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BP’s Contractor Toolbox helps companies achieve environmental compliance Program complements BP’s expectation of 100 percent compliance from all its contractors Tom Hall PNA Contributing Writer
BP Amoco, having achieved ISO 14001 certification in December 1998 (see PNA, April 1999), established the BP Contractor Toolbox program as part of its commitment to continued improvement within its own environmental management system. Beginning last January with an idea and plenty of input, the program was forged over a five-month period and made its debut in May.
Gary Campbell of the Central Health, Safety and Environment Department at BP Exploration (Alaska) told an Oct. 29 meeting of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance that the primary goal of the program “is to enable contractors and third party service providers to clearly demonstrate environmental compliance.”
Program background One of the motivating factors that led to the Contractor Toolbox idea was a desire to build within the contractor community — as well as BP — a knowledge of what the environmental regulations really mean and how they apply to the activities and operations of the various companies. Additional motivation came from a group of about a dozen contractors who supported the program in its early development. Campbell said these contractors simply wanted to know what BP expected from them.
“I think the term ‘expectation’ itself may have drawn a few people who, in a lot of cases, are more used to ‘We require you do this’ or ‘We mandate that,’” Campbell said. “Expectation, effectively, is the same thing. If we expect it, then it’s something that you would normally expect to see in terms of documentation or in a way that you run your business.”
Campbell emphasized that the program is voluntary, however, so participation is not a requirement. Had the program been mandatory, Campbell said, contractors likely would have sent one or two representatives, but they wouldn’t have gotten as much out of it.
“What I’ve tried to do in developing the toolbox resource is to make it so compelling and attractive that they come to us and ask to participate,” said Campbell.
What’s in the toolbox? The Contractor Toolbox program consists of four key components: A two-day workshop, site self-assessment, mentoring and follow-up.
The first day of the workshop deals primarily with environmental compliance issues. During this session, participants are introduced to a special Web site that contains links to applicable regulations at the federal, state and local levels.
Links also provide a low-maintenance advantage to the site, because regulation updates or changes are made at the links’ sites.
The workshop’s second day is dedicated to environmental management systems. Using the ISO framework as a base, BP has developed a how-to guide on building a functional environmental management system. Woven into the guide are two key Environmental Protection Agency documents.
“You have to understand how those policies apply to your business in order to take full advantage of them,” Campbell said.
Other components Site self-assessment is the second component of the program and is a practical application of tools obtained during the workshop. Campbell stressed that BP participates in the site self-assessment, but not to police participants.
“We are there to make observations and to help clarify what regulations might apply to whatever activity we see going on with the facility or that you may describe,” he said.
Mentoring is the third program component and is essentially a question-and-answer format to help guide participants toward the answers they seek. Sometimes a question calls for a straight answer while other answers are less specific.
Campbell said that while BP can provide observations and cite applicable regulations, the company cannot give legal advice.
The fourth component, follow-up, has a two-pronged purpose. Campbell said that the first is “...we like to put a little gentle pressure on the contractors and let them know we’re coming back — or that we’d like to come back — and see how they’re doing with their compliance and their systems development and maintenance.” The second is updating past participants on program enhancements.
Successes Since its start, BP’s Contractor Toolbox program has tracked feedback from past participants and so far, the Web site has probably received the most praise, according to Campbell.
“The comments that we get is that it is the best single source of linkages to all of the applicable regulations — federal, state and local,” he said.
Mentoring has provided another gauge of the program’s success.
“We’re getting more and more questions,” Campbell said. “They’re coming back to us asking questions and we’re trying to provide whatever assistance we can.”
Enrollment has grown primarily by word of mouth, Campbell said. Some contractors have even gone to the trouble of gathering enough participants and providing a facility for BP to present the two-day workshop.
“To me,” said Campbell, “that’s probably one of the highest compliments that can be paid to your program: To have someone request that you come out and put it on.”
Helping the helper A key factor that helps BP enhance the toolbox program is the ability to take advantage of the best practices of companies within the contractor community. For example, Campbell cited a product-tracking spreadsheet developed by Alaska Interstate Construction.
At the outset of the program, products were considered solely in terms of waste streams, instead of the entire product cycle.
Campbell said that many contractors have been generous in sharing their best practices and allowing BP to put those practices on the Web site.
Besides organizing workshops and providing classroom space, contractors have helped the toolbox program in other ways, particularly in its early stages. AIC, for example, donated use of its Deadhorse facility as a demonstration walk-through for the pilot program’s site self-assessment phase.
“I think it enabled us to get past the fear of BP coming in with the big hammer,” he said.
Where it’s at and where it’s going BP Exploration (Alaska) has conducted seven workshops — two of them on the North Slope — and 12 site assessments. To date, 42 companies and about 150 individuals have participated in the Contractor Toolbox program.
Campbell said that the participating companies are not just oil and gas companies. “It’s drilling, well services, food catering, construction, fabrication, maintenance, waste management, seismic... and that’s just a scattering,” he said.
Campbell said that his group was asked to consider a one-day senior management workshop. The one-day event would provide company management with knowledge of how an environmental management system works and explain management roles, responsibilities and liabilities within that framework.
On deck The next Contractor Toolbox workshop is scheduled for Dec. 7 and 8 in Anchorage, and another is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 18 and 19.
Those who have not attended the workshop but would like to access the Web site are likely to be disappointed. As Campbell explained it, “Typically, we like people to go through the workshop so that they can understand how to access, as well as use, the internals of the workshop.”
For detailed information about participation in BP’s Contractor Toolbox program, call Campbell at (907) 564-4275.
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