Consulting Services Hazardous Waste 512-457-0374 CONTACT US rcarr Home/Russell Carr About Russell Carr How A Sales Guy Transformed Into An Environmental, Health & Safety Expert & Advocate For Small Businesses I've spent my entire 30+ year career working within the manufacturing and “industrial services” sectors. The first 15 years of my career focused on sales of hazardous materials related products and services to the manufacturing sector, then for the last 16+ years transitioned into entrepreneurship, founding 3 small industrial services related contracting businesses. As you’ll see below, running these companies eventually lead me to found yet a 4th business, but more on that in a minute…. Here’s a brief description of the first 3 companies: Berg Environmental Services, Inc.: hazardous waste disposal & transportation services, founded in August of 2003 3rd party wind energy operations & maintenance services provider to utility scale wind farms throughout the US, founded in September 2007 3rd party oil & gas exploration & production services provider, founded in August of 2011 Each of these companies operated in extremely dangerous working conditions and exposed my employees to a wide range of serious health & safety hazards on a daily basis. To complicate matters, 2 of the companies also exposed the environment to significant potential harm. In other words, I learned very early the critical importance of managing environmental, health and safety issues so as to ensure the safety of our employees and the environment, as well as minimizing related risks. But I also learned how incredibly difficult and challenging this endeavor can be due to the wide range of complicated and continually changing environmental, health and safety rules and regulations that impacted the companies. To summarize the challenges: First I had to determine which regulations applied to each company, then I had to build compliance programs to meet those regulations, and finally I had to ensure that the programs were being managed and followed by our staff on a daily basis. All while trying to run and grow 3 profitable businesses…. It was overwhelming and I always struggled to keep up. To make matters worse, throughout this time I also witnessed the devastating price that companies, management and ownership can pay for failing to manage EHS compliance. This included seeing one of my hazardous waste management clients get sent to jail over environmental issues, another client’s management team threatened with jail time, a direct competitor get fined $378,000 by OSHA fine after an employee was nearly killed, and many others face major fines and penalties. Full disclosure, one of my companies got fined by OSHA at one point, & another was cited by TCEQ, so I know how it feels. In summary, I learned first hand how incredibly difficult it is for small companies to manage EHS compliance due to a common lack of the critical expertise, time and resources that are needed to keep up, and how this situation then ends up exposing them to these potentially catastrophic risks that can literally destroy lives and businesses. This later inspired me to found my 4th company, Berg Compliance Solutions in 2012, which is dedicated to helping other small businesses, and business owners, to manage EHS compliance and risk. Education BA, Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder, December, 1990. Summary of Professional Experience & Qualifications: 30+ years serving the manufacturing & industrial services sectors 30+ years of sales and marketing experience 16+ years as small business owner & entrepreneur: Founded and operated 4 small businesses since 2003. Environmental, Health & Safety Compliance & Program Related: 19 plus years of hazardous waste management including EPA, TCEQ & RCRA regulations 8 years of DOT/FMCSA compliance experience, including hazardous materials transportation 8 years of combined experience implementing and managing OSHA health and safety compliance programs for 2 high risk energy services businesses Successfully implemented and gained ISO 9001 Quality Management Certification and OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health & Safety Advisory Service) Certification for wind energy maintenance business. Regulatory Enforcement Related Experience: Served as expert witness in criminal environmental compliance enforcement cases Superfund-CERCLA OSHA enforcement inspections, investigations and resolution in following industries: industrial services, manufacturing & construction. TCEQ enforcement inspections, investigations and resolution in manufacturing. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Top 10 OSHA Construction Violations The Top 10 Construction Safety Violations Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, OSHA inspects and fines small construction companies across the country for the same violations, which often adds up to $10s or even $100s of thousands worth of fines per inspection. Unless you're sure that your projects are keeping up, it’s vital that you take action and get prepared. With that in mind, here are the Top 10 construction violations that you [...] By Russell Carr|November 29th, 2021|Good To Know|Comments Off on Top 10 OSHA Construction Violations Read More OSHA Lockout Tagout Standard Compliance OSHA Lockout/Tagout - The Control of Hazardous Energy Standard Let’s take a deep dive into one of the most critical, complex and often mismanaged OSHA safety standards: The Control of Hazardous Energy standard, otherwise known as “Lockout/Tagout” or “LOTO.” The Standard was developed to help protect workers from the accidental release of stored energy in equipment during maintenance or service operations. A common misconception regarding LOTO is that it only applies to electrical energy. Not true, it applies to any [...] By Russell Carr|October 22nd, 2021|Good To Know, OSHA Health & Safety, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on OSHA Lockout Tagout Standard Compliance Read More The 5 Steps To Building a Strong Safety Culture How To Build A Strong Safety Culture When we’re contacted by companies wanting help with safety, the conversation often starts with some variation of the following idea: “Our company just doesn’t take safety seriously enough.” “Nobody wears safety glasses or PPE” “Our employees often do dangerous things.” “We just don’t understand the importance of safety” The descriptions vary from person to person and company to company, but the common theme is the same, each is describing a lack of “safety [...] By Russell Carr|September 27th, 2021|OSHA Health & Safety, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on The 5 Steps To Building a Strong Safety Culture Read More Top 10 Hazardous Waste Violations In Texas Hazardous Waste Fines and Penalties Will Follow If Your Company Fails To Keep Up Here are the top 10 hazardous waste violations impacting Texas manufacturers which can result in major fines, penalties & disruptions: Failure to determine the company’s waste generator status (CESQ, SQG, LQG) Failure to create Waste Determinations to identify & characterize all waste streams Failure to properly label waste containers Failure to train employees on DOT hazardous materials shipping requirements Failure to create a Contingency Plan and Emergency [...] By Russell Carr|August 2nd, 2021|Berg Environmental News, Government Regulation, Hazardous Waste Management, OSHA Health & Safety, Texas Environmental Regulations, Texas Hazardous Materials Regulations|Comments Off on Top 10 Hazardous Waste Violations In Texas Read More DOT Hazardous Waste-Materials Training Requirements Shippers of Hazardous Waste Must Get Training on US DOT Hazardous Materials Regulations The US department of Transportation, or US DOT, requires extensive employee training for companies who are involved with shipping of hazardous materials. This applies to anything that meets US DOT Hazardous Materials Regulations (aka: HMR) from paints, chemicals and hazardous products, to hazardous wastes. There’s a wide range of impacted companies and activities that fall under this training requirement, but this blog only discusses training issues impacting [...] By Russell Carr|July 29th, 2021|Berg Environmental News, Hazardous Waste Management, OSHA Health & Safety, Texas Environmental Regulations, Texas Hazardous Materials Regulations|Comments Off on DOT Hazardous Waste-Materials Training Requirements Read More EPA and DOT Hazardous Waste Labeling Requirements Learn How and Why To Label Hazardous Waste Containers Throughout my 22 years working in the hazardous waste industry I’ve learned that the most obvious and common sign that a company isn’t properly managing their hazardous waste obligations is failure to properly label waste containers. In other words, if a company isn’t labeling properly, it almost always means that the company isn’t managing their other EPA/RCRA requirements either, including determining their generator status, completing waste determinations, training employees, developing waste [...] By Russell Carr|July 21st, 2021|Good To Know|Comments Off on EPA and DOT Hazardous Waste Labeling Requirements Read More LOAD MORE POSTS Categories Berg Environmental News (4) COVID-19 & Coronavirus (8) Fed Regulation (9) Good To Know (91) Government Regulation (21) Hazardous Waste Management (27) OSHA Health & Safety (17) OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations (67) Safety Training (51) State & Local Regulation (10) Texas Environmental Regulations (36) Texas Hazardous Materials Regulations (30) Texas OSHA Compliance (57) MAIN MENU About Consulting Services Hazardous Waste Case Studies Blog Contact Us OUR MOST POPULAR FREE RESOURCES Free Report: The Top 5 EHS Compliance Risks Facing Small Companies White Paper: The Top 5 EHS Compliance Mistakes Made By Small Companies (LINK PENDING) White Paper: How To Build A Safety Program From Scratch Infographic: How To Build A Safety Program From Scratch Infographic: COVID-19: How To Build An Infectious Disease Response Plan © 2011-2021 Berg Compliance Solutions, LLC & Berg Environmental Services, Inc | 11615 Angus Road, Suite #230, Austin, TX 78759 | 512-457-0374 | All Rights Privacy Statement Blog Sitemap Page Sitemap We Value Your Privacy SETTINGS NextRoll, Inc. 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