How should safety regulations be designed for high-hazard industries like the pipeline industry? Should they specify technical requirements, or should they be less prescriptive but require that management engage with reducing the risk of a cata

Balancing safety surveillance and privacy

May 24th, 2019 26m 47s

Recording a workplace can provide valuable safety information. But what about employee privacy? Attorney and Certified Mine Safety Professional Adele Abrams shares best practices for balancing these concerns.

Diversifying environmental outreach

May 15th, 2019 15m 28s

How can environmental outreach speak to a more diverse audience? We discuss this question with Chúk Odenigbo, the co-author of a new book called The Forces of Nature: Gaia’s Child. Chúk is a Regulatory Analyst at Nimonik, Co-founder of the envi

Monitoring water pollution with drones

May 7th, 2019 25m 23s

How are drones changing environmental monitoring? Brent Walls, Riverkeeper for the Upper Potomac with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, discusses his work using drones to monitor and document water pollution.

How will drones change health and safety inspections?

Apr 26th, 2019 22m 9s

The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration has begun using drones for some inspections, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration has recently acquired drones as well. Attorney and Certified Mine Safety Professional Ade

Green public procurement and new technologies

Apr 12th, 2019 22m 50s

From water filtration to energy efficiency, environmental technologies are improving rapidly. But it can be risky to adopt unproven new environmental technology, no matter how exciting the claims made about its performance. Mark Heilig, the Dir

EHS lessons from nuclear research

Mar 22nd, 2019 18m 53s

To help the H.C. Starck factory get their environment, health and safety performance on track after a serious explosion, Jim Joyce drew lessons from nuclear research. Joyce, who is now a Principal at EHS and Manufacturing Consulting, discusses

Making sense of industrial carbon pricing in Ontario

Mar 15th, 2019 16m 44s

The Ontario government has released a proposal for industrial emissions performance standards that look a lot like carbon pricing. Professor Chris Ragan, Chair of the Ecofiscal Commission and Director of McGill University's Max Bell School of P

Bankrupt companies’ environmental obligations

Mar 5th, 2019 18m 33s

When a company goes bankrupt, what happens to its environmental obligations? Do environmental regulators have to wait their turn for funds along with the company’s creditors? A recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling says otherwise. Professor Fen

China’s environmental crackdown

Feb 23rd, 2019 17m 47s

To improve enforcement of China’s environmental laws, the Supreme People’s Court of China has partnered with ClientEarth, an environmental law NGO with a history of suing governments. Dimitri de Boer, Chief Representative of ClientEarth China,

Due diligence abroad

Feb 7th, 2019 17m 22s

When companies operate abroad, are they accountable for wrongdoing by foreign business partners? Where should they stand trial? Cory Wanless, an Associate at Waddell Phillips, discusses a case before the Canadian Supreme Court concerning allega

Information control after a spill

Jan 30th, 2019 14m 59s

Jonathan Kahn, a Partner with Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP, discusses the steps companies take to control information after an environmental emergency, such as an oil spill.

Chemical Brexit

Jan 24th, 2019 17m 29s

What would Brexit mean for chemicals regulations? Companies in the United Kingdom have the second largest number of chemicals registered under the European Union’s sweeping REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemi

Public participation in resource development decisions

Jan 14th, 2019 19m 48s

Who has a say in resource development decision-making? Shaun Fluker, Associate Professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law, discusses whether and how the federal government’s Bill C-69 would change the answer to this question in Canad

Can the law be copyrighted?

Dec 11th, 2018 15m 43s

In theory, the law is public. In practice, laws often incorporate privately developed standards and codes that need to be purchased. Jonathan Brun, CEO of Nimonik, discusses the accessibility of standards in Canada, the United States, and China

Learning from Deepwater Horizon

Dec 3rd, 2018 16m 2s

Abrahm Lustgarten, a Senior Reporter at ProPublica, discusses his book Run to Failure, which dissects the systemic environmental, health, and safety problems within BP that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. We discuss the challenge of regu

What do American automakers want?

Nov 26th, 2018 14m 48s

After years of pushing for lower standards for vehicle fuel economy and emissions, American automakers were slow to support a rollback proposed last spring, and some have opposed it. Why? Jeffrey Soble, a litigation partner at Foley and Lardner

Indigenous consultation and accommodation: a proponent’s primer

Nov 19th, 2018 16m 40s

A string of recent Canadian court decisions have halted or delayed resource projects due to inadequate consultation and accommodation of Indigenous peoples. Kate Kempton, a Partner with OKT Law, has represented First Nations in several of these

How is natural capital assessment being used?

Nov 12th, 2018 22m 22s

Who is using the Natural Capital Protocol, and why? Bill Rahill, a Partner with Sustainability Frameworks who was the first Chair of the Steering Committee of the Natural Capital Declaration, discusses the business case for natural capital asse

Carbon supply squeeze

Nov 5th, 2018 23m 38s

For years, the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme has struggled with low carbon prices. The Market Stability Reserve, announced earlier this year, is meant to fix that. Mark Lewis, Head of Research at Carbon Tracker, discusses the coming

IATF 16949:2016 implementation: how are companies doing?

Oct 29th, 2018 18m 42s

How are automobile manufacturers and suppliers doing in implementing IATF 16949:2016? A year ago, Nimonik hosted a webinar in which Michael Wolfe, a standards implementation consultant with McDae Group, broke down IATF 16949:2016. In this episo

Rewriting ISO 19011

Oct 22nd, 2018 19m 45s

ISO has published a new version of its “Guidelines for Auditing Management Systems,” ISO 19011:2018. The new standard incorporates a “risk-based approach” and is meant to be useable across diverse management system standards, not just environme

New “general environmental duty” in Victoria

Oct 15th, 2018 18m 41s

The Australian State of Victoria has undertaken a “once in a generation” overhaul of its environmental protection legislation, which fundamentally changes the duties of companies and individuals towards the environment. Mark Beaufoy, a Partner

Strengthening mine closure rules in South Africa

Oct 8th, 2018 14m 59s

South Africa is proposing to tighten up financial provisioning rules for the mining sector, which are intended to ensure mines are properly closed and rehabilitated. Professor Tracy-Lynn Humby, from the Wits University Law School, discusses the

An oil and gas regulatory regime for Quebec

Oct 1st, 2018 17m 59s

The government of Quebec has announced regulations to implement the Petroleum Resources Act, which was passed at the end of 2016. These regulations filled in many details as to what Quebec’s regulatory regime for oil and gas exploration, produc