I am still recovering from the shock of having my book selected to go on the New Zealand stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The New Zealand Society of Authors, to which I belong, is showcasing 40 New Zealand books at Frankfurt, the world's largest book fair. Supported by generous sponsorship from Copyright Licensing Limited, the stand takes advantage of New Zealand's status of Guest of Honor at the 2012 Fair.
This is a great thrill and the Society is already giving the 40 authors excellent advice about promoting our books to the publishers from all over the world who will be attending - I'm reliably informed the headcount of publishing firms is 20,000!
Preparing information about my book is helping me focus more and more on who needs to use it, why they need to and how it will benefit them. Very helpful. The book itself is for environmental experts in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors who find themselves involved with training.
Trainers call these invaluable people "subject matter experts" or SMEs - not to be confused with Small-Medium Enterprises, another common meaning for "SME"... Many environmental subject matter experts have specialized knowledge gained from their experience, rather than from a formal qualification. Their skill and enthusiasm means they can make very good trainers, and the advice in my book, based on my 20 years of experience with environmental training programs, helps them access and apply new knowledge from the world of professional training. It's a winning combination that can really lift the environmental performance of a wide range of business activities.
As well as marketing my "7 Steps" book to real live publishers, I aim to have a near-complete manuscript of a further book and a list of other books I'm keen to write about different aspects of the business benefits of good environmental performance. I'm most definitely more than a one-hit wonder - though turning my first book into that first hit is my immediate goal!
Click on these key words to find out more the Frankfurt Book Fair, New Zealand as the 2012 Guest of Honour, the New Zealand Society of Authors, Copyright Licensing Limited - and, of course - my book, "Seven Steps to successful environmental training programs".
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
E-training for contractors
Some years ago, a major New Zealand water utility company wanted its contractors to prepare environmental management plans.
The company was conscious that how it installed, operated and maintained its city’s water, stormwater and wastewater services had the potential to affect the natural environment during the regular upgrades, maintenance and repairs that all such large networks need. It decided to actively seek environmentally sound solutions that complied with law and regulations, and to go beyond ‘compliance as a minimum’ by aiming for best environmental practice. This meant working closely with the contractors who carried out the work on its behalf.
Given that its contractors build, operate and maintain lifeline water services that support healthy communities, the company believed that its contractors needed formal systems to avoid or minimize environmental damage every bit as much as they needed financial, health and safety, quality and traffic management systems.
Accordingly, it decided to require all its contractors to prepare environmental management plans, or EMPs. These plans would help them manage their activities and associated environmental risks, staff responsibilities and communication so as to avoid or minimize potential impacts of their activities and to help maintain and improve the environment. It also provided a framework for both the contractors and the utility itself to monitor their environmental performance.
To be eligible to bid for work with the utility, every contractor was required to prepare a company environmental management plan every year. Some large or very environmentally risky projects also needed a specific project environmental management plan.
However, many of the contractors were very small firms, some of them ‘one-man bands’, such as concrete cutters who carry out their work from a tradesman’s van. It would have placed a big burden on these suppliers make them write an EMP without giving them any help. Other contractors were big companies who either had existing plans or were well able to prepare their own plans, but the utility didn’t want them all taking different approaches, because it would be too difficult to assess the resulting variety of plans. The company also wanted to create a ‘level playing’ field, providing equal opportunities for all its contractors, regardless of their size or capabilities.
To ensure a consistently high standard of environmental management plan, the company provided a budget and support package to outline a minimum acceptable standard of environmental protection measures and control procedures. The aim was to help contractors reduce the environmental risks of all their day-to-day operations, thereby reducing the potential for environmental non-compliance from works being completed by contractors on the utility’s behalf.
The support package provided a Guide to preparing an environmental management plan and a corresponding Template into which the contractors could start writing their plan. The Guide set out a straightforward project planning process to identify environmental risks and the management strategies to reduce them. This process helped the contractors to:
- prepare detailed plans for using best environmental management practices
- comply with the conditions of project approvals
- comply with general environmental legislation and regulations
- minimize environmental risk
- avoid and minimize adverse environmental effects of works
- monitor activities and effects
- take action to mitigate or remedy any adverse environmental effects; and, if necessary, to change the way they do things to prevent any recurrence
- continually improve their environmental performance.
Also in the support package was an interactive toolbox containing:
- a leaflet summarizing the package
- a background document explaining the environmental management plan framework and the reasons for setting it up, as well as the objectives and scope of a plan
- an electronic plan template with all the headings set out and some helpful information already provided
- printed workbooks containing background information and examples to help contractors fill out the template for their organization
- a set of environmental control procedures (also known as environmental management procedures or standard work practices or operating procedures) and other resources prepared for the contractors to use and adapt for their plans and their site management and monitoring processes
- a self-paced interactive online learning program, supported by classroom-based training
- ongoing support from staff of the utility.
The first plans were uniformly excellent – a result that could not have been achieved cost-effectively in any other way.
Regular site inspections then made sure the contractors were supported in following and, if necessary, reviewing their plans.
An interesting finding from the process was that having such plans was invaluable when these contractors were bidding for other work, especially council or government projects: it gave them good non-price attributes and a great track record.
There were other benefits of contractors developing and implementing their environmental management plans.
For both the utility company and the contractors, these included a clear understanding of how the utility and the contractors would act as one team to comply with legal requirements, avoid environmental impacts and achieve best practice in environmental performance, and an accepted agreement on environmental best practice before works start.
Other benefits for the contractors were a reduced risk of budget overruns due to unanticipated environmental problems and a head start in terms of non-price attributes when competing for other contracts.
Other benefits for the utility company were confidence that its contractors had planned and identified how to complete works in an environmentally responsible manner and the development of a tool to more accurately measure the time and effort taken to address environmental issues and practices.
And of course, other stakeholders and the wider community could have confidence that the utility’s works were not only timely and cost-effective, but planned and carried out in accordance with sound environmental practice.
All in all, the environmental management plan program resulted in a step-change in industry capacity and capability. It provided contractors large and small with new and enhanced skills that offer both business and environmental benefits that will continue to grow over time.
Michael Lindgreen was the project sponsor. Now with Andrew.Stewart Limited, he says that ‘to achieve the corporate goal of a consistent level of environmental best practice we recognised that we needed to do things differently. We wanted to challenge the industry norm of simply prescribing our environmental requirements and standards and then expecting contractors to meet them. Instead, we opted to go down the path of engagement and partnership to build industry capacity and change behaviors over time.’
He is convinced it was this ‘one-team’ approach that produced their industry-leading environmental management support package – a toolkit developed specifically for contractors to understand environmental risk, risk management strategies and how to develop and implement effective documented management systems.
Support was crucial, says Michael. ‘Following the implementation of the system and the requirement for all contractors to develop environmental management plans, we further supported our contractors through tool-box talks, industry presentations, a ‘help-line’ email address and free staff advice when required. The final, and perhaps the most important step, of “bringing the plans to life” through effective implementation was further supported through on the ground monitoring, advice and education.’
With a concerted effort and, importantly, buy-in from all levels – from senior management to the digger driver – Michael says the organization saw ‘the quantifiable number of environmental incidents drop significantly, while the intangibles of improved industry reputation, contractor buy-in, client – contractor relationships and demonstrated industry best practice increased dramatically.’
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