Best Practices - Even Better When Shared

I was so pleased to speak with Mike Mahanna, the Program Director for NAEM – The Premier Association for EHS Management, when he called this past May. I had been putting together costs estimates for possible future events and the NAEM Compliance Excellence Workshop was one of those events. That was perfect, according Mike, as he had an offer that would help with those expenses. “Speakers” get to attend the conference for free! The session was “Cultivating Employee Talents” and Mike was looking for speakers. Was I interested? Absolutely!

My work as the EHS Director with Muir Omni Graphics has given me the opportunity to work with different team structures within the company, each with its own mission and objectives. However, regardless of the mission, the opportunities for employee personal and professional growth and development are abundant. It is the team leader’s responsibility to identify opportunities and put those opportunities into action, in order to create an environment that promotes team member growth and development.

When it came to cultivating employee talents:  the team environment and the implementation of the “one on one” session are two of MUIR’s Best Practices, so I was able to put together a presentation quite easily.

A New Energy Emerges in Muir Omni Graphics

There’s a new energy within the walls of MUIR and it is positively brimming from the newly formed Sustainability Team. Six MUIR employees were called to action for a Sustainability initiative in hopes of attaining the 2012 SGIA Sustainability Recognition Award to be awarded in early 2013.

These new team members were carefully handpicked and then contacted by top management to discuss their willingness to take on this added responsibility. They would be asked to step away from their workstations to meet with the EHS Director (that’s me) on a weekly basis to set goals, make and execute action plans and communicate sustainability initiatives to their coworkers throughout the company. This would be a challenge as business is continually growing and every man (or woman) is needed to meet production demands. In the end, our team demographics would include a client relations rep, an inventory handler, a raw material handler, a screen printer, a die cutter and an accounting clerk. This team fairly represents the entire company in all three buildings. 

Where would we go? How would we get there?

Setting the Stage for an Off-the-Job Safety Mindset

“What I do on my own time is none of your business!” I am certain that this could be the response the MUIR Safety team will be confronted with as we kick-off National Safety Month at Muir Omni Graphics in just a few weeks. The 2012 Safety Promotion that the team has been preparing for has been designed to focus on an Off-the-Job Safety initiative.

Work is work and home is home. Right? Maybe. 

Last spring while in attendance at the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council Professional Development Conference, I had opted to sit in on the Off-the-Job Safety session, presented by Glenn Williams of John Deere. The concept of this session hit home with me, making perfect sense. Management absolutely has a vested interest in the home activities of employees and the safety measures taken-or not taken. Accidents and injuries occurring at home may lead to absences, restricted activities or a combination of both in the workplace. Simply put: Off-the-Job safety (or lack of) can directly affect the productivity of the company. 

Inspiration Found

I felt like a kid in a candy shop as I was being led through the building where a small group of people collaborated to educate teachers and children about the good earth, recycling, and composting. They were also collecting used books, materials, and office & school supplies to provide free resources to teachers for their underprivileged students. I had been introduced to Kay McKeen, SCARCE, Inc. founder and president, through a mutual LinkedIn connection, while attempting to find interested parties who might find a need for our decal production scrap.

SCARCE, Inc. (Schools and Community Assistance in Recycling and Composting Education), as posted on its website, www.scarceecoed.org is an organization that cares… “SCARCE inspires people, through education, to preserve & care for the Earth's natural resources, while working to build sustainable communities.” I had been so excited to “linkin” with Kay as I had aspired to find a good use for our end-of-the-roll/off-cut scrap vinyl. Unable to locate a way to recycle these rolls of vinyl, I had sent her some in hopes that the decal scrap could be beneficial and not end up in the dumpster. Kay later reported that teachers had taken everything I had sent. Today we had driven two and a half hours to visit SCARCE, located in DuPage County, to see the employees in action and determine what else we might avert from the landfill to the shelves of SCARCE. I did NOT want to send anything that they then would consider trash and then be responsible for the disposal. I could clearly see “trash” was not in their vocabulary!

The Year 2011 in Review - From the EHS Point of View, Part Two

In my last posting,  I was remembering 2011 and celebrating the successes for MUIR. Two such areas of success for the EHS Department could be found in new partnerships and company teamwork. Sharing at that time our new-found partnerships, the discussion now turns to teamwork and the people who exemplify the characteristics of good team members and great teamwork.

Teamwork

I experience a great feeling of success when I think of the two teams for which I have the privilege of working with: The MUIR Safety Team and the MUIR Internal Auditing Team. 

In 2011, both teams were given new challenges and responsibilities and both teams rose up to meet those challenges and responsibilities with success and pride.

Our Safety Team consists of four members coming from workstations that are located in such a manner that they nicely cover and represent the company. They manage demanding responsibilities on a daily basis while taking on an additional responsibility of Safety Team Member. Each month Opal, Bryan, Jenny and Truongson perform safety audits in their assigned regions, inspect fire extinguishers and meet with me, the Safety Team Leader, to report any areas of concern.

The Year 2011 in Review - From the EHS Point of View

As the end of the year was fast approaching, I was thinking about year 2011 and the wonderful things it had held for Muir Omni Graphics: Partnerships, teamwork, a bright outlook for 2012 and so much more. Yes, it was a good year.

Part One: Partnerships

I had the opportunity to meet with Rebecca Cottrell, The Peoria County Recycling and Resource Conservation Educator, in February to chat about their plans for the year and determine how Muir Omni Graphics might be able to partner up with the Recycling and Resource Conservation department in 2011. This provided me the chance to play Environmental Jeopardy with area sixth graders at the Clean Water Celebration in April and Environmental Bingo with third graders during the Earth Day is Every Day event in October.  In my book, any day spent working with children in the subject Good Earthly Stewardship is a worthy investment.