Moving up the environmental spectrum

Endorsing the concept of sustainable development implies that a company will make a commitment to “develop management skills to a level comparable with those we use in economic management,” says the Guide for Environmental Practice. The guide was recently issued by the Mining Association of Canada.

Henry Brehaut explained the meaning of these words in his plenary address to the convention recently held by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. Brehaut, senior vice-president of environment for Placer Dome, is active in MAC affairs as a director and member of the executive committee. His classification of companies ranges from “red-necked reactionary at one end to clean and green at the top” according to the quality of their environmental management.

Brehaut thinks the “red-neck reactionary” company has no policy or, if a member of the MAC or a provincial mining association, the association’s policy “has found its way at best to a bottom drawer where it has rested ever since.”

Employees are unaware of any environmental concerns of management. There are no environmental audits. Potential risks are ignored if there are no obvious problems today. There are no dedicated environmental personnel and operating practices do not incorporate environmental precautions. These companies, as well as their directors and officers, are probably inviting legal problems in the form of environmental convictions and financial liability.

At the next level, Brehaut places companies that pay lip service to environmental matters. Here the company displays the MAC environmental policy but does not take concrete steps to implement it. Employees are unaware of what is expected of them. An environmental audit “is something to inquire about.” The concept of risk is fuzzy. Limited environmental skills, either in-house or supplied by a consultant, may be applied to a few obvious problems, but there has been no change in daily operating practices.

Higher up the Brehaut scale lie “concerned” companies. At this point, the company has developed its own policy. Executives begin to communicate their concerns to employees, possibly through an internal brochure, sometimes only indirectly. An environmental review is commissioned to identify major problems and obvious risks. The company begins to deploy some specialized environmental skills and recognizes the need to find out and document existing operating practices.

The penultimate level of environmental management is the proactive stage. Proactive companies have reinforced their policies with codes of conduct, standard designs and standard procedures. Employees are involved in individual programs and see real changes in the workplace. The company carries out its first comprehensive audit. All or most risks are identified and monitored, and action will be taken to avoid non-compliance. A broad range of environmental skills are deployed, probably involving both in-house expertise and specialized consultants. Operating practices are inspected and redesigned, while training becomes a priority.

The “clean and green” stage is reached when a company has a comprehensive environmental management system in place. A positive corporate culture fosters what Brehaut calls “balanced resource management” to deal with “the trade-offs required to meet a company’s environmental, economic and social responsibilities.”

Employees become committed and develop instinctive judgment. Audits are routine, focusing on specific technical areas and the management system. A senior environmental executive is appointed, providing, in Brehaut’s words, “both senior management expertise and perspective.” As a result, “best management practices” develop, stressing the prevention of rare occurrences and the implementation of failsafe systems.

I believe Brehaut has provided a useful framework for tracking the evolution of Canadian mining companies into the clean and green category. There are obvious parallels with managing for safety, a field in which our industry has excelled in recent years. The same attention paid to environmental management will pay future dividends.

Where does your company stack up?