The Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines are technical reference documents with general and industry-specific examples of Good International Industry Practice (GIIP) and are referred to in the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework and in IFC’s Performance Standards.
The EHS Guidelines contain the performance levels and measures that are normally acceptable to the World Bank Group, and that are generally considered to be achievable in new facilities at reasonable costs by existing technology.
The World Bank Group requires borrowers/clients to apply the relevant levels or measures of the EHS Guidelines. When host country regulations differ from the levels and measures presented in the EHS Guidelines, projects will be required to achieve whichever is more stringent.
General EHS Guidelines
The General EHS Guidelines contain information on cross-cutting environmental, health, and safety issues potentially applicable to all industry sectors. This document should be used together with the relevant Industry Sector Guideline(s).
General EHS Guidelines (full document)
Translations: Français | Español | русский | 简体中文 | عربي | Tiếng Việt
The General EHS Guidelines contain the following information (links below in English only):
1. Environmental
1.1 Air Emissions and Ambient Air Quality
1.3 Wastewater and Ambient Water Quality
1.5 Hazardous Materials Management
2. Occupational Health and Safety
2.1 General Facility Design and Operation
2.2 Communication and Training
2.3 Physical Hazards
2.4 Chemical Hazards
2.5 Biological Hazards
2.6 Radiological Hazards
2.7 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
2.8 Special Hazard Environments
2.9 Monitoring
3. Community Health and Safety
3.1 Water Quality and Availability
3.2 Structural Safety of Project Infrastructure
3.3 Life and Fire Safety (L&FS)
3.4 Traffic Safety
3.5 Transport of Hazardous Materials
3.6 Disease Prevention
3.7 Emergency Preparedness and Response
4. Construction and Decommissioning
4.1 Environment
4.2 Occupational Health and Safety
4.3 Community Health and Safety
Industry Sector Guidelines
Acknowledgements: The IFC team would like to thank the team of the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) for the dedication in translating the EHS Guidelines into Chinese and in making a joint handbook on "International Experience in Promoting Green Credit: The Equator Principles and the IFC Performance Standards and Guidelines" possible.
Disclaimer: The Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation. The official text is the English version of the Guidelines. Any discrepancies or differences created in the translation are not binding and have no legal effect for compliance. If any questions arise related to the accuracy of the information contained in the translated Guidelines, please refer to the English version.