Environmental Questions & Answers

The 5 traits you should expect to hear from any environmental or sustainability speaker.

Speaking on environmental matters doesn't take a rocket scientist, just someone who can get the job done well. In my opinion, and the opinion of friends and colleagues, more often than not, sustainability and environmental speakers end up coming up short. A few important factors should always be taken into consideration when it comes to an environmental or sustainability speaker, which are outlined below.

Here we discuss why you need annual training, who benefits from it, and what its goal is.

A lot of our clients initially came to us when they needed help with their stormwater permits. Whether they received a violation, needed to get covered under a permit or needed help with their stormwater plan, at the end of the day, they all had some new rules to follow which includes things like sampling, inspections, or stormwater training.

One of those rules was annual training, to which a lot of folks would turn around and say "Why do I need stormwater training?"

Training on your environmental permits & approvals is often required to stay in compliance. Failure to train can cost you in fines, penalties, and violations, and endanger your employees because they won't understand what to do, how to act, or how to treat an emergency. Here we discuss why two key training areas often incorrectly get combined, and why you should never mistake these as the same thing.

One of my staff members just finished up an SPCC Training workshop recently. We had a large client in a room, and we went over, in detail, their SPCC Plan, what it is, why they need one, the works. At the end of the day, one of their guys thanked us for helping to kill two birds with one stone, and we really helped their staff a lot. Confused, my guy asked what he meant.

"Well we just got SPCC training. That covers stormwater training for our permit, right? We don't need to train again, do we?"

We discuss factors that go into the SPCC training costs.

SPCC Training is an often overlooked aspect of many companies training programs. I've never figured out why, but many people brush it off as common sense. For some people, hiring an outside SPCC expert to conduct training is their best bet. Here we discuss what goes into the price or cost of SPCC training, and what you can expect to pay for SPCC training.

For some reason, our phones have been ringing off the hook with people looking for environmental training. What's going on? Is the EPA knocking down doors looking for proof of training?

When it comes to SPCC training, we get a bunch of questions on the topic. What does training include? How long is it? What do you cover? And, the most commont question, how much does SPCC training cost?

We explain whether or not you need to do annual SPCC training.

Last week I did a 5 year review for a client's SPCC plans. Everything looked great. The site hasn't changed, no spills, great monthly inspections. There were some new personnel on site which needed to be added to the plan, but other than that it was a breeze!

Expect... they weren't doing annual SPCC training at all! The new head honcho decided that training once, 5 years ago, was all his employees needed. I asked him what he did for new employees. They did nothing. He said "I don't have time to train my staff. Besides, this stuff is all common sense."

Not only is that the wrong attitude to take when it comes to keeping your staff safe, and your facility free from mishaps due to neglect, it could get you in trouble. No, this stuff is not always common sense, and yes, you need to be conducting annual SPCC training at your operation.

It's a vital to keep your staff knowledgeable of what happens in an emergency, how to react, who the call, what to do, and keeps them safe. Yes it may be common sense to some, but it's not a guarantee. It's also absolutely required to happen at least once annually, and not conducting training will get you some hefty violations from the USEPA.

About a month ago, I was talking to a precast producer about his new environmental management system, and how it was impacting his operation. He said his costs had dropped slightly, his regulators and their inspections went a lot easier, and his employees seemed to actually understand and buy into the whole program. He's the first to say "I'm not perfect" but he's working on it.

It got me thinking... what would the ideal concrete plant (precast, ready mix, brick, etc.) be? What issues, environmental or otherwise, would they have to overcome?