ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT / Spring 2001 / 81© 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Environmental Ethic—Or, What Does “BeyondCompliance” Really Mean?

Jeff Weinrach

THE RULE OF LAWOne of the statements that I heard fre-quently regarding our most recent presi-dential election (from what seems likeour permanent political punditry) was,“We are a nation of laws, not men.”

An aside here: Why, by the way, dowe need to watch pundits on televisionexplain to us what we just heard or whatwe are about to hear? I cannot begin tocount the number of times news outlets(especially the 24-hour cable news sta-tions that often need filler material to jus-tify their daily existence) put these talk-ing political almanacs on the air to makesure that the viewing audience under-stands every iota and nuance in our polit-ical landscape. I regularly pay attention toRoger Ebert reviewing movies so I canmake an informed decision aboutwhether I should cough up the money tosee the movie being reviewed. I don’tneed Roger explaining the movie to meafter leaving the theater, though. I alsodon’t need Roger giving me suggestions asto what the movie is about after I havealready bought a ticket.

Whether we were at the brink of aconstitutional crisis or not is debatable,but the nation was certainly put to a con-siderable test. Those of us who considerourselves political junkies were mesmer-ized by our televisions, watching out-comes of political elections being debat-ed—and, ultimately, decided—within

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the judicial branch of our government,supposedly the least political of thethree branches.

During some of the most heated pub-licly aired arguments, whenever theSupreme Court was mentioned, thereseemed to be a unique level of deferenceby all parties that illustrated a certainunderstanding of finality—that we tendto respect our laws more than we respectour political opposition and their views.(And, of course, we started to see a newerbreed of pundit, the legal pundit, getmore air time as political pundits woreout their welcome.)

All of this started me thinking aboutsomething that we, in the environmentalarena, hear quite often: The phrase“beyond compliance.” I have tended toequate compliance with laws, or at leastwith rules and regulations. But whatdoes it really mean to go beyond compli-ance, and how important is it for us tothink in a “beyond compliance” manner?

AUTHORITY AND UNDERSTANDINGWhen I was a young lad, I was prob-

ably like most children: I had to berepeatedly told not to do certain things(like running in the house with scissors),or to behave in a certain way (such asshowing respect for my elders). I was tooyoung to understand why I could orcould not do certain things, so I had to bereminded often.

Jeff Weinrach82 / Spring 2001 / ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

When I would be punished for notlistening, I would understand (clearly)that my parents did not want me to doparticular things. But it wasn’t until Iwas older that I began to comprehendtheir actions and why they took them.

In most cases, as I aged, I would lookback at their parental actions and whole-heartedly agree with their judgments. Inthe few instances where I would dis-agree, it was more an indication of inde-pendent thinking and changing timesthan it was a reflection of “wrong” choic-es on their part.

Those of us in the environmentalarena, regardless of what we alreadyknow and what we already do, still needto listen to and heed the advice of our“authority” figures. But as we matureinto our respective fields, we begin tounderstand why our authority figures aretelling us to do certain things (maintain-ing Material Safety Data Sheets, forexample) or not to do certain things(mixing hazardous and nonhazardouswastes, for example).

The important point here is that aswe grow professionally, we begin toappreciate the significance of what weare doing. And for most of us, this is cru-cial. If I did not understand why I need-ed to take certain environmental actions,it wouldn’t matter whether I was told todo them once or a hundred times. Themessage would not truly be effectiveuntil I understood it myself.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICAn “ethic” is a set of moral precepts

held or rules of conduct followed by anindividual. In the training field, ourenvironmental ethic represents ourunderstanding of what we would like tosee attained. In general, we would like tosee regular compliance trainings focusmore on reinforcement and adding to theknowledge base than on persuasion.Activities would be carried out withminimal (not zero) oversight.

I had an opportunity to visit anorganization this past year where theenvironmental ethic was widely held.All the employees were not only awareof the environmental issues relevant tothem and their organization, but theyunderstood them—and they appreciatedthem as well. Due primarily to this thor-ough environmental ethic, the organiza-tion has an extremely effective environ-mental management system, one inwhich all employees have importantroles and responsibilities and carry themout completely.

For someone from outside theorganization, such as myself, it waseasy to see the environmental ethicthrough discussions with employeesand management, by touring the facili-ties and seeing work carried out withthe ethic embedded in work habits, andthrough discussions with customersand stakeholders who are familiar withthe organization.

FROM DATA TO WISDOM An appropriate analogue to the con-

cept of the environmental ethic can befound in effective environmental infor-mation management. When consideringhow to manage information (environ-mental or other) effectively, there is astandard representation that is oftenused in training:

Data → Information → Knowledge

What this representation intends toillustrate is that data, in order to be trulyvaluable, must be transformed first intoinformation, and then into knowledge.

Data typically is “raw”; it comesdirectly from experience or measure-ment (such as pH testing, for example).By contrast, “information” implies use-fulness or relevance. Often raw data canbecome information by being aggregatedor by being converted into a more usableform. Knowledge, in turn, is what is

EHS Training ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT / Spring 2001 / 83

obtained by analyzing useful informa-tion and doing something with it.

What is not shown in this represen-tation is a fourth element—wisdom.Perhaps the standard representationreally should look like this:

Data → Information → Knowledge→ Wisdom

We gain wisdom when we no longerhave to rely solely on data to carry out par-ticular functions. The data are still useful,but we also have an almost intuitiveunderstanding of what needs to be donebecause we have matured and we haveembraced the relevance and significanceto what we are doing. In a high-performingorganization, this wisdom becomesembodied in an environmental ethic.

ATTAINING AN ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICThere are several factors that can

help an individual or an organizationinternalize an environmental ethic:

• Visualization—Seeing something inaction is often more penetrating andmore significant than hearing aboutit from a trainer or reading about it ina book or a journal.

• Sharing—Working together with oth-ers often leads to a sharing of com-

mon ideals that leads to improvedperformance.

• Reinforcement—Maintaining a highenvironmental ethic is not automat-ic. Regular reinforcement throughdiscussion groups and other forumskeeps the fires burning.

• Persistence and Patience—As atrainer, I have an expectation that itwill take time (and some repetition)to achieve “ethic” status. It is criticalto acknowledge this need up front.

Understanding “Beyond Compliance”This brings me back to a question I

asked earlier in this column. What does“beyond compliance” really mean?

Often, we think of the term on amacro scale. We might say, “Our organi-zation has gone beyond compliancebecause we have reduced our hazardouswaste by 99 percent when we were onlyrequired to reduce it by 90 percent.”

But “beyond compliance” also hasmeaning on the micro or the personalscale—where it takes the form of anenvironmental ethic.

If we can instill an environmentalethic within the individuals in our organ-izations, it will be much easier (andmuch more satisfying) to demonstrate“beyond compliance” on a macro scale.

Jeff Weinrach is director of Quality and Standards with JCS/Novation, Inc. He can be reached atjbwein@rt66.com.