Memo

COMMITTEE MEMO

You chair the Environmental Committee of a publicly traded pharmaceutical company headquartered in Northern California. Your Committee monitors and assesses a variety of environmental projects for the company, reporting to the company’s Executive Committee on their status.

Your Committee has been dealing with a situation that has developed in connection with the construction of a new addition to your plant facility, which is being built to manufacture a newly-approved drug. Construction was ahead of schedule until Jacinto Salmeron, the Manager in charge of the construction project, reported that soil contamination was discovered while excavating the foundation for the new facility. The construction crew walked off the job, refusing to work until the nature of the contamination was determined. According to Salmeron, construction can’t proceed until a thorough environmental assessment is completed

The company’s environmental consulting company for the past 8 years, Earth Technology, was called in when the contamination was discovered over three months ago to assess what needs to be done, and your Committee has been keeping tabs on their progress. Earth Technology has stopped all activity on the construction project pending completion of its assessment, but it has been 3 months since all activity stopped, and all you’ve received are 3 reports that are inconclusive about the nature and extent of the contamination, and about what needs to be done to clean it up. Earth Technology is currently recommending a fourth study, as it has discovered evidence of groundwater contamination at the site, which you know is very time consuming and costly to clean up. Your Committee has been frustrated with the delays and indecision you’ve experienced with this environmental company before, but has been reluctant to replace it with a new firm, because the President of your company, John Carlisle, had personally selected them, and they now have a history...