EStachew_EHS Policy and Young Talent

www.afsinc.org │ CastingConnection.afsinc.org │ @AmerFoundrySoc

27TH EHS CONFERENCEAugust 11-13, 2015 │Park City, UT

Role of Company’s EHS Policy Assisting with Recruiting Young

TalentElena Stachew

Fairmount Santrol

http://www.afsinc.org/


Speaker Background

• Coatings Development Lab Manager• Formerly, Technical Service Engineer• Current lead of the Environmentally Responsible Products and Processes (ERPP) corporate

sustainable development team

• Case Western Reserve University Class of 2013• B.S. in Polymer Science and Engineering• Concentration in Materials Science and Engineering• Actively involved in sustainability groups and initiatives

• Research positions at CWRU, Washington State University and University of Massachusetts-Amherst

• Degradation testing of photovoltaic components• Fabrication and characterization of hemoglobin-like structures for use in

automotive solar paint applications• Mechanical testing of casein-clay aerogel composites for use in wind turbine

blade insulation



How did I become interested in mining?

One class: Strategic Metals and Materials for the 21st Century

• Mineral demand• Energy and material flows• Criticality• Materials substitution• Conflict minerals in electronics and electronic waste• Materials recycling• Industrial ecology



We need raw materials for everything.



How did I start working at Fairmount Santrol?

• Recruitment• Collaborative meaningful projects that

require long-term thinking and planning• Cradle-to-cradle concept in practice• Health and wellness incentives• Social responsibility emphasis• All encompassing approach to

sustainability



Peer backlash

• You are working for a company that supports fracking?!?!

• But you were the chair of the Student Sustainability Council, how could you?!

• Manufacturing = a dirty, dangerous environment that requires little to no skills

• You are smarter than that!• 52% of all teenagers say they have no interest in a

manufacturing career.



Understanding their (our) perspective



Hydraulic fracturing



Mining

Mountain top removal

Hazardous tailing ponds become SuperFund sites



Manufacturing



In reality,

• We need smart, environmentally conscious people in every company in order to build a more sustainable future.

• Geopolitical issues• A diversified energy mix • The energy grid needs re-engineered.• None of this happens overnight.



There are costs to everything.





Every company needs these perspectives.

• Material and energy flows• Material availability• Raw material sourcing• Community impact• Life cycle analysis

And the right people to take on the challenge



As for mining,

• Federal/State-Mine and Reclamation Plan

• Environmental Impact Statement

• Inland Lakes and Streams Part 301

• Ground Water Discharge Permit

• Township Special Use Permit

• Zoning Change as Needed • Soil Erosion And Control

Permit



The reality of metalcasting



The reality of metalcasting

• Foundries provide the castings needed to maintain and improve our country’s infrastructure and our society’s quality of life.

• Castings used in renewable energy technologies:

• Rotor hubs, gearboxes and bearing houses for wind turbines

• Industrial fans, pumping equipment, piping and turbines for biomass

• Centrifugal pumps, condenser, vacuum pumps, pipes, wellhead assembly for geothermal



Recruiting young talent

• Focus on what your company does to improve quality of life, or protect the environment.

• The media will always be against you.• In the last century, child mortality has dropped 90%,

while life span has doubled. • Average per capita income worldwide has tripled. • Groceries cost 13 times less than they did in the 1870s. • Poverty has declined more in the last 50 years than it

did in the previous 500 years.• Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by

Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler



“People are hungry for the opportunity to work professionally in a way that is consistent with building a sustainable world instead of one that undermines it. The

idea that ‘I’m going to work in a corporation that may have the impact of further degrading the capacity of the

planet to support life and then in my spare time I’m going to use the money that I’ve made to do good

deeds’ — that just doesn’t cut it for people anymore. You can’t have that kind of dissonance.” - John Sterman, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and

director of MIT’s System Dynamics Group



But wait, isn’t a company’s EHS policy completely separate from their sustainability initiatives/culture?

• A 2009 NAEM survey found that 2/3 of the sustainability initiatives at member companies are being led or managed by the EHS function



Sometimes the term sustainability can be overused.

• Discussion at Baldwin Wallace College’s Institute for Sustainable Business Practices

• Featured speakers: Chuck Fowler from Fairmount Santrol and Pat Conway from Great Lakes Brewing Company

• Sherwin Williams environmental management system• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% per 100 lb. produced by 2016. • Reduce electricity usage by 25% per 100 lb. produced by 2016. • Reduce non-hazardous liquid waste generated by 25% per 100 lb. produced

by 2016. • Reduce non-hazardous solid waste generated by 25% per 100 lb. produced by

2016. • Reduce hazardous waste generated by 50% per 100 lb. produced by 2016.

• Environmentally responsible employee driven initiatives: “Pail Recycling Program Saves 15 Tons of Waste Annually from Landfills” at the Sherwin-Williams Global Supply Chain Orlando plant



The focus

• Adopt EHS/sustainability practices that exceed industry norms and distinguish your organization from other employers, such as by integrating sustainability with your brand, products and services.

• Link sustainability to the organization’s prestige by seeking recognition and awards from reputable third-party organizations.

• Demonstrate employee pride through testimonials and by showing how you celebrate sustainability achievements.



Recruiting strategies

• Showcase employee-driven sustainability initiatives to illustrate how your concern for sustainability is tied to efforts to create meaningful and rewarding experiences for your employees.

• Employee-driven “green” innovations saved Xerox $10.2 million and eliminated 2.6 million pounds of waste in 2010.

• The company’s Earth Awards program, launched 17 years ago, showcases how employees improve Xerox’s business and the environment by eliminating waste.



Recruiting strategies

• Be transparent. Young talent can see if you are using sustainability for profit seeking alone. Link to company values.

• Sustainability messages can only add value if they reach job seekers. Use multiple channels to inform job seekers about your sustainability efforts, such as company websites and careers pages, employee testimonials, recruitment handouts, conversations with recruiters, and position announcements.

• Avoid greenwashing. Messages about sustainability need to match the reality that new hires will experience.



Recruitment in college

• Internship programs• Kent State University

• Design competitions• Saint-Gobain• Sustainability component

• Class presentations• GE and Lincoln Electric in my strategic minerals

course• Senior capstone courses

• Chemical engineering group design course



In high school

• Science Olympiad• Class demonstrations and presentations• Women in Engineering one week summer

camp at Michigan Technological University • Big Brothers Big Sisters• Tutoring programs in schools and communities



K-12 students

• Project Lead the Way • Class demonstrations – i.e. “foundry in a box”• Science Olympiad• Boys and Girls Clubs• Big Brothers Big Sisters• Tutoring programs in schools and communities



We all know the statistics,

• Over the next 10 years, the United States will need to fill 3.5 million manufacturing jobs, according to new research from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute – but 2 million of those jobs are likely to go unfilled due to lack of skilled employees.



Changing skills

• You will have to recruit people who may have never considered mining or metalcasting – like me!

• Skills required:• Big data analytics programs• 3D modeling and printing• Robotics• Welding• Other emerging technologies….

• The skills needed are ways to reach young talent through competition and outreach programs

• Companies will need to create new talent development paradigms to compete for top talent

• Implement programs to upskill or cross-skill workers who don’t have the right background to build and maintain a sustainable workforce



What if you are doing all of this and it still doesn’t seem like enough moving forward?



BIOMIMCRYLooks at nature’s best ideas and imitates those designs and processes to solve human problems

• Eastgate Center in Zimbabwe modeled on termite mound (all natural HVAC)

• Wind turbine blades inspired by Humpback Whale flipper• Clipnosis• Nature as model, measure, mentor• asknature.org and biomimicryinstitute.org• biomimicryneo.org and Great Lakes Biomimicry



Nine Laws of Nature

Nature runs on sunlight

Nature uses only the energy it needs

Nature recycles everything

Nature demands local expertise

Nature fits form and function

Nature rewards collaboration

Nature banks on diversity

Nature curbs excesses from within

Nature taps the power limits



Thank you!Questions?


Documents

EStachew_EHS Policy and Young Talent