Explanation
In management system standards, risk thinking goes beyond safety. You look at everything that can affect your objectives: customers who drop out, a supplier who fails, new regulations, a shortage of skilled people. And you look at opportunities, such as a new market or a smarter process.
You usually record risks and opportunities in a register: description, estimate of likelihood and effect, measure, owner and the date of the next review. You choose what to do with a risk: avoid, reduce, share or accept it. If something changes in your environment, you update the register.
A risk and opportunity register is broader than a risk assessment (RI&E), which focuses on hazards to safety and health. The RI&E does provide input for your register, just like your environmental aspects, your FMEAs and the analysis of context and interested parties. That way everything fits together instead of separate lists.
Example from practice
A manufacturer that depends on a single supplier for a critical component records a risk of supply problems and chooses a second supplier as the measure. A new subsidy scheme for energy saving is recorded as an opportunity.
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