Don’t be afraid to ask for help

I had many stops in my corporate career. I worked in furniture, ceiling grid, ceiling tile, ceramic tile, and vinyl flooring all over the world. My most challenging assignment was working for Dal-Tile in Dallas Texas. I was the environmental, health, safety, mining, and industrial engineering liaison for the twelve manufacturing locations around the country.

It was challenging for many reasons, not the least of which was the negative environmental history Dal-Tile had in the state of Texas. In the 1980’s, they were given the highest environmental fine in the history of the state. The next reason was I had no background in environmental, health, and safety (EHS). The final reason was that the corporate EHS department didn’t want to help me, my boss, or the facilities with compliance. It was an extremely difficult situation to navigate.

My boss and I decided to tour all of the plants, establish relationships with their staff, and identify areas where we could help. Most of our visits started out the same way. Plant leadership would be wary of us, having been “burned” by the corporate EHS staff in the past. Once we showed we were genuinely interested in helping them stay compliant, they warmed to us and let us see the critical issues they were facing. Wayne, my boss, was exceptionally adept at getting people to warm to us. He was a true gentleman who cared about the people he served.

We realized we needed to understand the various rules and regulations governing the plants, especially in Texas. Instead of reading many books, we decided to travel to seminars hosted by OSHA and the EPA. I was in Austin Texas at an EPA seminar when the presenter asked each of us our names and who we worked for. When I introduced myself from Dal-Tile, the room fell silent. I felt a bit embarrassed, so I blurted out, “but we’re trying to get better!”

At a break, another participant introduced himself to me and told me he used to work for Dal-Tile many years before. He said, “don’t feel bad, when I used to go to seminars, they used to hold up the front page of the Dallas Morning News that showed the headline, ‘Dal-Tile fined millions for environmental transgressions.’ Then, they’d say, ‘don’t let this happen to you.’ They’d go around the room with introductions and I’d get booed!” I felt bad for him and me too, but I was resolute in my belief we could do better and improve the company’s reputation, even with all of the obstacles from the past.

After many more seminars, research, and building relationships with plant leadership, I started to get pulled in to help plants resolve environmental issues and even prevent them. This was a breakthrough.

One day, Al, the Dallas plant manager, called me and asked for my help. I went to the plant to find out what was going on. He showed me a letter saying they were being fined for too much zinc in the wastewater. We walked the inside process to see where the zinc could be coming from. In raw material form, there was less zinc in the product than they were being fined for.

We walked outside to look at the water that was being treated before going into the drains. It looked clear and had no debris in it. The EPA testing point was about 100 yards from the outflow point and the treatment process. Somehow zinc had to be entering the water between the treatment process and the testing point. Where could it be coming from, I wondered?

Then, I saw it. The fence separating our property from the factory next door was shiny for most of its surface, except for a 50-yard length that was a dark brown. It was a drastic difference. Al told me that the neighbor was an electroplating company and they always turned off their smokestacks whenever they were being inspected by the EPA.

I knew what I had to do. I would invite the EPA to visit the plant and help us solve our “zinc problem.” When I shared my idea, Al looked worried. I said, “Al, do you trust me?” He said, “you haven’t let me down yet. Don’t let me down this time!”

I scheduled a visit from the EPA for two weeks from our conversation and they seemed surprised that someone from Dal-Tile would invite them to the plant to help resolve an issue. I guess they were used to defensiveness, rather than cooperation. This gave us time to get everything in the plant in the best possible condition and find all of the materials information that might be requested during the visit.

Edward, the EPA inspector, joined me and met the leadership team early in the morning. I took him on an inside plant tour, showing him all of the possible locations where zinc could be coming from. He agreed with me it was highly unlikely our materials were causing the unusually high zinc levels in the wastewater.

Taking his cue, I took him outside to the wastewater treatment process and showed him how clear the water was. He agreed it didn’t make sense to have high zinc in the water. I then asked him if he could help me clear up a mystery. He seemed intrigued. I showed him the fence, with the shiny and brown areas and asked him what could be causing it? He looked at the fence, then saw the neighboring factory. Once the realization of what was happening hit him, he told me, “Adam, the zinc isn’t coming from your plant. I’ll rescind the fine and the EPA will deal with the real cause of the problem.”

Relieved, I thanked him for his help. I found Al and told him what had happened. Al responded, “Adam, you had me worried, but I was hopeful you would pull it off.” Al then invited me to have a beer with him and it was the coldest and tastiest one I ever had.