Researching a Corporation

Environmental Issues

Sample Questions

(search terms will either be in bold or in brackets at the end of each question)

* Does the company have an environmental officer or program?

* What is the company's position on environmental issues? [environment*]

* External - how does the company present itself in public documents like the company web site, annual report and press releases (are they member of CERES, ISO, do they portray the company as "green")?

* Internal - what is the company's actual agenda? What does it lobby for? What industry groups does it participate in? What regulations has it tried to change or dismantle? Has it given money to wise-use groups or conservative think-tanks? [regulatory reform, anti-environmental, front group, Clean Air, Clean Water]

* What is the company's record in other facilities, especially in other countries with less stringent environmental laws? [activist, protest*, community, accident*, spill*, contaminat*, pollut*, toxi*, emission, groundwater, discharge, violat*, fine, illness, cancer]

* Has it been fined by regulatory agencies (EPA, AQMD, Pollution Control boards) or found to be in violation or out of compliance with local, state or federal laws?

* What is the company's ranking in its industry or region re toxic emissions, hazardous waste production, years out of compliance?

* Does the company have any Superfund sites? [CERCLA, NPL, potentially responsible party]

* Has the company been sued? What are the particulars of the case and how was it settled? [settlement, lawsuit, litigation, legal, class action, lawyer]

* Have other community groups taken the company? Who are they? What strategies did they use that were successful? [activist, local, environmentalist, protest*, boycott, complain*]

Information Sources

Environmental Websites

Environmental Defense Fund Scorecard http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/us-map.tcl
Find detailed reports on chemicals released by more than 17,000 plants in the US. Search by company and location (city, zip, county, state, etc.). Includes rankings of plant to industry or location.

Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov
Home page. Envirofacts page (http://www.epa.gov/enviro) provides search engine for all EPA databases (TRI, Superfund, etc.). Able to search by zip code!

League of Conservation Voters http://www.lcv.org
Environmental scorecard on congress' performance, giving percentage ratings to each elected official. Recent environmental votes are also highlighted.

Right-to-Know Databases http://www.rtk.net
The Right to Know Network (RTK) provides free access to government information on toxic releases, toxic spills, superfund sites and other environmental results of manufacturing/industry. You can search by company, industry or geographic area. Once on the homepage, click DATABASES to the left of the screen, now you need to decide which databases to search. A MASTER search will search all of the databases simultaneously.

General Press
Search for news coverage of a company's activities via the following websites (both are searchable for free or a nominal yearly membership, but you pay a per document fee for every article you look at full text):

Northern Light http://www.northernlight.com
Search over 130 Million Web pages and articles of more than 5,400 full text sources. Sources include some alternative press. Service is free, but a charge from $1 - $4 for articles from "Special Collection". Also has Investext (stock market analysts reports).

DowJones News Retrieval http://www.djinteractive.com
Available on the web for a $69 yearly fee and a document charge to view anything more than a headline. Document charges range from $2.95 for articles to over $100 for some reports. Only source for the Wall Street Journal full text.

Lexis-Nexis http://www.nexis.com
You can gain access to Lexis-Nexis through your local university (if you have a member, staff, volunteer, or intern who is a student there) or you may consider setting up an account with Lexis-Nexis, if your organization will be doing extensive research (with negotiating you can get an account for as low as $250 per month). Databases of primary importance are News and Company.

Environmental Protection Agency

You can request the number of violations of a company in Region 9 (California, etc.) by sending a letter of request by fax to: Sharon Jang, EPA, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 fax: (415) 744-1605. Include where to send the information, your phone number and a description of the level of detail you want. Request is free if the EPA cost to fulfill the request is under $25. If they need to charge you, they will notify you. If you do not receive notification of receipt of your request within 10 days, call the office.

Local Government Agencies

You can request from the local fire department an emergency response plan for facilities in order to determine what hazards are present in the facility and likely disaster scenarios.