Strong governance provides the foundation for WES’s management of health, safety, environmental performance, and broader sustainability responsibilities. The Board, executive leadership, and cross-functional committees—such as the Sustainability Steering Committee—oversee the management of these topics. Through these governance structures, we prioritize the safety and health of our employees, contractors, and the communities where we operate. Our comprehensive risk-management processes and Health, Safety, Environment, and Security (HSE&S) management systems help us proactively manage workforce safety, asset and pipeline integrity, emergency preparedness, and community safety, ensuring safe and reliable operations.
Employees and contractors are required to report safe and unsafe behaviors and conditions through our Good Catch program, which we use to identify trends, eliminate hazards, and prevent incidents from occurring. Everyone on a WES site has stop-work authority, regardless of seniority or role, and we expect anyone onsite to stop work if they have safety concerns.
Our asset integrity efforts are managed by three expert teams: one focused on pipeline integrity, a second on facilities integrity and a third on corrosion prevention. This helps us allocate resources effectively to the key areas of midstream integrity management across WES. Employees in multiple functional areas participate in our asset integrity efforts, and we have training and certification requirements for key personnel.
We perform regular risk assessments that meet or exceed regulatory requirements to identify and proactively manage and mitigate potential integrity issues. We prioritize risks based on the type of potential impact, the location involved, and the level of impact. We implement a risk-based approach to determine the frequency and timing of routine inspections and preventive maintenance.
Our Crisis and Emergency Management (CEM) team manages the preparation and response to emergencies, including potential operational issues, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and cyberattacks. The CEM team works closely with our HSE&S and Operations team to reduce risk, provide operational consistency, and enhance regulatory compliance.
We follow a systematic preparedness planning process focused on continuous improvement across an ongoing cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action to ensure effective coordination during the response to an incident. Risk assessments, response plans, and training are conducted collaboratively across relevant business functions to ensure a coordinated and effective response.
We understand the critical role that secure, resilient information and operational technology systems play in protecting the nation’s energy supply. Our cybersecurity program is built on a risk-based framework and supported by dedicated leadership, cross-functional governance, and a culture of continuous improvement. Our IT organization is led by our Chief Information Officer (CIO), who holds executive accountability for cybersecurity strategy and program investment.
We have implemented a range of policies to support our commitment to responsible operations including: