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Manager's Notebook: Communicating Environmental, Health and Safety Value

October 1, 2004By Richard MacLean

First identify the real obstacles to communication

Environmental, health and safety (EHS) managers are keenly aware that their careers and longevity within their organizations are dependent upon their ability to demonstrate that they bring something of value to the table beyond just the donuts for a meeting. It's a subject in need of considerable attention, especially in today's tight economy. This month we examine how to identify the communication barriers that impede real progress.

Living in a Post-Enron World

September 1, 2004By John L. Payne

A primer to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the new disclosure requirements related to environmental liabilities

It is no secret that the financial scandals of recent years have had a dramatic impact not just on the business world itself, but also on individual investors and government regulators. Enron, WorldComm, Tyco, MCI and others have entered the popular lexicon as words that will forever be associated with rampant greed and seemingly non-existent oversight. Whether we've seen the last of the fall of the giants, involving nearly incomprehensible loss of capital, is anyone's guess.

Site Closure Strategies

September 1, 2004By David H. Simpson, Rusty B. Norris, PE, PLS, RSM

Reducing the liabilities and costs of remediation by focusing on end results, continually reassessing project goals and controlling O&M expenses

U.S. industry faces the daunting task of managing investigations and clean-ups at thousands of contaminated properties. In staying abreast of new technology and ever-evolving regulatory programs, companies must address many challenges involving regulations, technologies, and costs.

Better Benchmarking

July 1, 2004By Richard MacLean

How to derive more value and insight in a survey-weary world

Benchmarking is an important tool for evaluating one's practices relative to best-in-class. If done properly, it can even inspire innovation. The majority of these studies, however, are designed and executed poorly and yield dubious or even counterproductive conclusions. Environmental, health and safety (EHS) studies, in particular, are prone to these problems.

Preparing for an Uncertain Future

June 1, 2004By Richard MacLean

Environmental strategic planning essentials

The very nature of environmental issues has grown much more complex: from local contamination to global impacts; from toxic hot spots to breaks at the DNA level; from pollution control to supply chain reliability; from regulations to voluntary product certifications; and so on. Strategic planning offers the best approach against being caught off guard, indeed to gain a competitive advantage. Here's how to go about it.

The Brink of Change

May 1, 2004By Anthony J. Buonicore, Dianne Crocker

The forces that govern the way environmental due diligence is conducted are changing; significantly, in some respects. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now in the final stages of drafting the first rule for "all appropriate inquiry" (AAI), a term for the investigation into a property's potential for environmental contamination prior to purchase.

The Search for Deep Green

May 1, 2004By Richard MacLean

Characteristics of companies that take environmental, health and safety performance seriously

Benchmarking is very much in vogue, but how do you identify the best in class? It is more difficult than you may imagine, since reputation and many of the readily available metrics are poor determinants of deep green. What are the ideal indicators? First and foremost, they are a shopping list of sound environmental, health and safety (EHS) practices for boards of directors who are worried about corporate governance and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002

Are You Ready?

April 1, 2004By Merrie Spaeth

Given the odds that something bad will happen at your facility at some point in the future, now is the time to prepare for dealing with an environmental crisis

Readers of this publication are typically highly trained and credentialed professionals; many have graduate degrees in technical fields. Whatever your field or job function, you can count on one more thing in addition to death and taxes: something will go wrong. We all followed the extensive, painful analysis after the blackout in 2003; the finger-pointing and bad publicity continues. If your company suffers a spill, emission, explosion, contamination, fatality or any one of a number other incidents, are you ready? Most people think crisis preparation and crisis communication are someone else's job.

Dust Off Your Plan

April 1, 2004By Pat Huff

Having an environmental management information system in place can help you to smoothly implement your company's stormwater pollution prevention plan

Has your stormwater pollution prevention plan been shelved along with the best intentions of your best management practices? If so, you are not alone. Leaner environmental, health and safety (EHS) staffs may appear more productive to management, but oftentimes these lean staffs inadvertently ignore aspects of their jobs, completing the activities with reporting deadlines and letting less-defined requirements gather dust in notebooks on the shelf.

If Neanderthals Become Homo Sapiens, Will Anyone Recognize the Difference?

April 1, 2004By Richard MacLean

Many industries have changed, but getting public opinion to change is another matter

Some companies have done horrific damage to Mother Nature out of greed and ignorance. Relatively few individuals have gotten extremely rich on the profits from businesses that passed-off the true costs of their operations to communities, workers and future generations who will be stuck with cleaning up the human and environmental wreckage.

Environmental Management Systems -- Part 2

March 1, 2004By Richard MacLean

Certification may be a requirement for entry into some markets, but aside from the public relations value, what else does a certified environmental management system offer? Not much, according to the results of recent research studies of conformance-based environmental management systems (EMS) such as ISO 14001 and Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).

Speaking of Risk

March 1, 2004By John P. Bachner

A primerThose who don't learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat mistakes of the past. You'd think everyone would know that by now; but, in truth, the ranks of the condemned continue to swell. Regrettably, many of them are environmental project managers who all wind up in the same dreadful spot: snared in the barbs of litigation.on how to select an environmental consultant

Environmental Management Systems

February 1, 2004By Richard MacLean

Do they provide real business value?

The winter meeting of the Auditing Roundtable was a wakeup call to environmental auditors. The keynote speaker did not mince words: Conformance-base environmental management systems, such as International Standardization Organization (ISO) 14001, are "fundamentally flawed." What is the point of auditing systems that don't bring value? If certification is not on management's must-do checklist to enable entry into certain markets, why are these systems needed? ... and who needs these auditors?

So You Need To Be a Consultant?

January 1, 2004By Richard MacLean

A survival guide to making the successful transition to being on your own

Many skilled senior professionals are finding themselves on their own, seeking employment for the first time after being forced to leave the "safe womb" of an organization that delivered their paycheck each month like clockwork.