Chem321:Discussion 5
Chemistry for the 21st Century
Inter-office memo
Date: Tuesday, July 17
From: Martin Walker
To: Environmental team
Meeting time: Wednesday, July 17, 9:30pm - 9am.
Please attend a meeting at the above time to discuss the upcoming EPA visit.
We have been informed that EPA will be performing an full inspection of our premises on Friday, July 20th. Often EPA does not warn of inspections, but this time we were informed because we were very cooperative on their 2004 visit (for which we owe a lot to our Environmental Manager, Hayley Kopelson). Clearly, it is important that we maintain this cordial relationship during this upcoming inspection, and I know that the plant personnel are already working hard to get the place looking neat and tidy. Hayley, Kevin and others have the immediate issues under control, so we do not expect any fines, though of course we must be especially vigilant.
However, we also need to consider what we can be doing in the long-term to improve our environmental credentials. I suspect they may ask us about our long-term environmental strategy. I know we have talked about getting ourselves certified for ISO 14001 for a while (Hayley in particular has long advocated this), but perhaps this visit will give us the push we need to make it a priority. We need to consider the implications, though, because if the change is poorly planned it could cost us a lot of money and limit our ability to expand or update our production facilities. I want you each to come up with ideas on what would be best for us for the long term.
I am putting together a management team to work on this; unfortunately, it's hard to get everyone's schedules to match, so I'm holding some initial discussions at our regular meeting times. We will have a page on the company to share ideas and proposals, and I will ask each member of the team to make a proposal that they present to the team.
Please put on your thinking caps, and I look forward to hearing your ideas at 1pm.
MARTIN A. WALKER, Ph.D.
Company president
