Forty-five years after Rachel Carson jump-started the environmental
movement by publishing the book, Silent Spring, it is gratifying to
report that Americans fully embrace the concept of environmental
stewardship.
Dream on.
As any enviro advocate would sadly lament, the goals of
"sustainable development" being pursued so vigorously within
Western Europe and many other areas of the world are lost on many
Americans. Try telling any U.S. family of four to confine their
weekly trash into one or two small receptacles, as they do in many
countries, and you'll hear wails of protest.
While 95 percent of adult Americans endorse environmental
education, fewer than 60 percent claim to recycle newspapers,
plastic, and glass, according to a Roper survey. And fewer than two
Americans in 10 say they frequently use alternative transportation
or participate in volunteer programs such as land cleanup days,
says the Washington, D.C.-based National Environmental Education
Foundation.
But help is on the way, especially from many leading corporations
at the vanguard of environmental stewardship. Some 39 such
companies have joined an organization called the Global
Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI), where they help develop
tools and strategies that enable businesses to foster
environmental, health, and safety excellence. Also based in
Washington, D.C., GEMI provides a forum for corporate environmental
leaders throughout the world to work together, learn from each
other, benchmark with peers, and create tools for use by GEMI
members and others.
For example, it has just unveiled the GEMI Metrics Navigator, a
tool aimed at helping companies set goals and communicate
performance around EHS values and strategies.
"The tool helps companies align sustainability and other programs
with their core business strategies to drive performance
improvement and behavior changes," says Leslie Montgomery,
environmental stewardship program manager of the Southern Company
and co-chair of the work group. "Nobody has ever done this," she
claims.
In addition, GEMI is a founding partner of the Business
Roundtable's new sustainable growth initiative called SEE Change
(Society, Environment and Economy). The initiative encourages
leading U.S. companies to embrace business strategies and projects
that measurably improve society, the environment, and the economy.
Paralleling this activity at many organizations is a broad effort
to increase awareness and training of EHS issues among employees
and other stakeholders, says Montgomery. "As companies evolve from
compliance to prevention to eco efficiency and beyond, they are
bringing their employees along," she says. While some of these
initiatives flow from the top down, others spring from within
employee ranks. Indeed, more and more people are recognizing that
just like safety, concern for the environment is everyone's
responsibility, says Montgomery.
Not surprisingly, Southern Company finds itself at the forefront of
corporations that involve employees in environmental stewardship
initiatives. The Atlanta-based utility, one of the country's
largest generators of electricity, offers a smorgasbord of
environmental awareness and training programs for employees as well
as awards and recognition activities and corporate-wide
conservation initiatives.
Enviro training and awareness is one component of the firm's
environmental management system. It includes job-specific training
tailored to an employee's responsibilities. All environmental
training is directed by the company's top enviro manager, with
specific input from corporate communications and training
departments, says Montgomery. Environmental training coordinators
follow that department's directives in developing and delivering
enviro training.
Even the company's board of directors is included in the mix, says
Montgomery. Southern has created workshops for board members and
others that include web portals for specific information, such as
the fast-changing landscape of climate change. At a recent workshop
held for the board, experts offered regulatory, policy, and
technological perspectives of numerous enviro issues that affect
the company.
To encourage environmental stewardship among employees, Southern
created its LEAF Award (Leaders for Environmental Action for the
Future) in 1999. It recognizes individuals and facilities for
initiatives including pollution prevention, community engagement,
and stewardship. The internal program, which is not publicized
outside the company, offers cash awards and grants for winning
environmental causes.
Companies such as Southern are discovering that a strong commitment
to EHS stewardship, and the effective communication of those
policies to internal and external stakeholders, makes solid
business sense. "People would rather work for and with
environmentally responsible organizations," says Carol Singer
Neuvelt, executive director of NAEM, an organization for EHS
managers. She says there is a strong correlation between
environmental excellence and employee satisfaction and retention.
In addition, she says, companies are developing solid metrics to
measure the effectiveness of their environmental policies. They
include Baxter Healthcare, which has spearheaded efforts to track
and minimize its environmental footprint. Baxter is known for its
recycling efforts and its integration of environmental
considerations at all levels of manufacturing and distribution.
NAEM, formerly known as the National Association for Environmental
Management, tracks the growth of certain enviro training and
communications activities among its 800 member companies. They have
increased dramatically within the past decade, says Neuvelt.
Many environmentally conscious companies have opted to win
accreditation from the International Organization for
Standardization. ISO's 14000 standard sets high benchmarks for a
participating company's environmental management system (EMS),
including a requirement for general awareness training for
employees. Customized courses developed under the standard detail a
facility's EMS system, the environmental compliance policy
developed for it as well as specific impacts that affect the site.
Development of site-specific courseware for the standard is a brisk
market, says Lori Shearer, an executive with Capaccio Environmental
Engineering, Marlborough, Mass. The company has offered a training
course under the standard for six years aimed at increasing
awareness of how a company meets its EMS obligations. The
e-learning course also helps prepare personnel for registration and
surveillance audits, she says. It can also be used to train
suppliers, contractors, and others about the company EMS.
At the Southern Company, ISO accreditation is not being sought
because the utility has other regulatory compliance standards to
meet including more stringent recordkeeping burdens, explains Milan
McGill, head of Southern's environmental compliance activities.
Since ISO audits don't guarantee compliance with any government
regulator, its benefit to Southern is minimal, he says. "However,
we are consistent with many standards in the United States
including ISO," he says.
Another environmental priority at Southern is land and natural
resource conservation. Its efforts are anchored by three major
programs conducted in partnership with the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation - Power of Flight, Longleaf Legacy, and Five
Star Restoration. The company has committed $10.5 million through
2013 to undertake conservation and biodiversity projects through
these three programs. With matching funds from the National Fish
and Wildlife Foundation and project grantees, more than $33 million
will go toward conservation in the Southeast. Through 2005, 48
grants were awarded and are in action.
The Southern Company executives, like many of their colleagues
within GEMI, are optimistic about the slow but steady awakening in
the corporate world to the goals of environmental stewardship.
"U.S. companies are much more aware of this issue than they were 15
years ago," claims Montgomery. She hopes that with new tools such
as Metrics Navigator to help firms plot their enviro goals, the
business world's green movement will move into high gear.