In June 2006, The Climate Project (TCP) began operations based in Nashville, Tennessee, as non-profit organization with the mission of increasing public awareness of the climate crisis at a grassroots level throughout the United States and abroad.  By April 2007, a diverse group of 1000 volunteers from every corner of the USA had been trained to present a version of the slide show on which the Academy Award-winning film, “An Inconvenient Truth” is based. More Nashville trainings are planned for later in 2007, focusing on specific sector groups.

Want to do something to help stop global warming?
Here are 10 simple things you can do and how much carbon dioxide you’ll save doing them.

• Change a light
  Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
• Drive less
  Walk, bike, carpool or take mass transit more often.  You’ll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don’t drive!
• Recycle more
  You can save 2.400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.
• Check your tires
  Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%.
  Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!
• Use less hot water
  It takes a lot of energy to heat water.  Use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year).
• Avoid products with a lot of packaging
  You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
• Adjust your thermostat
  Moving your thermostat just 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer you could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.
• Plant a tree
  A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.
• Turn off electronic devices
  Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Spread the word!

Whenever I talk about safety with management or a supervisor, I always talk about the “Near Miss Factor.”  Today as the safety departments gets leaner we tend to think less about near misses and more about incidents and lost workdays.  But reporting, tracking and analyzing a near miss can have a dramatic effect on reducing lost workdays and serve incidents. 
 

What is a Near Miss?

A near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage – but had the potential to do so. Only a fortunate break in the chain of events prevented an injury, fatality or damage. Although human error is commonly an initiating event, a faulty process or system invariably permits or compounds the harm, and is the focus of improvement. Other familiar terms for these events is a “close call”, or in the case of moving objects, “near collision”.

Reporting, Analysis and Prevention
An ideal near miss event report system includes both mandatory (for incidents with high loss potential) and voluntary, non-punitive reporting by witnesses.  A key to any near miss report is the “lesson learned”.  Near miss reporters are in a position to describe what observe about genesis of the event, and the factors that prevented loss from occurring.

The events that caused the near miss are subjected to root cause analysis to identify the defect in the system that resulted in the error and factors that may either amplify or ameliorate the result.

To prevent the near miss from happening again, the organization must institute teamwork training, feedback on performance and a commitment to continued data collection and analysis, a process call continuous improvement.
In 1932 Heineich issued what is known in the industry as the accident triangle.

1 Major Injury, 29 Minor Injuries, 300 No Inury Accidents
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 In 1969 Bird revised the triangle to look like this.

1 serious or disabling injury, 10 minor injury, 30 property damage,
600 accidents with not visible injury of damage
Understanding the “Near Miss” and what it signifies can help safety managers and safety teams to lower the more serious incidents.  Identifying the “Near Miss” also makes everyone more aware of safety.  Being aware of safety and best practices will help make the workplace a safer environment

Happy New to all.  The Compliance Resource Center hopes you all had a wonderful and SAFE holiday season.   And now it is time to get back to work.
The beginning of a new year is a great time to do an annual assessment of your facility.  I always consider 4 parts to an assessment;

• Observation
• Conversation
• Compliance
• Evaluation 

OBSERVATION
I always to target 5 major areas that I am evaluating, during an assessment.  I start by looking and making notes with particular regards to these areas, but also notice if there are any other major concerns.  If time permits, I walk through the facility watching employee’s work and the equipment they are using.  I will often bring a camera and take pictures to support my findings.
CONVERSATION
Part of the assessment process should be talking with some of the employees.  This can give you a better understanding of employee’s opinion and understanding of the safety policies/procedures and their training.  Often the employees will tell a consultant some thing they would not tell their supervisor.
COMPLIANCE
My assessment is always based on compliance with OSHA regulations found in 49CFR.  If you are the safety person at your company, you should have a current 49CFR on your shelf.  This book is your bible for OSHA regulations and compliance.  Any assessment should follow these standards with regards to this manual.  Remember that OSHA standards are written for many industries.  You can also look at best practices to achieve a higher standard.  This is up to the individual company and location.
EVALUATION
After I stop, look and listen, I fill out an assessment tool that rates each area I observe.  This helps me keep my focus on facility and the good things they do and where they need improvement.  The final report is sent to my contact.  I follow-up in a few weeks to help the safety person develop a plan of action using the assessment made.  Finally, I check back every couple of months to see what progress is being made on the action plan.
So now you know some of the tricks of the trade; observe, converse, compliance and evaluate.  Have A SAFE NEW YEAR!

People live more of their time off-work than on – though some may not feel that way – so why don’t most companies have focused and strong at-home safety interventions?          
You already know that safety is not only for the workplace. An injury suffered off the job keeps an employee away from work as surely as one suffered at work, so wise employers expand the focus of their safety programs to include the hours when employees are away from work.

While no article can replace specific planning and implementation customized to your workforce, culture and exposures, I’ll provide proven guidelines for boosting off-work safety lifestyles.

When you’re trying to create change, it’s always good strategy to:

1. Identify the real blockages to desired new actions so you can plan to minimize these obstacles;
2. Determine and communicate benefits to draw people to adopt new behaviors; and
3. Create a structure to support the changes, including reinforcers. Follow these basic guidelines to develop around-the-clock safety thinking and actions. (more…)