U.S. EPA coal regulations, an alarming OSHA whistleblower case and more on EHS This Week

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Paul Leavoy

We’ve got a slew of great environmental, health and safety news content on this episode of EHS This Week. Some of our highlights include:

Significant news on an EPA coal regulation making it through the U.S. senate.
An alarming and possibly historic whistleblower case.
News on AIHA’s recommendations for OSHA and a whole lot more.

Remember that you can always write us with your suggestions, questions and comments at paul@ehsthisweek.com. Also, if you are an industry expert and ever want to take part in the program, we’d love to have you.

Until next week, enjoy the program!

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Corporate recycling, sunny side-up

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Maxim Ivlev

Food manufacturing and packaging go hand in hand. What may not be so obvious, however, is that the links between the two are about to become a lot more, er, ineggstricable. That’s right, thanks to some pioneering work out of England, we’ve learned that eggs themselves may contain the answers to some of the world’s environmental woes.

Scientists out of the University of Leicester in England are currently investigating the use of disposed eggshells, which currently either end up in landfill or are used in pharmaceuticals to help with cartilage and connective tissue problems. The biodegradable proteins found in the egg shell can be potentially formed into a starch-based plastic very similar to numerous forms of existing materials used in packaging warehouses. Sounds simple, but the outcome could bring great change to the packaging world. Find out more here

As the article explains: The aim of the current project is to adapt the proteins to create a starch-based plastic that could then “bulk up” existing plastics and be molded into anything from shop fitting to supermarket meal trays. The biodegradable composite material is being lined up to make egg boxes, to serve as a practical example of closed-loop recycling.

In the ongoing search to become more socially and environmentally conscious, and in light of this innovative research, it’s worth asking what other cost-effective solutions can we eggstract within our own organizations.

Intelex makes a strong presence at NAEM EHS forum

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Kyle Dodsworth

I’m currently at the EHS NAEM Management Forum in Tucson, Arizona, and I wanted to update you all on what a fantastic experience everyone is having so far.

The main trade show floor is electric, with top industry personnel networking on best practices in environmental, health and safety management. I’m a big advocate of all the information sessions that have been held throughout this show as well, a powerful incentive for folks attending this conference from around the world.

In addition to the show, I’ve been asked to be a part of the NAEM Council on behalf of Intelex Technologies, and I couldn’t be more proud.

The Intelex family has grown significantly from NAEM events over the years, with valuable relationships established. As seen in this photo, here are a few of our friends. Dawn Krueger from 3M (middle), Marty Moran from General Mills (left). That’s me on the right.

Weighing in on the 14001 debate

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

ISO 14001 certified? Perhaps you plan on being certified, or maybe you’re just wondering what certification actually means.

Well, if ISO 14001, the world’s foremost standard specification for environmental management systems, is on your mind at all, you might want to take a look at a little article I wrote over at Greenbiz.

“Is ISO 14001 Certification Still Relevant?“ begins to discuss what certification actually means in a world where polluters and emitters are able to achieve and retain certification – not to mention the connotation of the ‘green’ or environmentally responsible image that comes with it – even when they might not actually be doing that much good for the environment at all.

After reading, be sure to check out the comments section below the article for the spirited conversation the article inspired among industry experts.

To integrate, or not to integrate… Part 4

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

We’ll conclude our discussion on Integrated Management Systems by looking at the supposed ‘Holy Grail’ of business management: a management system that goes many steps further than simply EHS and quality concerns, and is applied across all business lines, even those outside EHS and Quality realms. This would be a truly integrated management system that could cover areas such as corporate governance, sustainability…basically any business processes and activities.

For example, document control, Corporate Social Responsibility, auditing, and training could be governed along the same integrated management standards. According to Robert Pojasek’s 2006 article in Environment Quality Management, one synergistic or ‘umbrella’ system could enable an organization to ensure the quality of its products…and demonstrate that those products are consistent with the organization’s vision, mission, core values and objectives.”

This idea is based on the premise that, by some means or other, all business activities overlap with some other (if not all other) business activities, so rather than treating each consideration as a watertight compartment, apply the same form of a management system across all

The basic integration of ISHQ considerations could open the gateway to a holistic and synergistic approach to all business concerns, but this can be an ambitious and sometimes fruitless endeavour if the business in question is not of a size and scope necessary to warrant facing the logistical challenges demanded by such an organizational shift.

As mentioned, the essential message is that businesses shouldn’t integrate systems for the sake of integration, but rather when a clear business benefit of integration is identified. That said, if the end goal is a seamless, organization-wide management system, keep scalability at the top of your mind as you evaluate management system options, including software solutions.

EPA extends power plant emissions deadline…slightly

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

While its ambitious agenda to curb greenhouse gases (GHG) has been delayed, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still moving ahead in full force to have power plants – one of the biggest contributors of GHGs – cut emissions drastically.

The EPA announced late last year it would move to push new, strict emissions performance standards on plants and refineries. The move faced stiff opposition from U.S. Republicans, as well as some others opposed to imposed limits on emissions, since it was viewed as a move by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to make up for the fact President Barack Obama failed to pass promised environmental legislation in his first term in office. However, the EPA had a legal mandate from the Supreme Court to move forward on carbon emissions cuts.

This week the EPA indicating it is budging, but only slightly. Its new deadline for proposing a GHG performance standard has been moved to September 30, two months later than the initially proposed July 26 deadline.

While power plants across the U.S. may breathe a collective sigh of relief that the deadline is not mere weeks away, this is but an eight week extension. Tracking, reporting, and mitigating GHG emissions will be the new reality for all power plants and refineries by the end of the year.

What’s the best plan? Well, since you can’t manage what you don’t measure, start tracking carbon emissions immediately.

While the current rule may apply only to the biggest emitters – refineries and power plants represent more than 40 per cent of nationwide emissions, according to the EPA – eventually all businesses will need to move towards emissions reporting and reduction. So what’s stopping you? Track and report on emissions now. It can be cost-effective, cheap and – counterintuitively – generate substantial financial rewards.

Did I mention we make software for that?

Successful Sustainability Strategy Series: Tip #5 — Communicate your performance

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

We’ve covered the importance of developing a proactive plan, quantifying financial gains, understanding the role of metrics, and using software to manage your sustainability program for the most effective results.

Today let’s talk about the often overlooked element of a winning sustainability program: communicating your progress.

5. Communicate Commitment/Performance to Stakeholders: While the primary function of sustainability initiatives will be the returns they deliver through conservation efforts and a number of other cost-savings effects, don’t miss the boat on the wealth of opportunities that accompany clearly communicating sustainability efforts and accomplishments to stakeholders. When developing a sustainability strategy, consider incorporating an ongoing sustainability reporting plan that conforms to existing frameworks (such as the IIRC, GRI and others).

While some critics have complained that comprehensive sustainability reporting can dominate resources and distract from essential business operations, proper planning, resource allocation and the use of software solutions (with configurable reporting capabilities) can render reporting a seamless and automatic process.

Even before sustainability benchmarks have been achieved, once a commitment to sustainable development has been solidified by way of a documented sustainability strategy, an organization can begin touting its agenda. The marketing, publicity, sales and customer relations benefits that flow from flaunting environmental, social and financial sustainability are too substantial to ignore.

In closing

We hope you’ve enjoyed our overview of the elements we believe are integral to a successful sustainability strategy. Please share your thoughts with us! We’ve barely scratched the surface of what can be a nuanced, multilayered file, but we’ve tried to provide some beginner-level guidance to the uninitiated organization that aspires to be more sustainable.

As a parting thought, do not fall into the trap many newcomers to the sustainability game find themselves in by being either overly ambitious or forgetting to frame priorities accurately. Remember that your organization is a business first and foremost: instead of framing your business priorities in terms of environmental issues, frame environmental issues in terms of your business priorities.

Successful Sustainability Strategy Series: Tip #4 — Forecast and track with software

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

So far in our week-long discussion on building a successful sustainability strategy, we’ve reviewed the importance of developing a proactive plan, quantifying financial gains, and understanding the role of metrics.

Now let’s turn our attention to another critical aspect and something that’s dear to our hearts at Intelex: the role of software. Yes, it could be argued we’re more than marginally invested in the role software plays in sustainability, but we still deeply believe it is an essential part of building an effective program.

4. Use Software to Track Metrics and Forecast: Certainly, though conventional paper- and spreadsheet-based platforms can be and are used to track environmental, social and economic performance, the advantage of integrated software solutions over such archaic means is undisputable.

In particular, some configurable software products already geared towards streamlining the management of EHS systems can be extended to cover most if not all aspects of a complete sustainability program.

Moreover, some systems are prepared to capture, correlate, assess and automatically report on sustainability data, eliminating the time and effort spent on manual data collection, entry and assessment by employees—personnel that could most likely focus their energy on improving the caliber and scope of your sustainability program.

By automating the assessment and reporting on key sustainability metrics with software, organizations can analyze trends and forecast to streamline the allocation of resources and identify potential weaknesses in their sustainability programs and, critically, cut costs.

Successful Sustainability Strategy Series: Tip #3 — The role of metrics

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

We’ve discussed the value of a proactive strategy and quantifying financial gains in building a sustainability strategy.

Today we’ll look at another critical component of a sustainability strategy that is the heart of the adage “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

3. Understand the Role of Metrics: Before you make your first step into the world of sustainability – before you install that first compact fluorescent lightbulb – it’s imperative to understand you need to know where you’re at.

Along the lines of the lightbulb example above, it can be as simple as starting with an energy audit of your plants, offices, sites and other business units. If you know where you’re at, you can begin to set goals and targets, key elements of any successful sustainability strategy. The progress achieved through each action and each campaign within your sustainability strategy will be much more significant if they can be measured against where you were at when you launched your strategy.

Without defined, tracked sustainability metrics, you have no sustainability program. Not only will you be unable to monitor the success of sustainability initiatives and continually improve sustainability performance, you won’t be able to tie such initiatives to ROI and you won’t be able to share your track record with stakeholders.

Successful Sustainability Strategy Series: Tip #2 — Calculate the ROI

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

Yesterday we discussed the role of developing a proactive plan in building a successful sustainability strategy.

Today is all about a term CFOs, VPs, Directors, executive team members like to hear a lot: ROI.

2. Calculate the ROI: You may have achieved the buy-in of senior management, or your CEO may have provided a clear mandate to undertake sustainable development initiatives. Either way, acknowledge sustainability programs are an investment and spell-out in clear, concrete terms the tangible ROI a sustainability strategy will generate on a short- and long-term basis.

As suggested above, some indirect savings values will be coloured by probabilities and expressed as ranges. However, an honest, comprehensive breakdown — which can be developed in-house or facilitated by a consultant or software solutions provider in many cases — will give your organization a clear analysis of what gains can be expected from the adoption of a comprehensive sustainable development program.

As the years roll on, your organization can compare actual data against ROI expectations to tweak its sustainability program for the most effective results.