The Moorhill Monitor
* Volume
8 / Issue 3 / Date 3rd Quarter 1999 *
In this Issue:
[What Makes a
Good ES]
[What if Airlines Sold Paint] [Y2K]
[How to Keep a Healthy Level of Insanity]
Moorhill International Group, Inc.
Fostering International Relations Through Commerce
Providing sound implementation strategies
Offering extensive training / auditing services
Integrating D1-9000 and/or AS 9000 systems |
Assisting with on-site baseline assessments
Reviewing existing documentation
Inspiring company-wide adoption methods |
1. What Makes a Good Environmental Statement?
Why Produce a Good Environmental
Statement
(ES)?
- to contribute to the protection of the environment
and to sustainability,
- to influence public attitudes by reducing
opposition, increasing the credibility of the organization and enabling them
to carry the people with them; and to reflect the diligence which an
organization gives to environmental matters.
Reasons Given For Producing a Good ES.
- to obtain planning permission; 0
to try and get
the proposal and the planning application right first time;
-
to aid decision-making by the local planning authority, although it was also I
noted that
planning inspectors rarely refer to an environmental impact statement (EIS);
and
-
to minimize costs that would be unforeseen in the absence of an environmental
impact assessment (EIA) or if a poor EIA was undertaken.
For
environmental management system (EMS) statements and similar documents it was
felt that they could be powerful documents in providing access to markets and
influencing customer and investor decisions.
Who is the
Audience for an ES?
The audience for an EIS and an EMS Statement were
identified separately, but again there was some common ground between them.
The table below lists the main audiences identified for each of the types of
environmental statement.
For EIA, the non-technical summary (NTS) was seen as
an important document for informing the public. It provides them with a good
summary of what the project is about. However, it can be tempting to omit some
of the more alarming aspects of a project from the summary. It was felt that
guidance on what a NTS should contain and the level of detail required would
be helpful. The NTS should not be the only document that is available to the
public, for example additional information should be available at public
meetings and exhibitions and the full EIS should always be
- applicable to senior management
-
other interested parties and available to them as well.
For EMS Statements it was felt that the local
community always appeared to be the least interested in the reports. It is
generally very difficult to engage them. Similarly, it was felt that there is
no clear evidence of a demand from investors and financial institutions for EMS
Statements. Part of the problem with these two groups is that they have an
interest in very different information, and it is likely that EMS Statements
are not serving any of them particularly well. In reality there is probably a
need for at least two different types of environmental statement, one aimed at
"the city" and the other aimed at the local community, which would
deal with more local issues.
Principles for
the Production of a Good ES:
-
be subject to third party scrutiny or verification in the case of an EMS
Statement and review in the case of an EIS; be transparent;
-
clearly distinguishing between fact and opinion, repeatable
-
be defensible in terms of the methodologies used have a structure and content
which facilitates comparison with similar reports; be balanced, emphasizing
issues appropriate to the severity of the potential impact; be scientifically
rigorous; be understandable, avoiding or explaining
-
the use of technical terms; signpost where additional information is
available; be focused on important information, be relevant avoiding the
inclusion of superfluous information; and have an appropriate use of
illustrations.
Source: EARA,
6/99.
2. What if Airlines
Sold Paint?
BUYING
PAINT FROM A HARDWARE STORE ...
Customer: Hi. How much is your paint?
Clerk: We have regular quality for $12 a gallon and premium for $18.
How many gallons would you like?
Customer: Five gallons of regular quality, please.
Clerk: Great. That will be $60 plus tax.
BUYING PAINT FROM AN AIRLINE ...
Customer: Hi, how much is your paint?
Clerk: Well, sir, that all depends.
Customer: Depends on what?
Clerk: Actually, a lot of things.
Customer: How about giving me an average price?
Clerk: Wow, that's too hard a question. The lowest price is $9 a
gallon, and we have 150 different prices up to $200 a gallon.
Customer: What's the difference in the paint?
Clerk: Oh, there isn't any difference; it's all the same paint.
Customer: Well, then, I'd like some of that $9 paint.
Clerk: Well, first I need to ask you a few questions. When do you
intend to use it?
Customer: I want to paint tomorrow, on my day off.
Clerk: Sir, the paint for tomorrow is the $200 paint.
Customer: What? When would I have to paint in order to get the $9
version?
Clerk: That would be in three weeks, but you will also have to agree
to start painting before Friday of that week and continue painting
until at least Sunday.
Customer: You've got to be kidding!
Clerk: Sir, we don't kid around here. Of course, I'll have to check to
see if we have any of that paint available before I can sell it to you.
Customer:
What do you mean check to see if you can sell it to me? You
have shelves full of that stuff; I can see it right there.
Clerk: Just because you can see it doesn't mean that we have it. It
may be the same paint, but we sell only a certain number of gallons on
any given weekend. Oh, and by the way, the price just went to $12.
Customer: You mean the price went up while we were talking!
Clerk: Yes, sir. You see, we change prices and rules thousands of
times a day, and since you haven't actually walked out of the store
with your paint yet, we just decided to change. Unless you want the
same thing to happen again, I would suggest that you get on with your
purchase. How many gallons do you want?
Customer: I don't know exactly. Maybe five gallons. Maybe I should
buy six gallons just to make sure I have enough.
Clerk: Oh, no, sir, you can't do that. If you buy the paint and then
don't use it, you will be liable for penalties and possible
confiscation of the paint you already have.
Customer: What?
Clerk: That's right. We can sell you enough paint to do your kitchen,
bathroom, hall and north bedroom, but if you stop painting before you
do the bedroom, you will be in violation of our tariffs.
Customer: But what does it matter to you whether I use all the paint?
already paid you for it!
Clerk: Sir, there's no point in getting upset; that's just the way it
is. We make plans based upon the idea that you will use all the
paint, and when you don't, it just causes us all sorts of problems.
Customer: This is crazy! I suppose something terrible will happen if I
don't keep painting until after Saturday night!
Clerk: Yes, sir, it will.
Customer: Well, that does it! I'm going somewhere else to buy my paint.
Clerk: That won't do you any good, sir. We all have the same rules.
Thanks for flying--I mean painting--with our airline.
Source: Copyright Alan H.
Hess, 1998.
3. Y2K!
Dear Boss:
The "Y to K" problem you mention doesn't really make sense
to me. However, pursuant to your instructions, I have
finished making the necessary corrections to the company
calendars for next year (2000). The calendars have
returned from the printer and are ready to be distributed
with the following new months:
Januark
Februark
Mak
Julk
Source: D. Rigg, AZ.
4. How
To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity!
At lunch time, sit in your parked car and point a hair
dryer at passing
cars to see if they slow down.
Page yourself over the intercom. (Don't disguise your voice).
Send e-mail to the rest of the company to tell them what you're doing.
For example: 'If anyone needs me, I'll be in the bathroom.'
Put mosquito netting around your cubicle.
Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they
want fries
with that.
Encourage your colleagues to join you in a little synchronized chair
dancing.
Put your garbage can on your desk and label it 'IN'.
Develop an unnatural fear of staplers.
Send e-mail messages that advertise free pizza, doughnuts, etc., in
the break-room.
When people complain that there was nothing there, lean
back, rub your stomach, and say, "You've got to be faster than
that."
Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten
over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
In the memo field of all your checks, write 'for sexual favors'.
Reply to everything someone says with, "That's what you think."
Adjust the tint on your monitor so that the brightness level lights up
the entire working area. Insist to others that you like it that way.
Don't use any punctuation
As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
Specify that your drive-through order is 'to go'.
Sing along at the opera.
Source: Microsoft Employee, 8/99.
5. Next Month - Look
Here!
Moorhill Monitor
1998 / 1999 Archives
Moorhill International Group, Inc.
P. O. Box 26757
Tempe, AZ 85285, USA
480-491-2007 tel.
480-491-2101 fax
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