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.

City of Austin Infectious Disease Response Plan & OSHA COVID-19 Information

Today we want to briefly discuss a few key regulatory requirements that companies who continue to operate during the pandemic need to be aware of and emphasize the importance of keeping up with these requirements to not only help protect your most valuable asset, your employees, from harm, but also to protect your company from related risks including potential civil liability as well as the risk of an outbreak within your company which could ultimately lead to a shutdown, [...]

By |2020-06-29T17:14:10-05:00April 7th, 2020|COVID-19 & Coronavirus, Good To Know, Safety Training, Texas Environmental Regulations, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on City of Austin Infectious Disease Response Plan & OSHA COVID-19 Information

Coronavirus OSHA-Occupational Health & Safety Guidance

Update:  With the unfortunate arrival of the Delta variant, workplace COVID-19 planning continues to be very important as we head into the fall of 2021.  Also keep in mind that since we published the blog post below, the Biden administration instructed OSHA to issue new enforcement efforts to hold employers who don't manage workplace infections accountable.  While the majority of Coronavirus related information being disseminated over TV, internet and word of month applies to public health and safety, we wanted [...]

By |2022-03-21T13:02:11-05:00March 17th, 2020|Good To Know, Government Regulation, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on Coronavirus OSHA-Occupational Health & Safety Guidance

Our New Site Visit Procedures To Control Coronavirus Spread

Given the current Coronavirus situation, Berg Compliance Solutions (“BCS”) has implemented the following procedures to be followed by our consultants during site visits to conduct safety inspections and provide training and related services. These procedures are designed to help prevent the risk of Coronavirus spread from BCS consultant to client employees, and vice versa, and ultimately to assure our clients that BCS is committed to taking all necessary precautions to help prevent the spread of this new virus. During site [...]

By |2020-05-27T12:20:17-05:00March 16th, 2020|Good To Know, Government Regulation, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas Environmental Regulations, Texas Hazardous Materials Regulations|Comments Off on Our New Site Visit Procedures To Control Coronavirus Spread

OSHA Drone Inspections: What They Mean for You

OSHA compliance can have a major impact on small businesses. Incurring a $30,000 fine can shut down production and ruin any stability your business could have been providing for workers and clients. OSHA remains mostly consistent in their inspection methods and their penalties. However, a recent shift to using drones to inspect workspaces means companies have to adjust to ensure they show they comply effectively. In May 2018, OSHA issued a memorandum mandating the use of drones to inspect workplaces [...]

By |2022-03-21T12:50:52-05:00March 16th, 2020|Good To Know|Comments Off on OSHA Drone Inspections: What They Mean for You

How To Create A Safety Committee

Safety Committees Safety committees are a key component to "self managing" OSHA compliance, not only at big companies, but for small companies too. They provide a forum where employees and management can address company health and safety concerns  in a supportive environment and where tasks and responsibilities can be assigned and managed. Many companies make the mistake of hiring a safety manager and expecting that they will handle everything alone, which is a recipe for failure. Safety committees help solve [...]

By |2021-07-26T13:37:17-05:00March 11th, 2020|Good To Know, OSHA Texas Laws & Regulations, Safety Training, Texas OSHA Compliance|Comments Off on How To Create A Safety Committee

Our Mock OSHA Inspection Service Explained

We routinely hear from companies who are struggling to determine which OSHA health and safety regulations apply to their company, let alone how to achieve OSHA compliance. These people have all kinds of reasons for needing to know, from wanting to provide a safe workplace for their employees, to fear of OSHA inspections, recent injury problems, or even customer requirements. Regardless of the reasons, we offer a fantastic mock OSHA services called a Compliance Risk Assessment. Here's what [...]

By |2022-03-21T12:50:52-05:00February 24th, 2020|Good To Know|Comments Off on Our Mock OSHA Inspection Service Explained