‘We had serious sediment problems from developments, but the people working on major construction sites throughout the jurisdiction thought they were doing what they needed to.’ Jay made this very striking observation right at the start of his paper: these people were not intending to sidestep or break the law, but their understanding of the principles and processes of erosion and sediment control wasn’t very good, and they didn’t know what the on-site measures were meant to do or how they really worked. The result was that they were spending time and money in good faith, but building environmental controls that were ineffective.
This clearly defines a training need – part of what in ‘training-speak’ is called a training needs assessment, or TNA.
There is a bigger picture of the training need to be built, too, and Jay identifies five aspects:
the intensity of construction activity: how much is going on? Over how big an area? Over how long a time-frame per project? All told, is there enough activity to warrant setting up a training program?
jurisdictional-specific issues: what particular resources are at risk from the environmental effects of construction? How many valued or impaired water bodies are present? What threatened species are present? What ability do the natural systems have to handle site-specific and cumulative impacts of development? What measures should be used to protect them and what guidance can be offered for building and maintaining those measures? What changes in local ordinances or procedures are needed? What integration with those of adjoining cities, counties or states might be needed?
compliance issues: how many environmental notices are issued? How serious are the infringements or offences and their effects? What do they say about particular trends in non-compliance – are people installing measures wrongly, failing to inspect them, or maintaining them poorly?
knowledge level of the target community: Jay says people ‘didn’t open up a big site with the intention to pollute – but they thought silt fences were the be-all and end-all of best practice’. It was clear that the industry’s skills with estimating and pricing quantities and building roads did not extend to erosion and sediment controls, and that a very basic level of training could make a big difference. Other training needs had to be assessed, such as dealing with paint and concrete issues, as well as erosion and sediment control
community sensitivity and level of control: initially, the wider community was very pro-development, but gradually they also came to see the benefits of environmental protection. The project permitting system needed to address community concerns, especially where local groups were very active. An advantage was that the comparatively high population made it easier to fund a training program.
All these factors needed to be weighed up to assess the needs and benefits that a training program could deliver.
The audiences that Jay identified, each with their different information needs, included:
venture capitalists and developers: these people need to know ahead of time what areas have particular environmental or community sensitivities: this makes it easier for them to plan ahead regarding where to locate and how to design their developments in order to ensure they meet regulatory requirements and also make adequate profit margins
the design community: engineers, architects, landscape and related professionals all saw the value of the training in helping their clients create cost-effective and environmentally responsible developments. As these people began to attend the training, the content had to be adapted to meet their specialist information needs
the construction community: heavy construction contractors, subcontractors and building specialists (framers, painters, electricians, plumbers, drain-layers) were all identified early on as needing to know how to meet the environmental requirements during the site development and building phases. Each group has a particular set of environmental skills to learn that is relevant to their trade
City and County staff and third party inspectors: these people also needed training to make sure their permitting and site inspection capability reflected the performance levels specified in the erosion and sediment control training. City and County staff also themselves needed to comply with the environmental requirements attached to permits for their own public works
community and volunteer groups: local interest groups and the wider community became more interested in the training and some attended the classes, so a wider focus was needed to put them in the picture.
Information from all the previous steps helped Jay to identify what his training should cover, so his next step was to develop a list of topics to meet the needs of the different target audiences. He’d also noted that many in the industry and wider community were confused by differing jurisdictions and policies, so information on these was also included in the training content.
Core materials and resources included local and state standards, guidelines and manuals, plus federal directives. Jay emphasises that key people can be great resources too, and he asked some of the City’s local program directors, engineers and inspectors to present parts of the class.
This stuff can be rather dry, so Jay notes that it’s important to build attractive visuals and present in an engaging manner!
Finally, says Jay – get inspired! Attend relevant training courses yourself, draw on already available resources (there will be many), seek out opinions and ask for feedback: it’s all about doing it better. ‘Shameless borrowing’ was the phrase he used – and in my experience, when you ask people if you can draw on their work, they are invariably delighted to say yes.
And as with all good training, Jay says keeping the content up to date is a constant process. Standards and practices evolve and community perceptions change. Feedback from people attending the training is very helpful and quality assurance is vital – and because the environment is related to everything else, Jay has found it’s a good idea to keep getting input from other parts of the City and Borough organizations.
Among the topics that Jay and his team of trainers cover are:
and contrasting the Charlotte program with my 7-step model.
