Insights on Effective Environmental Programs

Recently, I had the opportunity to represent ALL4 at Mapistry’s Environmental Compliance Summit in Atlanta. Although I enjoyed each of the sessions, there were some particularly insightful takeaways I had from networking with some of the most effective environmental compliance program managers across a multitude of industries. Here are the four most impactful things I learned at the Summit:

Empowering Environmental Leaders

Most of the people in attendance at the Summit were part of environmental compliance organizations that are responsible for many facilities and media. With each person I spoke to, it was clear that they relied on large teams to execute specific responsibilities. One crucial ingredient to these strong teams is an effective leader. A common frustration that was voiced was the lack of time and resources available to focus on being a leader for their team. Instead, they often found themselves putting out fires or grinding through tedious tasks. During my panel, I was asked what I see work well in teams responsible for large environmental programs. The most consistent trait I see in large environmental programs is the presence of a true leader of the team. Someone who is ultimately accountable for the performance of the group but is empowered by his or her company to do so by providing adequate resources. This answer elicited a lot of head nods from the crowd and my fellow panel member (Mary Jo Press) even throwing in an “amen”!

Utilizing Technology to Increase Productivity

Being a technology company, Mapistry attracted environmental leaders that are passionate about using technology to their advantage. I’m only a decade into my career; however, during that relatively short period of time the use of technologies such as Mapistry has shifted from being a “nice-to-have” to being a necessity for any mature environmental program. One of the primary reasons for a lack of leadership in environmental programs is that the person who is supposed to be leading is spending the majority of their time hunting down operational data or combing through outdated calculation workbooks trying to figure out why they’ve been using a specific emissions factor for the past 20 years. If that statement resonates with you, it’s time to start evaluating technologies that can alleviate that pain.

ALL4 is a perfect partner to assist you in this journey. Implementing these technologies can be expensive, and almost all take a significant investment of time and resources. Additionally, the feeling that you must get it right the first time, or nobody will trust the product and be even more skeptical if you try to make changes, can be daunting. Selecting the correct technology for your situation and implementing it effectively the first time is critical for user-adoption and actual gains in efficiency. Partnering with a group like ALL4 can greatly increase your chances of these efforts being successful. Why? Because we have worked with a wide variety of these technologies, assisted many industries in implementing them, and best of all have no agenda to select a specific solution. If you are looking for a non-biased, expert opinion to evaluate these technologies, ALL4 is the group to call.

Transfer of Knowledge

Beyond increasing productivity, the other reason people at the Summit were evaluating technology solutions was to help solve the problem of transferring years of knowledge when teams experience turnover. Many of these environmental programs have calculation workbooks, applicability determinations, and compliance report templates that were all developed decades ago. This information has been passed along from environmental manager to environmental manager until nobody knows why decisions were made or the origin of certain data points. Employees move from company to company more frequently than ever, which makes it critical that these decisions are documented clearly for whoever is going to step in to lead the team next. If you find that your team is heavily reliant on the knowledge that is only present in the minds of your team, your environmental program is at risk.

Proactive Instead of Reactive

I learned that there is a common theme behind strong environmental programs: Being proactive rather than reactive. If your team members are frequently dealing with notices of violations (NOVs), tracking down paper records, or frantically trying to complete compliance activities and/or reports right before their deadlines, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be this way. I have spoken to many program leaders, and some have accepted that this is the world of environmental compliance; however, many companies refuse to accept that fate and instead empower their leaders to utilize technologies effectively, automate task tracking and recordkeeping, and document key historical information for their current and future teams. This mindset allows those environmental management teams to focus on improving their program year after year rather than just trying to hold their head above water and avoid NOVs.

As ALL4’s Atlanta Office Leader, I am passionate about partnering with environmental program leaders who have or want to have proactive mindsets and contribute to the continued success and improvement of their programs. If you want to talk about how to start looking into the future toward a more proactive approach and brainstorm improvements to your program, reach out to me at  rbalaban@all4inc.com or 678-293-9427.