---

Chairman's message from - Scott Smith, NOC Chair

Did you ever stop and think that we are all environmentalists?  My older daughter once asked me what I do at my job.  I told her that “I’m a project manager for an environmental consulting firm.”  “But what’s that?” she asked.  “I help companies comply with their regulatory obligations in protecting the environment”.  “Oh”, she said, “you’re an environmentalist”.  Me?  An environmentalist?

I never thought of myself as an environmentalist.  I’ve always pictured those people as tree huggers who go around demonstrating with signs in their hands saying “save a tree, save the planet”.  But when I looked up the definition, an “environmentalist” is “a person concerned about environmental quality esp. with respect to control of pollution” (The Merrian-Webster Dictionary, 2004 edition).  I’m concerned about environmental quality.  I want to help companies control pollution and achieve sustainable compliance; so I must be an environmentalist.  I don’t go around demonstrating with signs saying “stop polluting the earth”, but I do work towards an end goal of protecting the environment. 

That’s what’s great about being in the environmental business.  We may be different types of environmentalists; we may vote democrat or republican (don’t forget to vote on November 4th); we may be of a different religion or a different race, or we may even have different beliefs about global warming, but there is one thing that we all have in common; we are in this profession with the ultimate goal of protecting the environment for our children.  We have left them with enough problems like; trying to prevent the collapse of social security, or paying down the 10 trillion dollar national debt, or even finding solutions to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  We don’t want to leave them with having to clean up after us too.
 
What’s even better about this profession is that we get to meet so many unique and interesting people.  I am currently working on an international compliance audit program; coordinating audits in countries like: Germany, Austria, Spain, UK, China, Romania, Russia, Brazil, and Serbia.  We speak different languages; some speak English with different accents; some people are in different time zones across the world.  It is often times difficult, but we manage to find common ground and are able to communicate to accomplish our goal (isn’t email wonderful?).

The bottom line is, even with all of our differences, we are all environmentalists with one goal that brings us together as a global community.

That’s what’s great about AWMA.  Even though we may have different interests, or different backgrounds, or different beliefs, we all have one thing in common and that is: Protecting the environment for our children.  Being a member of AWMA is a great way to meet interesting people of all walks of life, and learning what drives us, while knowing that we all share the same passion for environmental stewardship.

So come meet with us at our next conference or social gathering and let us all grow together as that global community, where we can meet interesting people and learn from each other, as we strive to accomplish our common goal.

I look forward towards seeing you at our next event!