NFPA Journal - Summer 2024 - 12

Dispatches
together to achieve safety for the whole. NFPA Global
Advisors will take that philosophy a step further,
from a concept to a concrete action plan, working
directly with governments to assess their systems,
identify gaps, and offer solutions for improvement.
" NFPA was the first organization to really start
talking about safety as a system overall, but NFPA
could do only so much to help governments with
some of these things, " Pauley said. " NFPA Global
Advisors is about formalizing that process with
governments to create a plan that looks across the
ecosystem all the way down. Maybe they have problems
with their enforcement systems or their design
credentialing. NFPA Global Advisors can tell them,
'Here's are the things that you're lacking, here's why
that matters, and here's what you can do about it.' "
NFPA Global Advisors will work primarily with
local, regional, and national governments outside of
" We are looking to acquire companies
that have similar values of integrity,
science, and expertise in helping our
stakeholders do their jobs better. "
the U.S., especially in places that historically may not
have had robust safety systems in place, or where
population and development growth have outpaced
the existing safety structures. The company could
also conceivably work with corporations or jurisdictions
inside the U.S. around emerging issues and
complex problems such as with lithium-ion battery
safety or wildfire, Correia said.
" These would be in places where there are the
emerging risks and where technology or other societal
impacts are bringing changes to what has been
established in the past, " he said. " And I think that
can be almost anywhere on the planet. "
Positive reaction
The reception to the announcement of NFPA
Global Solutions and NFPA Global Advisors has
been overwhelmingly positive, Pauley and Correia
said. Most observers applauded the moves as a
boon to safety worldwide and as a way for NFPA
to expand its reach and diversify its offerings to
advance its mission.
" NFPA is once again taking a leadership role to
ensure that, no matter where you are on the globe,
you can receive invaluable guidance, " David Lind,
a service manager at Cintas, wrote on the social
media site LinkedIn in response to Pauley's post
announcing NFPA Global Solutions.
A few observers, however, questioned whether
it was legal or ethical for a nonprofit to launch a
12 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2024
for-profit business. Others were concerned that,
through these businesses, NFPA might be competing
directly with its members, and wondered if
NFPA is entering murky territory around conflicts
of interest.
To ensure impartiality, NFPA has taken steps
beyond what many other standards developers have
taken when setting up for-profit businesses related
to standards they create, including firm rules to
keep the standard development and business sides
separate from one another, Pauley said. As is the
case with NFPA employees, all staff at NFPA Global
Solutions will be barred from participating in the
NFPA standards development process.
Many of the questions that arose following the
launch announcement were around the services
NFPA Global Solutions would offer. Some theorized
that the company would focus on design and consulting,
which is not the case.
" NFPA Global Solutions is not a design engineering
consulting firm, which seems to be something
that people get confused about, " Pauley said. " There
are people who do design, and they're still going to
be designing your buildings and your systems. What
NFPA Global Solution through its NFPA Global Advisors
is looking at are things they can do that can help
those folks. What can they do to help the installer, the
fire service, or the authority having jurisdiction? Those
are the groups we serve today. What we are concerned
with is how can we serve them more broadly. "
The idea that NFPA's new business venture will
help facilitate and smooth the pathways to safety
and compliance has been met with excitement from
an overwhelming majority of stakeholders in NFPA's
large orbit. For years, governments and large corporations
across the world have asked NFPA for help
identifying weak spots in their safety networks and
for strategies to strengthen them. Manufacturers,
asset owners, end-users, and others have asked
NFPA to verify that a product or design they are
buying or selling is compliant with the NFPA standard
or can be used in specific applications. In each
of those cases, NFPA was not equipped or not legally
able to handle those asks, leaving a gap that Pauley
and Correia believe will soon be filled when NFPA
Global Solutions is up and running.
The result, they hope, will be greater efficiency
for stakeholders, increased safety for citizens, and
a brighter future for NFPA.
" The creation of NFPA Global Solutions will allow
us to serve stakeholders and customers in areas that
they've been asking about for a number of years, "
Correia said. " At the same time, it allows NFPA to
continue to expand the ways it pursues its mission
to help increase safety. "
To learn more, visit nfpaglobalsolutions.com.
http://www.nfpaglobalsolutions.com
NFPA Journal - Summer 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Summer 2024
