics, Chemical Management, Operational Risk, Contractor Safety & Permit to Work, Environmental Compliance, and Sustainability.

With the deepest bench of certified experts, from Ph.D. AI/ML scientists to board-certified ergonomists and safety professionals, VelocityEHS ensures trusted, human-in-the-loop oversight. Recognized as a Verdantix Green Quadrant Leader, G2 Leader, ISO 27001 certified, and SOC 2 Type II attested, VelocityEHS empowers companies to outpace risk with speed and purpose. Learn more at www.ehs.com.

Media Contact
VelocityEHS Media Team | media@ehs.com