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ОглавлениеCase Studies of Different Environmental Training Programs
There are three kinds of men: ones that learn by reading, a few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.
Will Rogers
In this chapter I give an extended review of a US erosion and sediment control training program, followed by a series of summaries that indicate the diversity of environmental training programs. You will find case studies on the Internet from every sector. There will be plenty for your sector or sectors of interest.
Erosion and sediment control in the City of Charlotte, North Carolina
At the 2011 conference of the International Erosion Control Association, Jay Wilson (a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC) for the City of Charlotte in North Carolina, USA) presented a paper40 about his eight years of experience developing and delivering an erosion and sediment control training program for the City. There are many parallels with the Auckland experience and much to be learned from Jay by anyone setting up a new environmental training program.
Jay identified a number of steps in this process and, as with the Auckland experience, they really only became apparent over time as the program evolved.
Briefly, people who attend the training become Charlotte-Mecklenburg Certified Site Inspectors (CMCSIs). Key aspects of the training are:
a 6-hour class offered each quarter
classes are delivered by City staff, with some external presenters as desirable
a modest registration fee (classes were formerly free)
up to 120 people attend each class (the largest class was 240 people)
a brief multiple choice test at the end – those who pass receive a 2-year certification (this recent innovation aims to keep people in the class until the end)
the content delivers a ‘minimum’ requirement for erosion and sediment control
handouts are provided, along with a catered lunch (another inducement for people to stay)
classes were formerly in the City offices but are now so large they need a bigger space
vendors of erosion and sediment control products are invited to put up displays in this larger space – they can make a small financial contribution but no endorsement is given.
The first class was held in March 2002, and to date, over 3,000 people have attended – though as Jay ruefully acknowledged (and as we also found in Auckland), the importance of keeping good records was not initially recognized. As a result, while there are some multiple attendees, as many as 4,500 people may have attended the classes.
The trigger for the program was two ‘giant’ developments of over 3,000 acres (over 1200 hectares) proposed in the City near a river with multiple uses, including drinking water supply, recreation and power generation. The threat posed to these waters by sediment runoff was a focus of the permitting process, so when the land was rezoned to allow the development, the permits required the contractors to be trained in erosion and sediment control and other water quality protection measures, such as dealing with paint and concrete.
Today – and I see this as a measure of the success of Jay’s program – local ordinances specify this training as a requirement for the permitting of development proposals, and anyone on a site who cannot produce evidence of a relevant qualification must attend a class. Failure to comply can result in fines of up to $US5,000 a day.
In the early phases, City staff were actively using the violation (legal enforcement) system, but penalties could be halved if development staff attended the environmental training. Another measure of success is that the violation system is used much less frequently now.
Jay’s key steps in the training process are:
1.assess the need and identify the benefit
2.identify the target audience
3.develop the training content
4.deliver the training
5.set up record-keeping systems
6.create synergies.
I’ll overview these, and conclude with Jay’s summary of the challenges, rewards and issues he’s observed over the 10-year process. At the end, you can identify the elements you need to make your own program a success by comparing and contrasting the Charlotte program with my 7-step model.
1.Assess the need and identify the benefit
‘We had serious sediment problems from developments, but the people working on major construction sites throughout the jurisdiction thought they were doing what they needed to.’ Jay made this very striking observation right at the start of his paper: these people were not intending to sidestep or break the law, but their understanding of the principles and processes of erosion and sediment control wasn’t very good, and they didn’t know what the on-site measures were meant to do or how they really worked. The result was that they were spending time and money in good faith, but building environmental controls that were ineffective.
This clearly defines a training need – part of what in ‘training-speak’ is called a training needs assessment, or TNA.
There is a bigger picture of the training need to be built, too, and Jay identifies five aspects:
the intensity of construction activity: how much is going on? Over how big an area? Over how long a time-frame per project? All told, is there enough activity to warrant setting up a training program?
jurisdictional-specific issues: what particular resources are at risk from the environmental effects of construction? How many valued or impaired water bodies are present? What threatened species are present? What ability do the natural systems have to handle site-specific and cumulative impacts of development? What measures should be used to protect them and what guidance can be offered for building and maintaining those measures? What changes in local ordinances or procedures are needed? What integration with those of adjoining cities, counties or states might be needed?
compliance issues: how many environmental notices are issued? How serious are the infringements or offences and their effects? What do they say about particular trends in non-compliance – are people installing measures wrongly, failing to inspect them, or maintaining them poorly?
knowledge level of the target community: Jay says people ‘didn’t open up a big site with the intention to pollute – but they thought silt fences were the be-all and end-all of best practice’. It was clear that the industry’s skills with estimating and pricing quantities and building roads did not extend to erosion and sediment controls, and that a very basic level of training could make a big difference. Other training needs had to be assessed, such as dealing with paint and concrete issues, as well as erosion and sediment control
community sensitivity and level of control: initially, the wider community was very pro-development, but gradually they also came to see the benefits of environmental protection. The project permitting system needed to address community concerns, especially where local groups were very active. An advantage was that the comparatively high population made it easier to fund a training program.
All these factors needed to be weighed up to assess the needs and benefits that a training program could deliver.
2.Identify the target audience
The audiences that Jay identified, each with their different information needs, included:
venture capitalists and developers: these people need to know ahead of time what areas have particular environmental or community sensitivities: this makes it easier for them to plan ahead regarding where to locate and how to design their developments in order to ensure they meet regulatory requirements and also make adequate profit margins
the design community: engineers, architects, landscape and related professionals all saw the value of the training in helping their clients create cost-effective and environmentally responsible developments. As these people began to attend the training, the content had to be adapted to meet their specialist information needs
the construction community: heavy construction contractors, subcontractors and building specialists (framers, painters, electricians, plumbers, drain-layers) were all identified early on as needing to know how to meet the environmental requirements during the site development and building phases. Each group has a particular set of environmental skills to learn that is relevant to their trade
City and County staff and third party inspectors: these people also needed training to make sure their permitting and site inspection capability reflected the performance levels specified in the erosion and sediment control training. City and County staff also themselves needed to comply with the environmental requirements attached to permits for their own public works
community and volunteer groups: local interest groups and the wider community became more interested in the training and some attended the classes, so a wider focus was needed to put them in the picture.
3.Develop the training content
Information from all the previous steps helped Jay to identify what his training should cover, so his next step was to develop a list of topics to meet the needs of the different target audiences. He’d also noted that many in the industry and wider community were confused by differing jurisdictions and policies, so information on these was also included in the training content.
Core materials and resources included local and state standards, guidelines and manuals, plus federal directives. Jay emphasises that key people can be great resources too, and he asked some of the City’s local program directors, engineers and inspectors to present parts of the class.
This stuff can be rather dry, so Jay notes that it’s important to build attractive visuals and present in an engaging manner!
Finally, says Jay – get inspired! Attend relevant training courses yourself, draw on already available resources (there will be many), seek out opinions and ask for feedback: it’s all about doing it better. ‘Shameless borrowing’ was the phrase he used – and in my experience, when you ask people if you can draw on their work, they are invariably delighted to say yes.
And as with all good training, Jay says keeping the content up to date is a constant process. Standards and practices evolve and community perceptions change. Feedback from people attending the training is very helpful and quality assurance is vital – and because the environment is related to everything else, Jay has found it’s a good idea to keep getting input from other parts of the City and Borough organizations.
Among the topics that Jay and his team of trainers cover are:
the importance of clean water
water quality and construction sites
key local policies and ordinances
state regulations
the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System: under the Clean Water Act, the NPDES Permit Program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into US waters
the erosion process
vegetation
site design considerations
installation and maintenance of BMPs (best management practices, or structural erosion and sediment controls)
creek crossings
converting temporary basins to permanent ponds
self-inspection and record-keeping
the Good, the Bad and the Ugly – a photo gallery of the whole gamut of environmental performance.
The class begins with Mecklenburg County’s Director of Water Quality introducing the first topic, the importance of clean water. He has a long family association with the area and emphasises the historical and contemporary importance of water to the County as a whole. Jay says this is a high-impact presentation that really awakens the attendees’ environmental conscience.
This step includes not only running the actual class, but doing all the necessary organization that enables it to occur. Major organizational tasks are:
finding and booking a space at the University, College or a local hotel that is big enough for the attendees and the vendors’ displays and that has access to the outdoors
organizing a caterer – a very important task, as we have also discovered in Auckland – people always comment on the food in our workshop evaluations – good food = good feedback!
preparing class booklets and handouts (usually detailed design specifications of BMPs), plus a bag of gifts including useful items such as a rain gauge, which is required on site (a simple transparency tube as recommended by Rebecca Kauten41 could also be useful)
advertising to fill the class, with marketing to trainees being done at pre-construction meetings, through vendors, via flyers handed out on sites by field staff and through existing outreach programs such as mail inserts in utility bills, a ‘fast fax’ to a database of land developers reminding them of the ordinance requirement to have someone attend the training, regular newsletter and the City’s website
advertising to fill the vendor spaces, usually by email.
City and County staff deliver the training, and while they all strongly support it, they are all busy people and Jay finds he has to spend some time making sure he has other trainers to help him deliver the training on the day.
5.Set up and maintain record-keeping systems
This step includes all the administration that keeps the training program going.
The value of keeping good records really only became apparent over time, and Jay found that having some administrative assistance was essential, as the work is quite time-consuming.
An important administrative task is updating the registration database, including contact details of who registered for the class, who attended (if there was a last-minute substitute), who took the test, who passed it, who had to re-sit, and who received the certification of attendance, plus dates for the above.
This is important in that people who attend the classes must pass a test to gain a 2-year certification (more in this in Chapter 5). To pass, they must get at least 75% of the test answers right. Between 85% and 90% of people do this first time, and the others can re-sit the test later.
More and more needs and opportunities emerged over time for working with other parts of Jay’s organization and with related organizations and adjacent jurisdictions.
Examples include:
ensuring that contractors engaged by other municipal agencies to do works for which erosion and sediment controls will be needed, are sent to the training
liaising and coordinating with other agencies delivering similar training, such as the Department of Transport
ensuring permits issued by different agencies for the same project are consistent with each other.
Jay now believes these and other potential synergies are not only beneficial but essential for the survival of the training over the long haul.
7.Challenges, rewards and issues
Alongside these six steps, Jay has documented a number of challenges, rewards and issues.
Challenges include:
gaining and maintaining leadership support – this is essential for justifying investing the time and money needed to set up a training program. The active support of senior managers and elected representatives is vital to ensure adequate funding and staffing are available in the long term – training programs are long-term commitments
retaining the interest and commitment of staff and participating, cooperating and supporting groups – while people are willing, they are often very busy and it can take time to (as Jay puts it) ‘lean on staff’ and motivate other supporters to commit time to the classes when they may be feeling overloaded with their core commitments
securing administrative support to free up scientific staff to focus on training content and delivery
finding a ‘magic formula’ that helps balance the recovery of some costs from the training with the wider benefits to the community that justify the investment of public money.
The rewards, however, are many. Jay says many of those attending the classes effectively ‘turn into inspectors, and will call in to report water quality problems, so each attendee is an extra pair of eyes in the field.’
Other rewards and benefits are (remember, it’s statistics like these that can help you build your business case):
elevated awareness of water quality regulations and why they’re needed
fewer notices of violation being issued
fewer environmental penalties being imposed
better water quality – the big goal that the training was set up to achieve!
Issues that have emerged over time include:
addressing the needs of the now more educated development community – some people have attended the classes three times, raising the question of what other value-added topics the training can deliver
answering questions of when, or if, certification can be withheld, as recertification is a time-consuming process
delivering training in a more cost-effective way; for example, with online courses and/or the development of short courses and specialist courses
balancing the needs of ongoing environmental education and training with the ever-growing workloads of City staff, who are always stretched for time.
Interestingly, and this is an issue I’ve seen elsewhere, the training almost becomes a lower priority once it is successful, making it harder to maintain ongoing active support.
I really enjoyed Jay’s paper and can see many parallels with – and some instructive differences from – our experience in New Zealand.
| Use Action Sheet 3.1 to explore the parallels and differences between the Auckland and Charlotte programs as part of assembling the key elements of your own training program. |
While Auckland’s erosion and sediment control program took place in a particular legal and environmental context, its general principles apply to a wide range of environmental training programs.
Other successful training programs I’ve been involved with include:
mandatory environmental management plans for utility service providers and industries
voluntary riparian restoration and enhancement programs
sustainable urban design, for professional surveyors
in-house environmental training for a large, multi-site manufacturer.
Below are some short case studies about these, followed by some more ideas. Use the Action Planner to explore the possibilities for using training to help achieve your own environmental issues and outcomes.
E-training for a water supply, wastewater and stormwater utility
Some years ago, a major New Zealand water utility company wanted its contractors to prepare environmental management plans.
The utility was conscious that how it installed, operated and maintained its city’s water, stormwater and wastewater services had the potential to affect the natural environment during the regular upgrades, maintenance and repairs that all such large networks need. It decided to actively seek environmentally sound solutions that complied with law and regulations, and to go beyond ‘compliance as a minimum’ by aiming for best environmental practice. This meant working closely with the contractors who carried out the work on its behalf.
Utilities and their contractors build, operate and maintain lifeline services that support healthy communities. This utility therefore believed that its contractors needed formal systems to avoid or minimize environmental damage every bit as much as they needed financial, health and safety, quality and traffic management systems.
Accordingly, it decided to require all its contractors to prepare environmental management plans. These plans would help them manage their activities and associated environmental risks, staff responsibilities and communication so as to avoid or minimize potential impacts of their activities and to help maintain and improve the environment. It also provided a framework for both the contractors and the utility itself to monitor their environmental performance.
To be eligible to bid for work with the utility, every contractor had to prepare a company environmental management plan every year. Some large or very environmentally risky projects also needed a specific project environmental management plan.
However, many of the contractors were very small firms, some of them ‘one-man bands’, such as concrete cutters who carry out their work from a tradesman’s van. It would have placed a big burden on these suppliers to impose the requirement for such a plan without giving them any help. Other contractors were big companies who either had existing plans or were well able to prepare their own plans, but the utility didn’t want them all taking different approaches, because it would be too difficult to assess the resulting plans. The utility also wanted to create a ‘level playing’ field, providing equal opportunities for its contractors no matter what their size or capabilities.
To ensure a consistently high standard of environmental management plan from players large and small, the utility provided a budget and support package to outline a minimum acceptable standard of environmental protection measures and control procedures. The aim was to help contractors reduce the environmental risks of all their day-to-day operations, thereby reducing the potential for environmental noncompliance from works being completed by contractors on the utility’s behalf.
The support package provided a Guide to preparing an environmental management plan and a corresponding electronic Template into which the contractors could start writing their plan. The Guide set out a straightforward project planning process to identify environmental risks and the management strategies to reduce them. This process helped the contractors to:
prepare detailed plans for using best environmental management practices
comply with the conditions of project approvals
comply with environmental legislation and regulations
minimize environmental risk
avoid and minimize adverse environmental effects of works
monitor activities and effects
take action to mitigate or remedy any adverse environmental effects; and, if necessary, to change the way they do things to prevent any recurrence
continually improve their environmental performance.
Also in the support package was an interactive toolbox of:
a leaflet summarizing the package
a background document explaining the environmental management plan framework and the reasons for setting it up, as well as the objectives and scope of a plan
an electronic plan template with all the headings set out and some helpful information already provided
printed workbooks containing background information and examples to help contractors fill out the template for their organization
a set of environmental control procedures (also known as environmental management procedures or standard work practices or operating procedures) and other resources prepared for the contractors to use and adapt for their plans and their site management and monitoring processes
a self-paced interactive online learning program, supported by classroom-based training
ongoing support from staff of the utility.
The first plans were uniformly excellent – a result that could not have been achieved cost-effectively in any other way.
Regular site inspections then made sure the contractors were supported in following and, if necessary, reviewing their plans.
An interesting finding from the process was that having such plans was invaluable when these contractors were bidding for other work, especially council or government projects: it gave them good non-price attributes and a great track record.
Benefits all round
Other benefits of contractors developing and implementing their environmental management plans included providing:
for both the utility and the contractor:
a clear understanding of how the utility and the contractors would act as one team to comply with legal requirements, avoid environmental impacts and achieve best practice in environmental performance
an accepted agreement on environmental best practice before works start;
for contractors:
reduced risk of budget overruns due to unanticipated environmental problems
a head start in terms of non-price attributes when competing for other contracts;
for the utility:
confidence that its contractors had planned and identified how to complete works in an environmentally responsible manner
a tool to more accurately measure the time and effort taken to address environmental issues and practices; and
for other stakeholders and the wider community:
confidence that the utility’s works were not only timely and cost-effective, but also planned and carried out in accordance with sound environmental practice.
All in all, the environmental management plan program resulted in a step-change in industry capacity and capability. It provided contractors large and small with new and enhanced skills that offer both business and environmental benefits that will continue to grow over time.
Michael Lindgreen was the project sponsor. Now with Andrew Stewart Limited, he says that ‘to achieve the corporate goal of a consistent level of environmental best practice we recognised that we needed to do things differently. We wanted to challenge the industry norm of simply prescribing our environmental requirements and standards and then expecting contractors to meet them. Instead, we opted to go down the path of engagement and partnership to build industry capacity and change behaviours over time.’
He is convinced it was this ‘one-team’ approach that produced their industry-leading environmental management support package – a toolkit developed specifically for contractors to understand environmental risk, risk management strategies and how to develop and implement effective documented management systems.
Support was crucial, says Michael. ‘Following the implementation of the system and the requirement for all contractors to develop environmental management plans, we further supported our contractors through tool-box talks, industry presentations, a “help-line” email address and free staff advice when required. The final, and perhaps the most important step, of “bringing the plans to life” through effective implementation was further supported through on the ground monitoring, advice and education.’
With a concerted effort and, importantly, buy-in from all levels – from senior management to the digger driver – Michael says the organization saw ‘the quantifiable number of environmental incidents drop significantly, while the intangibles of improved industry reputation, contractor buy-in, client – contractor relationships and demonstrated industry best practice increased dramatically.’
| Key word highlighter: Go through the case study and highlight elements that are in the 7-step model and Jay Wilson’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg program. What other elements, issues and opportunities can you see? Jot your findings down on Action Sheet 3.2. |
Voluntary community riparian enhancement programs
In 2001, the then Auckland Regional Council released a riparian management strategy42 that acknowledged the adverse impacts of land development and farming on the region’s streams. The Strategy aims to address land ownership problems by promoting voluntary measures, including community-based initiatives, and by providing support and information to encourage rather than require riparian zone restoration, protection or enhancement, while using mandatory options when converting land for more intensive developments. It was accompanied by a detailed Guideline and Planting Guide.
Rather than setting a numerical goal for regional coverage of riparian areas, the Strategy highlighted areas most likely to deliver beneficial terrestrial and aquatic outcomes in the following major land use categories:
rural areas
greenfield developments
existing urban areas
regional and other parks.
Within each of these areas, the Strategy’s goal was to:
retain existing riparian zones in good condition
enhance existing riparian zones in poor condition
restore riparian zones where they do not currently exist.
It also aimed to improve public understanding of the importance of riparian vegetation in watershed ecosystems, and, coupled with well-defined goals and environmental values, to lead to a widespread acceptance of riparian zone management as a good tool for integrated watershed management. It encouraged a wide range of land owners and/or community interests to form or join Land Care groups or watershed associations and take part in riparian activities in their neighbourhood.
While it also included some policy and regulatory approaches, the Strategy supported voluntary activities by a wide range of groups, including:
individual land owners
the indigenous Māori people
native plant nursery managers
individuals known to have an interest in riparian management
land developers
surveyors, earthworks and fencing contractors, landscape architects, planners, engineers and other environmental professionals
environmental protection and other community groups
planning and regulatory staff in the then Auckland Regional Council and the region’s seven city and district councils (now all amalgamated into the Auckland Council).
The Council offered training workshops on an as-required basis to such interested parties, and this training now falls under the aegis of the new Auckland Council.
Trainees are given a free copy of the Strategy, Guideline and Planting Guide, as well as a practical workbook. They are encouraged to bring along maps and photos of their own property for discussion. They visit a stream that is suitable for riparian restoration, where they draw a stream bank profile, refer to the Planting Guide to select plants that are suitable for the different riparian zones, and draw up a planting plan and map to present to the other attendees for helpful feedback.
For those attending, support to fulfil their riparian restoration vision was available through the Council’s Environmental Initiatives Fund (EIF). Many attendees applied for EIF funding and it was an important mechanism for implementing the Council’s riparian strategy on the ground: a significant proportion of EIF grants were for riparian fencing and planting. As ecologist Shona Myers, one of the Council trainers, pointed out, this reinforces the fact that the best training is part of a full policy package.
The great thing about this project was that it built capacity in two important areas:
the Council staff who were delivering the training workshops
the people who attended them.
