Company newsletters and other publications heighten employee awareness of environmental issues. Employees at individual facilities also plan and take part in special events, such as a Polaroid-sponsored Environmental Expo and Earth Day observances. This decentralization of training poses special challenges for the plants who are now responsible for identifying and meeting training needs. How well they can meet this challenge will become clear as the initiative moves forward. Through 1996, Polaroid s Environmental Awareness training was complete for all U.S. employees whose work affects environmental performance.
Similar training is in various stages of initial implementation at non-U.S. facilities.
DfE offers design engineers new tools, techniques and best practices for incorporating environmental awareness into product planning. It looks at a variety of issues, including chemical toxicity, waste potential, product takebacks and recyclability of both product and packaging. Developed jointly with Lucent Technologies and Business for Social Responsibility, DfE ensures that knowledge of environmental issues is applied early in the product development process, where it can have the greatest positive impact. Additional awareness training is part of Polaroid s new Product Development Process and was delivered to program managers in two business units during 1997. Polaroid has no formal program of sponsorship for academic research.