Excellence and the Environment
Authors: Sullivan James N. 
Published: December 2007

Distinguished Author Series articles are general, descriptiverepresentations that summarize the state of the art in an area of technology bydescribing recent developments for readers who are not specialists in thetopics discussed. Written by individuals recognized as experts in the area, these articles provide key references to more definitive work and presentspecific details only to illustrate the technology. Purpose: to informthe general readership of recent advances in various areas of petroleumengineering.

"The first and most important message...is this: The environment is tooimportant to be left to the activists and the politicians."

The current movement toward excellence, often just called "qualityimprovement," may be the most significant trend in the petroleum industry. It'sno exaggeration that petroleum industry. It's no exaggeration that our futureas an industry will be shaped, to a large extent, by the way we respond to thischallenge. Excerpts from two news stories illustrate this point. The first one, from Newsweek, describes a nationwide protest to "demand a halt to the wantondestruction of the nation's... life-giving air, water and soil" and encourageindividuals to clean up the environment. The second one is from the New YorkTimes : "In a striking shift of focus, the 3,400 delegates gathered here from91 countries to discuss the world energy picture have one dominant concern: theenvironment. Price and supply, the traditional focus of Price and supply, thetraditional focus of energy suppliers, have almost been squeezed off theagenda." To understand my point, you should know that the Newsweek story isnearly 2 decades old. It described "Earth Day," which some of you will rememberfor the high jinks of burying automobile engines and dumping garbage in frontof a few government buildings. The second story is a few months old. Itdescribes the recent World Energy Conference in Montreal. These two storiesillustrate how the environmental movement has grown in 20 years. In 1970, environmentalism was a sidestreet issue in American thought. As we enter 1990it is clearly a major issue perhaps the major issue for mainstreet U.S.A. Thefirst and most important message, however, is this: The environment is tooimportant to be left to the activists and the politicians. politicians. Protecting the environment today is fundamental to every part of our business. Our regulators, our shareholders, and our customers are demanding it. Thesuccessful companies in the 1990's will be those that use their managementskills and technical know-how effectively to solve environmental problems.problems. Public Opinion Public Opinion In 1988, Chevron Corp. hired the DanielYankelovich Group to run an in-depth public-opinion survey concentrating onpublic-opinion survey concentrating on environmental matters. The results werevery interesting. The study traced key changes in the public perception ofenvironmental issues. In the perception of environmental issues. In the 1960'sand early 1970's, a good deal of attention was paid to aesthetic concerns, suchas the unsightliness of billboards. Then in the late 1970's, the emphasis beganto shift to health problems and the link to environmental factors, such assmog. That set the stage for the 1980's concern with toxics and pollution ofall types. More than 80% of U.S. citizens believe that the environment shouldbe preserved even if it means that the economy stops growing. That figure is upfrom 67% just 3 years ago. Public-opinion research indicates that 20% of theU.S. population identify themselves as Republicans and about 30% say they'reDemocrats, but 45% strongly identify themselves as environmentalists. AtChevron Corp., 55 % of our employees say they're environmentalists. Ourresearch shows that the Exxon Valdez oil spill only accelerated the trendtoward environmentalism and that those shifts in public sentiment are real, fundamental, and public sentiment are real, fundamental, and essentiallyunstoppable. Public-opinion researchers have found a growingexpectation-really, a pent-up demand-for more rigorous government action on awhole range of environmental issues simply because the public doesn't believewe'll do it by ourselves. They don't trust us. That is why regaining thepublic's confidence is the biggest challenge facing our industry. None of thishas been lost on our politicians. Environmental regulation and politicians. Environmental regulation and legislation is increasing at what seems like alogarithmic rate. In the first 9 months of 1989, 1,041 federal and stateenvironmental bills were introduced, compared with 945 for 1987 and 1988combined.