NFPA Announces Launch of Ecosystem Assessment Tool

The NFPA Fire & Life Safety Policy Institute announced the launch of the Ecosystem Assessment Tool that will help users identify gaps in a community’s capacity to support safety and draw on the results to advocate for specific changes that will better protect citizens and property. It is designed for professionals and practitioners responsible for building, electrical, and life safety including fire officials, building code enforcers, emergency managers, and policymakers, and is available in English, Spanish, and Arabic languages.

In the last decade, a number of tragic U.S. and international life safety incidents have put a spotlight on safety systems that repeatedly fail to protect the public and first responders. These incidents represent failures of the Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem™, a framework NFPA developed in 2018 that identifies the eight components that must work together to minimize risk and help prevent loss, injuries, and death from fire, electrical, and other hazards. Because breakdowns in one or more of the components are often revealed after a fire or life safety event occurs, the Ecosystem Assessment Tool gives communities the opportunity to revisit their safety practices before weaknesses in the system lead to tragedies.

Across the globe, communities differ in size, economic conditions, and governance structures. Through the user’s answers to a series of questions about the Ecosystem components, the tool is intended to shed light on gaps in safety systems regardless of the particular characteristics of a community. Upon completing the assessment, the user receives a score that rates the community as poor, fair, good, or excellent in its approach to safety. Provided with the score is a detailed breakdown for each Ecosystem component to help identify specific gaps that should be addressed.

“In today’s society, our changing infrastructure, new technology, evolving risks, and competing priorities all put pressure on maintaining strong fire and life safety protections,” said Meghan Housewright, director of the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Policy Institute. “The Ecosystem Assessment Tool gives communities the opportunity to see how well prepared they are to face disasters and what they need to do to help address fractures in their own fire and life safety ecosystems to create safer areas to live and work.”

While progress has been made in the last few decades regarding the fire problem, fire safety continues to lag behind other societal concerns that are often deemed more pressing. The Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem calls for a culture of best practices and accountability and serves as the blueprint for rebuilding our global safety infrastructure. Access the free Ecosystem Assessment Tool at nfpa.org/ecosystemtool.

Featured

  • AI Is Now the Leading Cybersecurity Concern for Security, IT Leaders

    Arctic Wolf recently published findings from its State of Cybersecurity: 2025 Trends Report, offering insights from a global survey of more than 1,200 senior IT and cybersecurity decision-makers across 15 countries. Conducted by Sapio Research, the report captures the realities, risks, and readiness strategies shaping the modern security landscape. Read Now

  • Analysis of AI Tools Shows 85 Percent Have Been Breached

    AI tools are becoming essential to modern work, but their fast, unmonitored adoption is creating a new kind of security risk. Recent surveys reveal a clear trend – employees are rapidly adopting consumer-facing AI tools without employer approval, IT oversight, or any clear security policies. According to Cybernews Business Digital Index, nearly 90% of analyzed AI tools have been exposed to data breaches, putting businesses at severe risk. Read Now

  • Software Vulnerabilities Surged 61 Percent in 2024, According to New Report

    Action1, a provider of autonomous endpoint management (AEM) solutions, today released its 2025 Software Vulnerability Ratings Report, revealing a 61% year-over-year surge in discovered software vulnerabilities and a 96% spike in exploited vulnerabilities throughout 2024, amid an increasingly aggressive threat landscape. Read Now

  • Motorola Solutions Named Official Safety Technology Supplier of the Ryder Cup through 2027

    Motorola Solutions has today been named the Official Safety Technology Supplier of the 2025 and 2027 Ryder Cup, professional golf’s renowned biennial team competition between the United States and Europe. Read Now

  • Evolving Cybersecurity Strategies

    Organizations are increasingly turning their attention to human-focused security approaches, as two out of three (68%) cybersecurity incidents involve people. Threat actors are shifting from targeting networks and systems to hacking humans via social engineering methods, living off human errors as their most prevalent attack vector. Whether manipulated or not, human cyber behavior is leveraged to gain backdoor access into systems. This mainly results from a lack of employee training and awareness about evolving attack techniques employed by malign actors. Read Now

New Products

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.

  • PE80 Series

    PE80 Series by SARGENT / ED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin

    ASSA ABLOY, a global leader in access solutions, has announced the launch of two next generation exit devices from long-standing leaders in the premium exit device market: the PE80 Series by SARGENT and the PED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin. These new exit devices boast industry-first features that are specifically designed to provide enhanced safety, security and convenience, setting new standards for exit solutions. The SARGENT PE80 and Corbin Russwin PED4000/PED5000 Series exit devices are engineered to meet the ever-evolving needs of modern buildings. Featuring the high strength, security and durability that ASSA ABLOY is known for, the new exit devices deliver several innovative, industry-first features in addition to elegant design finishes for every opening.