In the 1980s, inspired by explosions that had seriously impacted the Gulf Coast area oil and gas industry and had taken multiple lives, a local group of concerned business owners and stakeholders set upon the idea of forming a safety council.
The new organization would proactively address hazards, policies and procedures of the growing energy industry, and would act as a resource of education for the burgeoning workforce.
On September 25, 1990, the Houston Area Safety Council (HASC) was born.
"I was there. It was at two o'clock," said Luis Aguilar, the council's first employee.
There was a strong volunteer spirit even in those formative years, Aguilar, now the council's chief executive officer, recalled at the 2022 EHS Seminar & Industry Trade Show, held recently in Galveston, Texas.
"Without that volunteer spirit, we would not have been able to accomplish what we have done, but we had humble beginnings," he said.
The group's first challenge was to find a facility in Pasadena, Texas, but the group initially raised only a small amount of seed money.
"We took what we had, and we started the business in a one-room garage office," Aguilar said.
After this humble start, the group found a facility on Center Street in Deer Park, Texas, where they could expand.
Aguilar dreamed of building something that would leave a legacy. "It was really a horrible place," he continued, laughing. But Aguilar was confident they "could transform it into something better. You've got to dream."
In HASC's first year, 75 people volunteered "day in, day out to help me," Aguilar said. "We created a learning center, and that team of volunteers taught more than 30,000 safety training units."
Their mission was very clear - to build safe workplaces by improving the quality and integrity of the workforce.
"That's very powerful," Aguilar added. "You know, life has no price. We have to take care of people."
It soon became evident that HASC had another challenge.
"One hundred industries in the Houston Ship Channel needed site-specific training. It was no longer generic training. This was a new mandate," Aguilar said.
Tapping into their creativity, the group built their own multi-media machines in-house at the Safety Council.
Aguilar then told the committee he needed $1 million for coding software. The veteran committee, made up of "gray hair, blue hair and nohair" individuals, Aguilar said, was incredulous. At that time, that sum was far greater than the worth of their building.
Eventually, the funds were obtained. The result was HASC winning a national award recognizing its computer-based training.
Next generation of safety training
Fast-forward to 2014 when the new 34,000-square feet HASC opened in Pasadena, not only offering vital training but also expanding to include physical examinations, drug screen testing collections, vaccinations and 24-hour injury care. The next phase of expansion was completed in 2015 to offer skills development, an occupational health center and retail space. By 2020 the Pasadena campus expanded with three e-Learning labs to meet the demand of more than 2,000 trainees each day.
"We have e-Learning, we have instructor-led student development," Aguilar said. "There are many things we do for the industry."
The opening of a satellite campus in Baytown and the NASA campus in Webster, Texas brought with it a more geographically appropriate name change - the Health and Safety Council (HASC).
Aguilar's pride in HASC is evident.
"You have to dream big. And here we are, we have a beautiful facility. It's state of the art, and it's the largest safety facility in the United States and possibly, the largest in the whole world. Everything is bigger in Texas!"
Aguilar said the center's current strategy is that "we can reach out to the whole world."
"We have a team that will take safety training to the next level and continue to provide for this great industry that we're very proud of. The sky's the limit."
