Energy-based safety
We run it with you, or you run it yourselves
Find the energy. Control what can kill. Prove the controls are there.
What energy-based safety is
An injury is an unwanted release of energy. Instead of asking crews to spot hazards from experience, EBS gives them a model: name the energy in the task, decide whether it is high enough to kill, and check whether the control in place would still work if someone made a mistake.
- Under half
In Dr Matthew Hallowell's field research, crews at companies with mature safety systems identified fewer than half of the hazards they went on to face.
- No difference
Years of experience made no difference to the score. The model exists because experience does not do the job.
- 30% more
Given the Energy Wheel, crews found about 30% more hazards, in the categories they had been missing.
It does not replace what you already run. Organisations with HOP, critical risk or life-saving rules programmes use EBS to make those programmes concrete at the task, because it gives a supervisor and a leading hand the same words for the same hazard.
The four principles
Energy causes harm.
Every injury involves contact with some form of energy: gravity, motion, electricity, pressure, heat, chemicals. No energy, no injury.
More energy causes more harm.
Above about 1,500 joules, a serious injury or fatality becomes the most likely outcome of contact.
Controls save lives.
Some controls physically target the energy and still work when someone makes a mistake. Others rely on perfect behaviour. That difference decides who goes home.
People drive performance.
Workers are the ones who spot energy and check controls every day. They need a shared language and the skill to use it.
- Below about 500 joulesFirst aid
- Between 500 and 1,500 joulesMedical treatment or lost time
- Above about 1,500 joulesA serious injury or fatality
The tools
- The Energy Wheel
- Ten sources of energy, used as a check after instinct so crews find the hazards they have no category for. Interactive, printable, and free hard-hat stickers with your logo.
- EBS Wheelhouse app
- The wheel in your pocket, free on iOS and Android. A one-minute energy-based observation that tells you whether there is an uncontrolled high-energy hazard in front of you, and a card to send to your supervisor. Offline, no login.
- High-energy hazards and Direct Controls
- The threshold between what hurts and what kills, the plain-language list of what can kill you on site, and the test for a control that survives a mistake.
- Control assessment and assessor calibration
- Checking live work for whether each high-energy hazard has a Direct Control, and getting assessors to score the same control the same way.
- EBS and critical risk management
- How the method maps to critical risks, and what New Zealand's 1 April 2027 law change means for high-energy work.
The programme
Four workshops, every one with VR
Video teaches the ideas. Skill and shared judgement come from practice.
- Workshop 1
Energy-based hazard recognition
Why crews miss hazards, the research behind it, and the Energy Wheel in practice. In VR, learners find the hazards on a working site.
- Workshop 2
High-energy hazards and Direct Controls
The threshold, the stuff that kills you, the 3Ts, then Strong and Forgiving. Two VR modules: judge three high-energy situations, then test the controls on a site.
- Workshop 3
High-energy control assessment
Assess a task. Each high-energy hazard either has a Direct Control or is an exposure. The score is the ratio.
- Workshop 4
Assessor calibration, consistency and communication
The assessment rules applied consistently across assessors, and the conversation that follows an exposure. Four VR mini modules, each scored.
In the workshops every learner works a realistic scene and the facilitator sees every decision live. Each workshop runs 90 to 180 minutes, groups of ten to fifteen. Workshops 1 and 2 are for frontline teams, supervisors and leaders together; 3 and 4 for supervisors, H&S advisors and leaders. The system runs on a closed local network with no internet connection, so nothing leaves the room.
Two ways to run it
Both use the same programme, so a workshop pilot rolls into a licence without repeating anything.
We run it: facilitated workshops and VRGeneXR facilitators, our headsets, the four VR workshops with your crews, on site or remote.
You run it: IP licenceLicensed courseware, facilitator pack, activities and VR modules, your own people certified as trainers, and a managed VR fleet shipped to site.
Delivered in New Zealand and Australia.
Start here
- A pilot with your crews
- We run the four VR workshops with a real crew or a leadership cohort before you decide on a rollout.
- Read the book
- Energy-Based Safety: A Scientific Approach to Preventing Serious Injuries and Fatalities, by Dr Matthew Hallowell. The source of the method. Not ours; we just think you should read it.
Proven with New Zealand teams
- 5 to 7
out of 10: confidence spotting hidden hazards, before and after the first two workshops.
- 9 out of 10
The VR, for practising assessment.
- 8 of 8
who answered would recommend the workshops.
Marlborough Lines, December 2025: operations managers, team leaders, the HSEQ manager and the general manager in the room.
Marlborough LinesFirst full four-workshop pilot, December 2025 to January 2026
KiwiRail Wellington MetroPilot day, September 2026: about ten H&S representatives and risk team members, workshops 1 to 3 with VR, delivered with CHASNZ.
Delivered with partners CHASNZ and BetterWorx. Facilitators include Paul Robertson, Black Swan Safety.
What the research supports, and what it does not
A 2026 study in the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management found that energy-based safety combined with experiential, feedback-driven hazard scenarios produced strong perceived learning gains and engagement. The participants were 30 engineering students, the sample was small and the measures self-reported, and it did not test transfer to live work. We state it that way because that is what it says.
Pereira et al., Integrating Energy-Based Safety with Gamified Experiential Learning for Hazard-Recognition Training, J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 152(8), 2026. doi:10.1061/JCEMD4.COENG-18128
Questions
What is energy-based safety?
A way of preventing serious injuries and fatalities that starts from the energy in a task.
Is it a legal requirement in New Zealand or Australia?
No. It is a method, not a regulation. It supports PCBUs and officers in managing critical risks under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the model WHS laws, and in showing how they do it.
Does it replace critical risk management or HOP?
No. Critical risk programmes name the risks that can kill; HOP accepts that people make mistakes. EBS gives crews the energy model to recognise those risks in an unfamiliar task.
Do you deliver in Australia?
Yes. Remote delivery with shipped headsets, or on site, quoted by location.
Start with a pilot, or talk to us about what fits.