Issue #16: When You Buy a Facility, You Buy Its Record
Environmental, health, and safety (EHS) due diligence typically checks what’s in the ground. The compliance record above ground transfers at closing too.
Every buyer of an operating facility, whether through an asset purchase or a corporate acquisition, knows to ask what’s in the ground. Soil and groundwater contamination can follow a property for decades, and under the federal Superfund law, a new owner can end up responsible for contamination it did not cause.
Issue #15: The On-Ramps to Criminal Enforcement
The factors that can move a violation into a criminal investigation
Last week’s issue covered the off-ramps, the factors that make regulators less likely to pursue enforcement. This week covers the other direction.
Issue #14: Enforcement Is a Choice: When Regulators Decide Not to Proceed
Most environmental and safety violations never become enforcement cases. Those that don’t usually share a few traits that are within a company’s control.
Issue #13: Regulators Don’t Inspect Companies. They Inspect Facilities.
Most companies tell their EHS story at the enterprise level. Injury and illness rates are down across the portfolio. Emissions intensity is reduced. Violations are lower company wide. Those are real accomplishments, and they’re worth highlighting. But that’s not how regulators look at a company.
Issue #12: Where Does EPA’s Deregulatory Agenda Stand?
Eighteen months into EPA’s “largest deregulatory effort in U.S. history,” it’s easy for compliance executives to feel like the ground has dramatically shifted.
Issue #11: The Independent Monitor: A Rare But Serious EHS Consequence
In EHS and compliance circles the term “monitor” can be used loosely to describe anything from an outside auditor to a consultant reviewing internal processes and reporting.
Issue #10: EPA’s National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives
For roughly 30 years, EPA has picked a short list of national priorities, known as the National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives (NECIs), to focus extra inspection and enforcement resources on.
Issue #9: Critical Incidents: What Proactive EHS Leaders Should Know
Serious worker safety incidents and major operational events with environmental consequences are rare. Most EHS leaders will go an entire career without facing one, which is exactly why so few organizations are truly ready. Understanding how the government approaches these events and how you should respond, before a critical incident ever happens, matters.
Issue #8: Citizen Suits Explained, and Why They’re Back in the News
First, my usual caveat when I wander into legal issues: I’m not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. I’m sharing my perspective as an EHS and enforcement-risk professional, so what follows is a compliance practitioner’s read.
Issue #7: EHS Data Is the Foundation of Sustainability. Too Many Companies Keep Them in Separate Rooms.
Our team at Ecolumix recently conducted an analysis for a group of companies we work with, looking at sector-wide EHS trends over time. The trend lines stuck with me.
