Modernizing
Waste Management
Does the term "environmental manager" call up the image of a white-suited
figure carrying a Geiger counter and roaming a toxic waste dump? If so, you may be showing
your age.
"We've cleaned up the biggest problems," says Harvey Alter, a recently
retired environmental chemist with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and one of the primary
architects of UMUC's new—and still evolving—environmental management graduate
program. "The rivers aren't burning, the smokestacks aren't belching, the dumps
aren't open. The challenges facing the future are how to face the problems of today, not
those of 20 or 30 years ago. Those are the problems environmental managers and policy
managers have to address."
In the past, confronting environmental issues often meant managing damage already done
to the environment—what environmentalists term "remediation." For today's
environmental managers, challenges are more likely to involve compliance with federal or
state regulations and prevention of environmental hazards through careful attention to
waste management, water and land resource management, and air quality management. This,
Alter says, is a trend with national support.
"I despair when polls say, 'Well, 87 percent of the people want clean air, or
water,'" he says. "Did you ever meet the other 13 percent? Environmentalism is
part of the American ethic."
This shift in focus, however—from remediation to compliance and
prevention—calls for a new type of environmental manager, a forward-thinking
individual with a broad range of abilities, says Altof Memon, director of UMUC's
undergraduate specialization in environmental and hazardous materials management.
"A new term that you'll hear is 'industrial ecology' or 'design for
environment,'" Memon says. "That means when you are putting together a plan for
a new plant or division, you think about the environment at that stage, and you put in
features to care for it." UMUC's graduate program and undergraduate specialization
respond to this trend.
"Previously in the business community, there were no true environmental
managers," Memon says. "Upper management would assign those duties to a
personnel manager or a health and safety officer. Now, what they want is a person who can
do all those things—a go-getter who can think ahead, rather than just narrowly
focusing on existing problems. Today's environmental managers must understand information
technology, problem solving, and human relations."
Timothy Pflaum '95, an environmental scientist with the Department of Energy, praises
the training he received in his graduate work at UMUC. The coursework, Pflaum says,
"has been very useful to me in my work, particularly with the planning and analysis
that must be done on major projects. The courses provide an excellent foundation for
understanding environmental laws and the practical side of planning to assure compliance
(thereby avoiding costly delays caused by litigation or regulatory disputes)."
In Pflaum's line of work, "costly" takes on an expanded meaning. As an
environmental scientist and senior analyst on the strategic planning staff of the
assistant secretary for defense programs in the Department of Energy, Pflaum works to
maintain the safety, reliability, and performance of nuclear weapons.
"This is a formidable challenge," Pflaum says, "because we can no longer
conduct underground nuclear tests and therefore must rely on an array of tests to assure
that we understand the complex phenomena associated with aging and deterioration of
sophisticated componentry."
Pflaum also recommends environmental education for those in less obviously critical
positions of management.
"Even if you don't major in environmental management," he says, "taking
courses in environmental law, environmental planning, and environmental science can prove
useful. I don't think you can really be considered a manager these days without having a
familiarization with environmental issues." And when asked for recommendations about
where to take such courses, Pflaum is quick to cite UMUC.
"Generally speaking," he says, "graduate students at UMUC have jobs and
bring a wealth of practical information associated with their workplace. Many graduate
students in other programs are fresh out of college and don't have a lot of workplace
experience."
Harvey Alter cites a similar advantage from the perspective of a faculty member.
"I have long complained that environmental education at the university level is
being taught by people who have never applied for a permit, never operated a plant. When
you teach, for example, and you look at the statute, you say, 'Oh, it sounds great.' When
you look at the implementing regulations, you say, 'You've got to be kidding.' So the
advantage to this program, like all UMUC programs, is that it benefits from faculty active
in the area. The people teaching here are in the field."
For faculty members and students alike, it is a field with a bright future, a sentiment
that is well expressed by Robert Beauchamp, associate director of the graduate
environmental management program.
"Environmental management is growing again," Beauchamp says. "It
experienced rapid growth in the past, then leveled off. But there are trends in industry
that will increase the attractiveness of environmental management—we're talking about
pollution prevention, waste minimization, protecting and conserving our natural resources.
We're going to see a continuing and renewed interest in environmental management in the
future."
Alter agrees with this assessment.
"What is happening—what has to happen—is that environmental thought is
becoming pervasive, whether you're a CFO or an engineer or a product designer," he
says. "Our students are not all aiming for, nor will they wind up with, the title of
'environmental manager.' And that's good, that's good news. Remember what I said about the
environmental ethic being pervasive? I may be an industrial engineer, I may be a
production manager, but I have to know about the environment."
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