Deep technical expertise
Systems thinking advisors with decades of operational leadership in high consequence environments. We combine technical rigour with a practical understanding of how organizations operate and the challenges they face
Whitespace Risk ManAgement
The Greatest Risk is Thinking There is None.
Whitespace helps organizations prevent workplace fatalities by transforming how they manage risk, exposing hidden gaps before catastrophic events occur.
Fort McMurray headquartered
Trusted by leaders in high-risk operations
Operational clarity
Identify dormant weak spots in your system before they become fatal.
The Problem We Solve
The Problem we Solve
Most organizations don't experience fatalities because they ignore safety. They experience them because gaps in their risk management systems stay invisible until a catastrophic event happens.
Traditional risk systems are designed to prevent general harm. The controls that prevent people from dying are different — they are fewer, deeper, and more dependent on how work is actually done.
The answer is rarely more paperwork. It is a better process — one that exposes weak spots early and makes critical controls unmistakably clear.
Whitespace
What We Do
We help organizations implement hard change, evolving how they think about and manage fatality risk through process and people development. Moving from compliance driven systems to building awareness of fatality risk prevention via practical solutions that work where the work actually happens.
Service Approach
Practical guidance anchored in frontline reality, delivered with the credibility of leaders who have run complex, high risk operations.
Big thinking & Movement driven
We' partner with regulators to rethink how regulatory guidance can evolve to help drive lower fatality rates
Co-create and embedd
Whitespace evolves what you have by working within your own management systems. We don't build separate disconnected processes
Clear evidenced based systems grounded in industry data and frontline expertise
Through industry evidence and engaging frontline expertise, we simplify risk mgmt. to reduce noise and focus on risk and controls that actually prevent fatalities.
Experts in organizational design and leadership fundamentals
Seasoned senior leaders with decades of experience in organizational design, process transformation, and leadership development and coaching
Credibility from real execution
Guidance shaped by 40 years experience leading large scale industrial operations, not by frameworks and theory alone.
TEAM
Who We Are
Led by seasoned operators, we partner with organizations to strengthen fatality risk management and build higher performing systems.
Andrew C.W. Robinson, P. Eng.
Managing Partner
Senior leader with over two decades in Canada's energy sector across oilsands upstream operations and downstream refining; strategic clarity; leads hard changes; trusted voice in collective bargaining and organizational redesign; Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Carleton University; systems thinking approach to operational excellence, safety transformation, and inclusive team development.
Danielle Buffett, CMA
Managing Partner
Senior leader with 20 years in northern Canadian oil and gas operations; expertise in complex high risk environments; led large scale industrial turnaround and maintenance execution teams; built organizational structures; managed budgets up to 1.2B; known for presence, humour, and inclusiveness; community leadership roles including Executive Director for the Fort McMurray Heritage Society and Treasurer of the Wood Buffalo Equestrian Association.
WHITESPACE
Our Story
Whitespace began with a simple conviction: great work should be both deeply thoughtful and genuinely human. What started as conversations about core values evolved into a practice built on collaboration, curiosity, and care. We are drawn to projects where clients want to make real and measurable improvements in fatality risk.
Contact
Start a practical conversation about fatality risk.
We partner with leaders across oil and gas, mining, refining, construction, and industrial operations to surface hidden risk, strengthen leadership capability, and improve operational performance. If you’re ready to examine the gaps that matter most, we’re ready to listen.
Headquartered in Fort McMurray
Serving northern operations and beyond
Let’s connect
Share a brief overview of your current challenges or objectives. We’ll respond with next steps for a focused, confidential discussion.
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