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.

How to Get Prepared for an OSHA Inspection

Are you worried about the possibility of actually showing up in your lobby for a surprise inspection? And you're not sure exactly what to do or how to prepare for that possibility? That sounds like you don't feel bad because you're definitely not alone, and you've come to the right place because I put together this series of videos called How to Pass Your OSHA Inspection. And in this edition of the series, I'm going to talk about [...]

By |2023-04-25T13:23:27-05:00April 25th, 2023|Good To Know, OSHA Health & Safety, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on How to Get Prepared for an OSHA Inspection

What To Do After An OSHA Inspection Ends

Once the OSHA inspection is over and the inspector leaves the site, many companies make the mistake of believing that "it's done" and there's nothing more to do and nothing more to worry about. Unfortunately in most cases, these assumptions couldn't be further from the truth, and in reality, the work has just begun..... In other words, the vast majority of inspections result in multiple citations for serious health and safety hazards, and it's the employers responsibility to [...]

By |2023-03-31T11:43:23-05:00March 31st, 2023|OSHA Health & Safety, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on What To Do After An OSHA Inspection Ends

OSHA’s New Instance by Instance Enforcement Policy Explained

Did you know that OSHA is dropping a major, potentially devastating new enforcement policy on March 27th, 2023? It’s called the “Instance by Instance” Citation Policy and it’s going to result in exponentially more citations and fines for manufacturing and industrial companies who aren’t prepared. Learn everything you need to know about the new policy and how to prepare in this video **Want to learn how to build a safety program for your manufacturing or industrial facility to [...]

By |2023-03-31T12:30:29-05:00March 28th, 2023|OSHA Health & Safety, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on OSHA’s New Instance by Instance Enforcement Policy Explained

OSHA Violations, Citations & Fines

Learn about the 6 OSHA Citation Types and Fines Introduction: Are you worried about the possibility of OSHA showing up at your front door for a surprise inspection and not exactly sure how to prepare for that possibility? If that sounds like you, you've come to the right place because I've put together this series of videos called How to Pass Your OSHA Inspection. In this edition, we're going to talk about the six most common types [...]

By |2022-11-22T16:20:39-05:00November 22nd, 2022|OSHA Health & Safety, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on OSHA Violations, Citations & Fines

How to Pass an OSHA Inspection

Hello and welcome. Okay, so are you worried about the possibility of OSHA showing up at your front door for a surprise inspection and not really sure how to prepare for that possibility? If so, don't worry, because I'm going to share with you everything you need to know about the OSHA enforcement process, and more importantly, how to get prepared so that you can pass any inspection and stay out of trouble. But before [...]

By |2022-10-12T12:26:48-05:00October 11th, 2022|Good To Know, OSHA Health & Safety, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on How to Pass an OSHA Inspection

Should You Give a Safety Speech?

Hello and welcome. All right, so are you trying to decide whether or not to give a safety speech at your company, but maybe you're not sure If it's a good idea, not sure what to say, or if it'll even work? We'll stick around because I'm gonna tell you everything you need to know about safety speeches so you can decide exactly what to do. I've given safety speeches in the past, and I've also spent [...]

By |2022-09-27T11:09:45-05:00September 27th, 2022|OSHA Health & Safety, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on Should You Give a Safety Speech?