From oil spills to chemical waste, how should communications professionals respond to an environmental incident involving their own company? David Craik investigates. This article is from Communicate magazine's print edition.

One of the major societal changes over the last decade or so has been our attitude to the environment. Fears over climate change, rising sea levels and temperatures continue to be the focus of concern and action. However, despite tougher measures over carbon emissions, there is a sense that, as we have seen with the devastating recent floods in Spain, these events are heading beyond our control.

Perhaps this explains a more recent, but equally passionate, response to the damage being done to the natural environment by companies, such as pollution in our rivers from chemical leaks or sewage. This does not need to be on the horrific level of a Chernobyl nuclear disaster or the major BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. It can be a truck full of chemicals, which has not been adequately maintained, turning over and releasing dangerous gases into the air, or a food company dumping waste into a river.

“‘It’s unforgiveable and if I had been there, I would have been banging on the door saying you have to get out there and talk’”

Take some recent examples. In March, a leak of the chemical phosphorus oxychloride from the facility of specialty chemicals firm Lanxess in Trafford Park, Manchester, left one person in hospital; it was caused by a faulty valve in a tanker. In May, a parasite called cryptosporidium, found in human and animal faeces, got into the drinking water supply of utility South West Water, leaving hundreds of people ill in the Devon town of Brixham. In August, a company called Anochrome, which deals in surface coatings and sealings, released chemicals containing sodium cyanide into canals in the West Midlands. The question for communications professionals is how these incidents, no matter the size, should be managed.

The day after the Trafford Park incident, Lanxess issued a statement. “At around nine o’clock this morning, a chemical spilled during the unloading of a tanker truck. Emergency services arrived at the site shortly after to work with the site and contain the spillage. The leak was contained and stopped by late morning. To ensure safety of all employees, the site was evacuated. One person was taken to hospital for observation as a precaution. The cooperation with emergency services and authorities went smoothly.”

Anochrome was also quick off the mark. It said it was the source of the canal spill, that it regretted the incident and that it had immediately notified the authorities. South West Water also issued a press release highlighting compensation payments to customers. It apologised for the impact and said it was working closely with the UK Health Security Agency to urgently investigate. Communicate magazine approached South West Water for an interview, but the company declined to comment.

Alan Smith, water specialist, owner of recruitment firm Water People and former communications director for water utilities including, at one time, South West Water, is critical, however, of the water group’s response. “During the whole eight-week period, and despite all of the anxiety in the town, the Pennon Group [South West’s owner] chief executive Susan Davy did not give one BBC TV or radio interview. These were interviews that the company leader could have given to reassure and explain to a frightened and confused community about their essential for life local water service.”

Smith continues: “Recently, a local public meeting was held by South West Water. It was overseen by heavyweight security guards, a total media ban and dominated by pre-selected questions. None of this is the correct action of a key custodian and guardian of local water and wastewater services. It’s unforgiveable and, if I had been there, I would have been banging on the door saying you have to get out there and talk.”

So, what is the best approach to take if you are an under-siege communicator? The first step for communicators is to gather the facts of an environmental incident. That means identifying the person in the business – perhaps someone from the engineering or maintenance team – who can tell you exactly what has happened. “Not second or third hand, but the experts managing the issue,” Smith says. “Where are we? What is happening? What are the implications?

“‘Don’t try and twist reality. The worst thing you can do is not tell the truth; being honest is crucial as a communicator. Look in the whites of the eyes of the operational team because your reputation is on the line as well’”

“Then, take that information and articulate it in a written and verbal form which is not too technical. That is your media briefing response note which can be read by the board of directors and the customer service team at the sharp end. You need to sing from the same hymn sheet.”

Smith also highlights the importance of communicating with employees. “There has to be a mechanism internally, either through HR or elsewhere, where employees know what is happening,” he says. “That should be the briefing note. They may be asked by relatives or someone down the pub what the situation is and they need to be prepared.”

Smith also advises communicators to proactively engage with the press and media to ensure a vacuum of non-information does not take hold. “Don’t try and twist reality. The worst thing you can do is not tell the truth; being honest is crucial as a communicator. Look in the whites of the eyes of the operational team because your reputation is on the line as well.”

Returning to the South West Water incident, Smith adds: “They didn’t handle the announcement well at the start. They prevaricated, saying one minute the water is perfectly okay, and the next telling people not to drink it. They should have let the public know much more quickly. The communications level was extremely poor.”

For Karla Gahan, head of resilience at Barnett Waddingham, environmental incidents are just another branch of crisis communications. “People never communicate well during a crisis or incident. It is one of the hardest things to do. Incident response teams should have communications specialists on tap. Make sure you are involved from the outset, get in early and acknowledge something has happened.

“Have a crisis communications response plan in place and do your stakeholder mapping,” Gahan adds. “Who do you need to communicate to and what channels will you need to use? It could be social media, local radio or billboards in multiple languages and audio, because it might impact a large demographic. Tell people where to go for further information and make that the single source of truth; if there is nothing to say, then say that.

“‘People never communicate well during a crisis or incident. It is one of the hardest things to do’”

Gahan also recommends having pre-prepared templates to ensure that messaging can go out quickly and not be held up by organisational red tape and deliberation. Another communications expert source who has handled the communications around several pollution events agreed that acting quickly builds trust and credibility.

Its first steps are to ensure that people on the ground, either employees or the public, or animals, if it is an oil or chemical spill, are safe. These actions should be communicated widely to again build trust and understanding among the public. Directly communicating with affected parties is also vital. Gahan adds that communications professionals need to be aware of their own heightened emotions around these incidents. “When managers are jumping up and down demanding a press release, or for them to go in front of a camera straightaway, then that is pressure. It is scary, your adrenaline is flowing and that can affect your decisions. Don’t work in isolation.”

Finally, when the problem has been fixed then the public must be informed about both this and the changes that have been made to ensure it never happens again. But this is the environment and even those new industries and technologies introduced to make us greener, such as wind turbines and electric cars, can also create their own issues such as damage to marine or bird life from blades or battery fires. “Environmental crises have much wider implications to the general public particularly if health and safety is at risk. The messaging has to be right,” Gahan says. “You need to get prepared.”