June 30, 2008 by Frances , and admin | Filed under: In the industry and in the workplace [1, 2, 3],Overview | No Comments »
Click here for word document summary of conclusions.
Findings of 2nd Environmental Leadership Symposium- EM in Workplace
Comments are welcome.
June 18, 2008 by Scott Wolcott , John Morelli , and admin | Filed under: Competencies of the Environmental Manager [2, 3, 4],Overview | 1 Comment »
Greetings,
Our task is to determine the optimum skill set for a successful environmental manager. Should he or she share more of the characteristics of a manager or a engineer/scientist? Or, perhaps more accurately, which of these characteristics and skills should the environmental manager have?
Attached are two documents. The first is a summary of the professional characteristics of business managers and engineer/scientists. Included in this document are generalized personality traits of people who tend to become either business managers or engineers/scientists. The personality traits are based on work by Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss Psychiatrist. I’m not certain that this information is particularly relevant to our discussion, but I found it interesting.
The second document is a simple worksheet that we might use at the symposium to list the skill sets that define the manager and engineer/scientist.
Cheers,
Scott
June 17, 2008 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Overview,The Goal of the Environmental Manager [1, 2, 3, 4] | No Comments »
Hello all,
I will be leading a workshop entitled “The Goal of the Environmental Manager” at the Environmental Management Leadership Symposium being held at the Corvinus University in Budapest, Hungary. I’m looking forward to presenting some interesting views on the goals of the environmental management profession; some of the issues that we will be discussing in this particular workshop include:
What are the current goals of the profession?
Is there a consensus on these goals?
Where are these goals taking the profession? (What are the goals driving us toward?)
I look forward to working with you all!
June 17, 2008 by Scott Wolcott and John Morelli | Filed under: Competencies of the Environmental Manager [2, 3, 4],Overview | No Comments »
Greetings,
I’m looking forward to working on this topic. Attached is a brief overview of the general workshop topic and a proposed outline for our discussion.
Cheers,
May 28, 2008 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Impact of the Wal-Mart Sustainability Scorecard [1],Overview | No Comments »
The Wal-Mart Sustainability Scorecard is but one of many metrics/scorecards/calculators used in regard to sustainable practices. The findings of this workshop were that there were conflicting interests at play that make the use of the scorecard challenging. Additionally, there was a consensus view that the scorecard could effect the supply chain in both directions (“up and down the supply chain”), however, the scorecard has a scope that is somewhat limited in that it currently only applies to North America. Some issues that were also discussed was that there must be dedicated resources in order to use the scorecard, it is challenging to develop common terminology when using the scorecard, and unfortunately the number of scorecard uploads has not met expectations since the inception of the Wal-Mart Sustainability Scorecard.
May 28, 2008 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Overview,The EM as an Industrial Ecologist [1] | No Comments »
Environmental managers are evolving to become sustainability managers.
Their analytic perspective needs to move from a risk/hazard mentality to resilience/sustainability mentality.
Current Strategies for Resilience
Business
• Contingency Planning
• Supply Chain Diversity
• Supply Chain Ownership
Environmental
• Source Reduction
• Personal Protection
• Remediation
What is needed is capability to change, adapt, and be flexible to market place, regulatory, and environmental conditions.
We need to move from our current linear system of resource use and production to a network that mimics a natural ecosystem.
“Industrial symbiosis” is a network in which regional companies can use each other’s material and energy wastes and share resources to achieve higher efficiencies in resource use.
An “eco-industrial park” is a similar but perhaps broader network concept focusing more on benefiting the communities.
Both build resiliency because the components each become part of the interdependent network and recognize the robustness of maintaining the relationships.
Environmental managers can benefit from the strategy in a variety of ways and it also provides opportunities to simultaneously benefit the business end of the operation.
May 28, 2008 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Overview,Sustainability Labeling and Consumer Education [1,2] | No Comments »
There is a need to inform consumers on sustainability of products to enable them to make informed purchasing decisions, and subsequently there is much need for identifying and effectively assessing methods to inform consumers.
This workshop produced a few consensus thoughts on sustainability labeling & consumer education; such as on the topic of what makes a label an effective information tool, it was determined that consumers need to be able to adequately recognize the label and know what the label implies; additionally, these labels need the right balance of information (not too much, not too little).
With regard to what factors influence a consumer’s willingness to purchase sustainable products, the workshop groups felt that perceived personal gain (quality of the product, social pressures to buy sustainable products, cost vs. disposable income, etc.) played a significant role.
This workshop also discussed what information should be disclosed, and it was felt that there was a divide between what consumers want to know ( i.e., , and what “experts” think consumers need to know.
– Social issues
– child labor, living wage, labor health and safety conditions, investment in community, where product was made, where resources originated
– Product safety issues
– hazardous materials content
– Environmental issues
– carbon footprint, energy efficiency, product quality/durability, reliability, recyclability, recycled content, waste output
– Need to find out what works best for consumer
• Recognizable, meaning understood
• Consider ways to normalize information to account for impact related to quantity (per unit of product or use)
• Limited/simplified info on product (label) with more detailed information on criteria provided separately (e.g., insert, bar code)
May 28, 2008 by Brian Butler and John Morelli | Filed under: In the industry and in the workplace [1, 2, 3],Overview | No Comments »
There was consensus that environmental managers in the workplace are change agents who lead the workplace beyond compliance and ultimately towards sustainability.
Definition: A Change agent is a person whose presence or thought processes cause a change from the traditional way of handling or thinking about a problem.
Business Dictionary. Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.
Environmental managers can do this by:
learning the business from the corporate level to the facility level and knowing
effectively using EHS management systems and the system’s components.
making the business case (i.e., identifying opportunities and impacts to the bottom line) and using business tools (i.e., quality tools, lean thinking, six sigma)
understanding the formal and informal organizational structure
using risk-based thinking
consensus building
proactively educating others
actively crafting their own jobs within the organization
Environmental managers must also take responsibility for their profession and must actively craft their own job.
May 28, 2008 by Brian Butler , and admin | Filed under: Overview,What Should Be Measured and Why? [1,3] | No Comments »
For this workshop, the underlying assumption was that as a society we need to measure the environmental performance of every company, due in part to the concept that we cannot manage what we cannot measure properly. There were multiple examples of “what to measure” discussed during this workshop; for example, outcomes vs. drivers, absolute vs. relative indicators, industry specific vs. company specific, as well as measuring improvements over time.
To answer the “why” portion of this topic, the results of the workshop give the following examples of why to measure environmental performance: measuring performance can help to show the quality of the environment; regulatory compliance is another reason for performance measures; competitive advantage, as well as risk management (reduction of environmental liabilities) were also given as examples during this workshop.
With regard to the role of the environmental manager in performance measures, the workshops produced the following examples of how the environmental manager figures into this topic:
the EM is responsible for linking targets between environmental performance and corporate performance;
EMs must convince corporate managers on returns on environmental performance measurement and improvement;
EMs must communicate the results of performance measurement to stakeholders;
EMs must work toward organizing the performance management process;
EMs must also set attractive targets, specify indicators, quantify indicators, make reports for managers, and help to shift the corporate culture toward acceptance of environmental responsibilities.
May 28, 2008 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Life-Cycle-Analysis (LCA) [1], [4],Overview | No Comments »
At the conclusion of this workshop, there was a general feeling that environmental managers must be aware of several key issues with regard to Life Cycle Analysis; these were: exactly what LCA tools are available, how these tools can be applied, how to guide others with regard to the application of these tools, and how to communicate the results of the LCA.
Additionally, environmental managers should have input on the development of LCA models and their input could be of particular value in multiple ways such as in deciding how to bound the analysis, in determining what type of data can be made available and how the data will be integrated into the model.
This workshop revealed that there seemed to be broad consensus that LCA tools can generate information that help inform the sorts of decisions faced by environmental managers; however, the tools are so dependent upon the assumptions invoked by the analyst that extrapolation and dissemination of LCA results is very risky and should be avoided. It is interesting that the recommendation is to not extrapolate or disseminate. Dissemination would open the finding up to review and generally the same kind of rigorous re-examination typical to scientific method. If the results are so dependent on the assumptions of the analyst, how will the assumptions be tested?
Also the question was asked if there are any LCA models or modules that can be added to existing LCA models that would incorporate social responsibility or elements of sustainability. No one was aware that any such models or modules existed.
