EHS Advisor Checklist
Is your company preparing for the future? - Testing for Green Arthritis
Use the following list to determine if your company or your organization may be suffering from green arthritis. An affirmative response to several of the following questions does not necessarily indicate green arthritis is present. If, however, a dozen or more are answered in the affirmative, you may need "medical intervention" to cure the "disease."
If your are an EHS manager, I recommend that you format this list as a confidential questionnaire to your staff, your internal customers, and/or other resources who share EHS responsibilities. Gather the feedback and use the results to kick off follow-up discussions. Responses should be rated on a scale from "Strongly agree" to "Strongly disagree." If the survey population is large enough, differentiate responses by the feedback source (e.g., staff, internal customers, etc.). For a formatted example of this survey, e-mail a request to maclean@Competitive-E.com.
Strategy & Vision
- Does the EHS vision statement read more like a value statement?
- Is there no clear vision of where the company's EHS effort is headed?
- Do strategic plans look more like project lists rather than a roadmap to attain the desired future state?
- Is their a disconnect between the vision and reality? For example, "environmental excellence" or some other cliché is used to describe the vision, but the programs and activities are more in keeping with compliance and industry norms.
- Is insufficient time allowed for long term planning?
- Is there excess focus on process completion (e.g., the number of audits completed) rather than more meaningful metrics?
- Do excellent managers head the EHS staff, but leadership and vision appear to be lacking?
- Is benchmarking centered within the industry group instead of best in class among all industries?
- Are metrics focused primarily on lagging rather than leading indicators?
Communication
- Are status reports and other executive board of director (BOD) communications edited repeatedly as they flow up through the organization? Do the final bear little resemblance to the urgency or candidness of the original?
- Is there a reluctance to stand out from the pack? For example, certain programs are innovative and creative, but management does not want to share/publicize these for fear of being identified as "a leader," even though these programs would not represent a loss in competitive advantage.
- Are status reports to the CEO or BOD presented by someone other than EHS management? Are these critical communications handled by a non-EHS executive in the chain of command?
- Is there a perceived "fire wall" surrounding upper management protecting them form negative news and opinions contrary to mainstream thinking?
- Is bureaucratic risk avoidance packaged and sold to upper management as a finely tuned environmental effort?
- Do the staff members feel bullied and intimidated from challenging the views of upper EHS management?
Decision Making
- Is excessive energy focused on working the internal and external bureaucracies rather than on promoting creativity and more competitive approaches to environmental protection?
- Are progressive approaches repeatedly held in check by the law department?
- Are innovative ideas cut in the earliest stages because it is assumed that these new programs will not be approved by upper management? Are these assumptions almost never given a reality check by direct, face-to-face communication with business executives?
- Are the final, authoritative decisions consistently deferred to the law department, even thought the issues may not involve compliance or regulatory matters?
- Is excessive time spent in program or planning meetings that seen to go nowhere; decisions to move forward occur slowly, almost painfully?
- When options are presented, are the boldest and potentially the most rewarding action plans consistently rejected in favor of safer alternatives?
- If the company is recognized for its business success as an industry leader, are the actual (i.e., as judged by independent reviewers) environmental efforts out of sync with this top tier position?
- Is there reluctance to use experienced independent advisors with attitude to review and possibly challenge the current vision, goals, policies, programs, and so on?
- Is compatibility with existing with business management practices given a disproportionate weight in deciding which program to recommend?
- Are consultants selected that consistently support and reinforce existing approaches?
Organization
- Is upper EHS management viewed as part of the problem, not part of the solution to press forward with needed changes?
- Are EHS staff members creating defensive files to document that they warned their management about impending issues in the event that these issues later erupt and they are unfairly blamed?
- Are staffs on constant edge over rumored or announced cutbacks, reorganizations, mergers, acquisitions, etc.?
- Are resource levels allowing only fire fighting at minimal compliance?
- Do EHS staff members appear to be engaging in excessive external activities on company time, justifying these efforts as being necessary to establish the company as a leader? Are these activities resented by other staff members as being nothing more than self-promotion or groundwork landing the next job?
- Do consultants do what they are contracted to do instead of suggesting alternatives that are more progressive, yet unproven or uncommon?
- Is there friction among organizations over the staff resource distribution? Do these battles appear to driven by power and control, rather concern for the most effective placement of resources?
- Are senior EHS managers who are assigned additional, core business related responsibilities reluctant to use their increased influence in the organization to promote EHS advances? Indeed, do they seem to only grow more cautions and conservative?
About the Author
Richard MacLean is President of Competitive Environment Inc., Scottsdale, AZ, and the Director of the Center for Environmental Innovation (CEI). He can be contacted at (480) 922-1620, e-mail: maclean@competitive-e.com, and website: http://www.Competitive-E.com.
