First Impressions at Your Facility: Rate Your Gate

The first thing regulators see at your facility can make a huge impression.

A lot of our clients come to us after they receive a violation, penalty, or some sort of enforcement action from regulators. 9 out of 10 times when we show up at their site we immediately know why. Just like anything else in life, people tend to judge a book by its cover, and your facility is no different.

Last weekend my wife and I decided to try out a new Thai place we'd been hearing about. I'm a big fan of Thai, but my girlfriend could take it or leave it. We've been hearing great things about the food at this place, but everyone says it's a little rough looking on the outside.

I (un)fortunately get to travel a lot for work, so I'm always up for something that's a little rough looking as long as the food is worth the hassle. So we drive a few towns over to where the Thai place is, and pull into the restaurant parking lot. To call the place a dump gives landfills a bad name.

The parking lot was a mess. There was trash everywhere. The stormwater drain at the far end of the lot was clogged with garbage. There was a shady convenience store next to it with a couple of weirdos standing outside chain-smoking cigarettes and carelessly flicking them onto the ground when they were done.

The lights in the lot were flickering. Half the stores in the strip mall were vacant. The place looked like a scene from a horror movie. I looked at my her, she looked at me, I said I don't care how good the food is, we're not eating here, forget it!

Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever made your judgement based solely on a first impression? I bet you have, and guess what, you're not alone.

We find that a lot of environmental regulators, third parties, and other enforcement officials will treat you differently based on their initial & immediate observations of your site.

How to make a good first impression at your facility with environmental regulators.

The first impression at your facility is at your gate, driveway, entrance, you name it. It's where people see your sign, see the entrance to your site, and it's the first place opinions are formed. So the first thing you should focus on is your front gate or entrance area.

Some common issues to address are trash buildup, unruly weeds and vegetation, broken signs or fences, evidence of your material (even if it's just oil drips from a truck!) leaving your property, etc.

Any of these issues can (and normally do) lead to unhappy inspectors, neighbors, and a community in general. Your front entrance is the window to your facility. From our experience, facilities with messy front entrances are usually even worse once you get inside. Having a messy entrance sets the stage and expectations for any visitor on how you run your company.

Your Company's Compliance Depends on Signs & Plants

This is so simple it's stupid. If I had a dollar for every site I visited that had old, decrepit signs, or didn't even have a sign, I'd be retired by now. Sure, many facilities try to go undetected and don't have signs up (here's looking at you data centers and cannabis facilities), so they look like a large, generic warehouse. I get that, for the rest of you out there, get a sign. Get a decent looking one. Have Staples or someone make you a sign that looks halfway decent, with your company name, address, and phone number on it. Make it obvious who you are and what you do. After all, large, industrial operations aren't easy to hide (again, excluding those in incognito mode in a warehouse!).

Now a lot of folks I mention that to respond with 'no way, what if someone who doesn't like our operation wants to complain about us??' Guess what, if they're that adamant about telling on you, they'll find your information regardless.

Having a good sign easily identifies who you are, where you're located, and that you have pride in your company and facility. It also helps inspectors find you, and those are the guys you want to keep happy!

The same goes for a bit of decent landscaping. Start off by pulling the weeds, cutting the grass, and seeing what you have to work with. Maybe that's all you needed to do! If not, plant a tree, or a bush, or something that gives the area a little life.

Try something different that stands out! One client of ours had a stockpile of old, unused tires of all shapes and sizes from a fleet of various vehicles and machines. They stacked and layered them a few high, filled them with dirt and some native, low-maintenance vegetation, and now they have an interesting-looking entranceway, with plants growing down the walls forming a beautiful vegetated barrier. Unique and reuses a waste product, win-win right?

And then pick up the trash.

That's it. Just pick up the trash. Clean up your front entrance area.

I find that a lot of industrial facilities have areas near the entrance where drivers will wait either before entering or before leaving the site. Usually, that means cigarette butts on the ground, old coffee cups, napkins, wrappers, etc. Put up a garbage can, put up a cigarette butt thing (I don't smoke so I don't know what to call them!), and make it obvious that you are not to litter on-site.

Fix your gate or fencing.

Again, like a sign, fix your gate or fence!

Get some fencing from Home Depot or wherever, put it up, and call it a day. If your fence is old and rusty, fix it. If you have a wooden fence that is falling apart, replace it.

If you have a gate that drags on the ground or doesn't open quite right, then get it repaired.

The entrance to your site should look and work the way it's supposed to.

Another little story, I have a client that's adamant about security. Their facility is located out in the woods near an area where people like to go off-roading, so he's scared of people trespassing, getting injured, and suing him. That makes sense, right?

Well, he locks his gate up tight every night, but I always give him some grief about his fence. It has to be 50+ years old, and there are sections wider than a car that are missing. So if anyone really wants to get in there they just have to take their off-road vehicle…off-road for about 20 feet, drive around the locked gate, and they're free to trespass.

I still don't get why he won't fix his fence…

For industrial facilities with products and materials, keep an eye on track-out!

If you make something that can drip, leak, or escape a truck once it leaves your site, address the problem right from the get-go. For instance, I had a concrete producer give me a call recently because they got in trouble by an inspector because someone called and complained about them.

I show up, and before I even see the facility I see evidence of cement dust all up and down the road. I get to the site, and it's covered in dust. The trucks, the equipment, everything! The place was a disaster! I told the guy to sweep the site and install a truck wash/wheel wash that trucks can use when they leave the site so you cut down on any track-out.

The guy was appalled I made the suggestion because he thought he ran a 'clean operation', he wasn't changing, and he fully planned on fighting the violation. Let's just say we're not working together any longer.

For compliance to work, start with easy visual fixes.

Once you get things squared away at your entrance, take a step back and look at the rest of your facility, and apply the same principles as above. I'm constantly amazed at sites that have ample amount of 'junk' on-site. There's always the one old-timer in the maintenance shop, or in the office, who insists on saving everything because 'we might need it one day'!

Are you running a landfill or a business? Are you turning your garage into a storage area or using it to maintain your fleet? Get rid of old drums, get rid of scrap metal, get rid of parts or equipment that isn't needed, and do whatever is necessary to improve the appearance of the facility.

The first impression at your facility does make a difference.

I always recommend including your entranceway in your monthly inspections and maybe combining it with your inspections as required in your stormwater permit or SPCC Plan.

Make inspecting your operation part of your normal routine. Start thinking about what it looks like when you drive in, when you leave, and the factors that impact its appearance. I usually recommend rating what it looks like. Develop a system to 'Rate Your Gate' and determine if it's up to snuff with what you'd like.

The first impression you make sets the stage for future relations for years to come, and you won’t get a second chance at it. Utilize that opportunity to make a good first impression and the first place to do that is the first place anyone sees when they enter your site.

To learn how we can help get your facility into compliance with environmental regulations and stay out of trouble, either fill out the form below to reach out to us directly, click here to contact us, call us anytime at 888-RMA-0230, or shoot us an email at info@rmagreen.com to talk.