As a marine solutions company, Nelosca Technologies, Inc. (Nelosca) faces a unique array of regulations and rules. While every company deals with regulations, most deal with rules that impact operations only on land or only in the water. We are accountable for regulatory requirements in both areas and have been for years. So, what's changed and what are we doing about it?
In recent years, we have seen two significant changes within environmental compliance regulations, both outside and within our industry.
This translates to an increase in potential trouble for companies that aren’t following the rules precisely.
This is a fundamental change from the past, when it was a luxury to find a contractor who followed environmental regulations. Now, environmental regulation management is an absolute requirement—one that clients monitor aggressively. On some client sites, a single drop of oil impacting the ground means an “all-stop” to work until cleanup and reporting are completed. Serious business, indeed.
During the planning for the company-wide Nelosca Quality Management System it was apparent that a key component would involve managing all our environmental responsibilities whether they arose from regulatory obligations, client requirements or Nelosca best practices.
*Nelosca chose British Standards Institution (BSI) as our registrar. BSI is one of the three main registrars in the world for ISO certification.
There are three elements in our quality management process that we prioritize to ensure an educated, environmentally responsible organization.
This process, also known as an aspect and impacts study, is where we examine all the ways that we could possibly impact the environment across our locations, as well as consider potential effects or risks. We then put processes or plans in place to prevent risky actions from occurring and establish proper emergency responses.
Every employee understands that we have a documented system and observation program for dealing with environmental risks, and that the system contains resources to establish requirements for our activities and response plans.
Reasonable care applies to activities across the company at every level. Reasonable care is “the degree of caution and concern an ordinarily prudent and rational person would use in similar circumstances.” Using reasonable care as we go about our tasks drives a common-sense—and highly effective—approach to dealing with risks. It means that we plan activities before we start, taking risks into account, and then perform those activities based on established rules and requirements. After completing operations, we review to ensure our effectiveness and drive process improvement.
This year, Nelosca made great strides regarding environmental management and our level of compliance. Throughout the year, we used external audits, internal inspections, and employee training to help us correct issues—some that we weren’t even aware existed. It has been an excellent opportunity for all of us at Nelosca to learn, working together to ensure that our daily tasks don’t pose a risk to the environment.
Effective control and management of our environmental responsibilities keeps regulators and clients satisfied. And, it’s the right thing to do—that’s the hallmark of Nelosca.
Video highlights of our environmental cleanup work on the manufactured gas plant (MGP) site in Ashland, WI.
For additional information relating to this topic, check out our AWO-RCP, Subchapter M, and ISO Certification and Safety blogs, or drop us a note below.