In metal recycling, management is naturally focused on production and profits – sometimes at the sacrifice of safety.

Employee, customer and visitor safety should be the number one priority. Unfortunately often times it is not, compared to other dangerous industries.

“I am ashamed to report that the refuse and recycling collection industry (SIC Code 5093) is the fourth deadliest industry in America, behind commercial fishing, logging and private plane pilots,” reported John Gilstrap, director of safety at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). ISRI represents more than 1,700 companies nationwide that process, broker and industrially consume scrap commodities, including metals, paper, plastics, glass, rubber, electronics and textiles.

“We kill workers at the rate of 41.3 fatalities per 100,000 workers. To put that in perspective, miners get killed at a rate of 15.8 per 100,000 workers. In other words, we are 260 percent more deadly than an industry that sends people a mile underground to deal with cave-ins and natural gas leaks,” said Gilstrap.

According to the 2012 ISRI Scrap Yearbook, in 2011 the U.S. scrap recycling industry processed approximately 135 million metric tons of scrap commodities valued at $100 billion while directly and indirectly supporting nearly 460,000 jobs. That’s nearly a half million people exposed to high risk environments. Conduct an Internet search on “recycling accidents” to see the carnage that’s happening across the industry.

While all industrial processes involve risk, few operations are more potentially hazardous than metal recycling. It involves both sharp and heavy objects being loaded and unloaded and heavy equipment, shearing, torching, breaking, chopping, crushing, compacting, bailing and         shredding.

On the other hand, Gilstrap thinks that while the industry poses a number of potential hazards, none of them are inherently dangerous. “There are potential hazards, but we need to embrace the notion that injuries are not necessary. Owners should recognize the fact that injuries are not a part of doing business and start managing their safety program with the same vigor they manage every other element of their  business.”

Gilstrap wants the four basic elements of management applied to safety. Establish a goal, communicate the goal to others, put a plan in place and assess the plan periodically.

“You can certainly set goals that are attainable, but they shouldn’t start with ‘zero accidents.’ Goals need to be set as positive achievements, not as the absence of a negative outcome. If you set zero accidents as a goal and then someone gets hurt, what have we learned? Even if the goal is achieved, we won’t know what we did to achieve it. All too often, we set ‘zero accidents’ as a goal because it’s easy to say, even for those who believe that accidents are inevitable. That’s also why supervisors who tolerate unsafe actions on their watch are rarely penalized in a meaningful way. By setting a goal that no one believes in the first place, no one is surprised when the safety goal isn’t met. It’s an entirely different standard for goal setting than is used for any other element of the management model.”

“If we’re serious about establishing a culture of safety, however, we can set meaningful and measurable safety goals. For example, if you realize you are having a hard time getting workers to wear personal protective equipment, set a goal for 90 percent compliance with hard hats and safety glasses as measured by safety observations. If you don’t reach that goal then there should be consequences in the supervisory chain. Once one goal is achieved, you can always proclaim victory and then establish a new goal, a new safety target. This process forces a conversation about safety at the highest levels of an organization and gives it an equal place at the management table.”

Today more than ever, managers have to be concerned with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules and regulations, but compliance should not drive the focus of the safety program. “OSHA is largely a performance based standard, to provide a safe and healthful workplace for employees,” said Gilstrap. “If you allow regulatory compliance to drive your goal setting you can end up with a lot of training records that do not necessarily reflect effective training and programs that don’t make the place safer. If, on the other hand, you start with a dedication to safety for safety’s sake, and you take the needs of the employees seriously and you train them effectively you have a much stronger safety program that will also comply with the regulations. Motivation is important.”

Gilstrap reported that he is seeing a much more aggressive interpretation of OSHA regulations under the current administration. Under past administrations, if an OSHA compliance officer found that a company did inadequate training for lead exposure, for example, the company would receive a single fine for the company-wide violation. Now, however, the company may be fined separately for each employee not receiving the proper training, thereby multiplying the number of fines.

An OSHA spokesperson said “Enforcement is just one of a range of tools OSHA uses to encourage employers to meet their responsibility to provide safe workplaces to their employees. For the majority of employers who want to meet or exceed these requirements, OSHA offers programs that help them abate their hazards and that recognize employers with the best injury and illness prevention programs. For some employers, it is only the threat of an inspection that motivates them to call for free compliance assistance. In the last several years, we have made strong, fair, and effective enforcement one of OSHA’s prime objectives. We have improved inspection targeting and hold the worst of the worst employers accountable for their actions through our Severe Violator Enforcement Program. We will continue to conduct rigorous, targeted inspections so no employer will think that it is acceptable to expose workers to serious health or safety hazards.”

OSHA’s Scrap Metal Recycling page provides information on how to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths. In addition, OSHA has a number of publications, fact sheets and web pages that can provide information and training. For example, fact sheets and websites on proper machine lock out/tag out procedures.

American Recycler News also spoke with Bill Rouse at PK Metals, headquartered in Coram, New York. Rouse is quality, environmental, health and safety manager at PK with 22 years experience in safety. With approximately 80 employees, PK Metals is a private, family operated company that has been handling recycling needs for large corporations, governmental agencies, utilities and the general public since 1979.

Rouse participated in creating the ISRI Safety Manual, a 142 page document that provides a comprehensive template for a company to create its own safety program and manual. Rouse is also a member of ISRI’s, Safety & Environmental Council, a group of about 140 industry pros working to build best management practices.

Ironically, Rouse reported that PK does not have a safety manual per se, rather a strong safety program. His veteran experience is well worth noting: “Obviously the goal of our safety program is to control accidents. As part of our management system, we evaluated all of the processes that we do and we have a footprint to put those processes on. Then we take that and figure out what are the all potential hazards that can happen within the yard. Off those potentials, we ask does it affect that process. If it does, we need to figure out how we are going to control that hazard. Obviously, the first choice is to try to engineer-out the hazard. Other than that you rely on training, personal protection equipment (PPE) and company policies. That would be the hierarchy for safety at any company.”

“A manual is nothing; it’s all about the program. It’s all about getting your employees to buy into it, make sure they wear their personal protective equipment, make sure they are following lock-out, tag-out procedures and wear respiratory protection when necessary. If you get buy-in from your employees, the enforcement part doesn’t really happen.”

PK holds departmental safety meetings at least weekly that run anywhere from half an hour to an hour. It’s an opportunity for each department to sit down and talk about problems that happened during the week. Meetings are led by supervisors and Rouse often sits-in to hear what’s going on and how the company can help. “I always tell them it does no good for me to walk around with an inspection card once a month and see the same thing a month later and find that they have been operating dangerously for 30 days. Our employees are the ones that report most of the hazards.”

Rouse believes it’s all about building a safety culture – a culture within a company where employees buy in to the safety program and fully understand the potential hazards and the possibility of death.

“Unf­­ortunately, getting the whole company to buy into it requires somebody to be disciplined at some point. For instance, you just can’t walk around without safety glasses; otherwise you don’t have a job. I tell everyone when I hire them that I would rather fire you than hurt or kill you. So don’t put me in that position where I’m firing you and make me feel bad about it,” Rouse ended.

As one of the world’s largest construction companies, Skanska has taken a leadership role in how the industry looks at sustainability. In any given year, Skanska has 50,000 employees and 200,000 subcontractors carrying out some 10,000 projects for customers in their markets.

We had the opportunity to speak with Courtney Lorenz, Director of Environmental Management Skanska USA Building, about how Skanska is able to implement sustainability initiatives in their projects.

“Skanska has found that there are two key aspects of our sustainability initiatives: metrics and accountability,” said Lorenz. “Without metrics and accountability, our initiatives are nothing more than marketing. All levels of management here at Skanska take our sustainability initiatives as serious as any other part of our business.”

Lorenz explained that Skanska views their sustainability initiatives as an onion. The “core” aspects Skanska can control, the second layer, in Skanska’s case: subcontractors, they can influence, and the outer layers are clients that Skanska believes they have a responsibility to educate.

Education is a crucial aspect in Skanska’s business model because 85 percent of what they do is  carried out by others – over 90,000 suppliers across their markets to be more precise.

Skanska decided that one of the best places to showcase their sustainability efforts would be at their flagship office. Skanska provides a detailed case study of how they were able to retrofit their New York City headquarters in the Empire State Building and first commercial building in Scandinavia to achieve LEED Platinum precertification.

As readers of this blog know, I like to ask folks to share their favorite books. Lorenz mentioned these four: Silent Sprint by Rachael Carlson , Collapse by Jared Diamond, 1984 by George Orwell, and Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan.

We look forward to hearing more about Skanska’s sustainability initiatives as the company continues to be a leader in the space. For more information on Skanska’s Sustainability efforts, please check out their website.

At PK Metals, we take pride in our commitment to sustainability, and enjoy sharing the stories of Skanska and other companies’ sustainability efforts. We have more than 80 employees spread over our 20-acre facility on Long Island, N.Y., working to recycle electronics, metal, and plastic. PK Metals is a R2/RIOS certified electronics recycler, and our subsidiary, e-Green Recycling Management LLC, is R2-, 14001-, and NAID-certified.

When Charlene Lake was appointed AT&T’s first chief sustainability officer in 2009, she saw it as an opportunity to apply AT&T’s heritage of innovation and leadership to a new set of issues.

“From the inception of our sustainability initiatives, we wanted innovation to be the focal point,” said Lake, who also holds the title of senior vice president, Public Affairs. “The culture at AT&T encourages our employees to lead by example when it comes to creating a sustainable working environment.”

Lake, who’s been with AT&T for 26 years, said the company has put in place a wide-ranging sustainability plan. Two areas of specific focus include oversight of a robust recycling program and expansion of the company’s fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles.

“In 2009, AT&T had 3,500 alternative vehicles on the road, which included hybrid, electric, and natural gas,” said Lake. “Our goal is to eventually have 15,000 alternative-fuel vehicles in our fleet.”

“The shift to natural gas as a transportation alternative to OPEC oil/diesel is happening. Until now, the missing link has been leadership. While we wait for Washington to act to speed up this transition — and address the national and economic security threats that come along with our OPEC oil dependence — we are seeing some solid leadership in the private sector, and AT&T is a good example of that with what they are doing to move their fleet to natural gas and other domestic fuels,” said Pickens.

In addition to its substantial commitment to alternative-fuel vehicles, AT&T has taken a leadership role in recycling.  In 2011, AT&T collected approximately 3 million cell phones and 1.7 million pounds of batteries and accessories for reuse and recycling.  It’s a big effort, and AT&T has racked up a long list of impressive accomplishments, including:

• Keeping 50.1 million pounds of network scrap materials out of landfills.
• Donating, reusing or recycling some 77,000 computers, monitors and servers.
• And sending paperless bills to 17.2 million customers.

Lake said AT&T also has implemented thousands of energy-saving projects across the company, is reducing the size of its product packaging and is developing a free “eco awareness” application to help increase customer awareness of sustainability.

As readers of this blog know, I like to ask folks to share their favorite books. Lake mentioned these four: Passion and Purpose  by  John Mackey , How to Become a Social Intrapreneur  by Nathan Springer, Never Give In  by Winston Churchill, and Art of War by Sun Tzu. If Ms. Lake could invite any four people to dinner, she would pick: Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Angela Merkel, Sir Ken Robinson, and Lady Gaga.

We look forward to hearing more about AT&T’s sustainability initiatives as the company continues to be a leader in the space.  More information about AT&T’s sustainability efforts can be found at http://www.att.com/gen/landing-pages?pid=7735.

At PK Metals, we take pride in our commitment to sustainability, and enjoy sharing the stories of AT&T and other companies’ sustainability efforts. We have more than 80 employees spread over our 20-acre facility on Long Island, N.Y., working to recycle electronics, metal, and plastic. PK Metals is a R2/RIOS certified electronics recycler, and our subsidiary, e-Green Recycling Management LLC, is R2-, 14001-, and NAID-certified.

Cynthia Curtis, CA Technologies Chief Sustainability Officer, is all about practicing what she preaches.  In 2008, her LEED certified house was featured on the TV show Renovation Nation. “I am very passionate about sustainability both professionally and personally,” said Curtis. “And, I’m fortunate that the culture at CA Technologies allows for our employees to pursue their passion for sustainability as well.”

Here at PK Metals, we take pride in our commitment to sustainability. We have over 80 employees spread over our 20 acre facility on Long Island, NY working to recycle electronics, metal, and plastic. PK Metals is R2/RIOS certified electronics recycler, and our subsidiary e-Green Recycling Management LLC is R2, 14001, and NAID certified.

We reached out to CA Technologies to hear more about their sustainability initiatives to share with our Forbes readers. To learn more about their initiatives, head over to their Sustainability website.

Beginning in 2006, CA Technologies began to focus on sustainability. “We wanted to center our sustainability initiatives on the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit,” said Curtis. “Senior leadership at CA Technologies has been extremely support of our efforts, and has infused the culture of sustainability throughout our company.”

The sustainability initiatives are augmented by 17 “Green Teams” globally, where employees volunteer their time to work on sustainability. “The goal is to have our employees take ownership and pride in our sustainability initiatives, and bring sustainable living into both their personal and professional lives,” said Curtis. The “Green Teams” program was launched in October 2011, and  is proving to be very successful. The Teams are in locations covering 54% of CA Technologies workforce..

CA Technologies published a list of goals that they would like to achieve. They are working toward goal of 100% electronic distribution of software with no packaging or shipping of products. CA Technologies has issued their suppliers a questionnaire to establish baseline reporting and encourage key suppliers to publish a sustainability report by 2012. They are also targeting 25% of their electricity to come from renewable sources by 2015. Finally, CA Technologies has created a  Sustainability Advisory Council at the senior executive level of the company, and now have Board oversight of the program.

The centerpiece of their sustainability strategy was launched this year, when CA Technologies set a goal to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 35% by 2020, from a 2006 baseline. This is on top of another goal to reduce energy consumption per employee 40% by 2013, which CA Technologies is on track to accomplish.

As CA Technologies expands their Sustainability Initiatives, there is no doubt that the passion and enthusiasm shared by Cynthia Curtis and senior executives will lead to all of their goals being met.

Lee Ballin, Bloomberg’s Head of Global Supply Chain Manager for Sustainability, has a simple motto when it comes to doing business: Everyone can do well by doing good. This philosophy has been instilled throughout the entire company, Ballin said. “80% of Bloomberg LP employees believe that sustainability initiatives are important.”

Here at PK Metals, we take pride in our commitment to sustainability. We have over 80 employees spread over our 20 acre facility on Long Island working to recycle electronics, metal, and plastic. PK Metals is R2/RIOS certified electronics recycler, and our subsidiary e-Green Recycling Management LLC is R2, 14001, and NAID certified.

We reached out to Mr. Ballin to hear more about Bloomberg LP sustainability initiatives to share with our Forbes readers. You can check out Bloomberg’s Sustainability report at www.bloomberg.com/bsustainable.

Bloomberg LP applies their core business philosophy, to provide transparency through data, news, and analytics to their Sustainability initiatives. Bloomberg started their sustainability initiatives in 2007, with the goal of reducing their carbon footprint 50% by 2013, and receive at least a 15% return on investment. By the end of 2011, Bloomberg reached their environmental goal two years early and exceeded their financial target by a factor of 10.

“When it comes to engagement with our employees, we have two approaches: active and passive,” said Ballin. “Our passive engagement is through our internal communication systems, email, and websites that are always available. Active engagement in the form of initiatives such as our E-Waste events, or our corporate discounts that we give to our employees to use Zipcar. At a recent E-Waste event for our employees, 2,800 pounds of e-waste was collected.”

After reviewing Bloomberg’s Sustainability Report, we highlighted some key metrics below:

• Two solar installations have been completed at Bloomberg’s offices. One, a 1.8 MW solar installation at the New Jersey campus, will supply over 50% of the primary building’s annual energy consumption. The second is a rooftop installation at the San Francisco office.
• With revenue growth, employee growth and occupancy growth up 30%, electricity consumption is only up 4%.
• Landfill waste per employee has dropped 39% since 2007.
• By removing garbage cans and encouraging trash sorting, 400 metric tons were composted globally, double 2010′s total.

As the conversation turned to the positive impact sustainability programs will have on future generations, we asked Ballin some questions about his career, and advice he has for the next generation of business leaders.

When asked for three books that he would recommend, Ballin mentioned: Power to the People: How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform an Industry, Change Our Lives, and Maybe Even Save the Planet by Vijay Vaitheeswaran , Green to Gold by Dan Esty and Andrew Winston, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman , and Cradle to Cradel by Michael Braungart. When asked if he could invite any four people to dinner, Ballin selected: Michael Bloomberg, Patrick Ewing, Eddie Vedder, and President Obama.

As Bloomberg looks to 2020 to set new sustainability targets, there is no doubt that Lee Ballin and his team at Bloomberg will play a crucial role in setting the standards for the industry.