Some Clients of Peter Sandman

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Peter Sandman declined to provide a complete client list, but some of his past and present clients include:

• In the US: ARCO, Chemical Manufacturers Association, Ciba Geigy, Dow Chemical, Du Pont, Exxon, Intel, Union Carbide, the U.S. Department of Energy (on the Nevada nuclear waste dump), and the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (on radon testing in houses and home testing for lead).
• Global: Shell International.
• Australia: Western Mining Corporation, Rio Tinto, Placer Pacific, BHP Petroleum, Pasminco, North Ltd, CSR, Energy Resources of Australia, Minerals Council of Australia, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization.
• NGO'S: Environmental Defense Fund.

He has also worked on a range of issues including an E. coli crisis, a labor battle, forestry issues and genetic engineering, but has declined to specify the identities of his clients.

Sandman is also an advisor to SustainAbility, a British organization led by John Elkington which encourages NGOs to engage with companies embroiled in environmental and human rights controversies. SustainAbility lists among its past and present clients BHP, BP, Ciba-Geigy, Dow Europe, International Paper, Noranda Forest, Procter and Gamble, Rohm and Haas, Weyerhaeuser and NGO groups World Wide Fund for Nature and the World Resource Institute.

In Australia, SustainAbility is a business partner of Ecos Corporation, the company of Paul Gilding, former Executive Director of Greenpeace International. Gilding has worked alongside Sandman for clients such as Western Mining Corporation. Past and present clients of Ecos also include chemical companies Dow and Monsanto, and mining companies Suncor and Placer Pacific.

"I'm a fan of Sandman because he opens up companies to the influence of the community," Gilding says. "That can either be seen as . . . equipping them to fight community groups more effectively, which it is often is, or it can be seen as opening up the company and making it more transparent and accountable and engaged with the community in which it operates."

Who wouldn't Sandman work for? "I wouldn't work to develop risk communication strategies to keep tobacco sales high," he said. "I have never been asked to work for the handgun industry, but if asked I suspect I'd say no. Now that I think about it, I might even work for the tobacco industry if they were prepared to come clean. There are a few specific companies that I believe have behaved so dishonorably--killing Karen Silkwood comes to mind--that I doubt I would work for them unless they were prepared to come clean."

The most detailed outline of Peter Sandman's views on how companies should manage outrage is "Responding to Community Outrage: Strategies for Effective Risk Communication," which is available for $30 from the American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2700 Prosperity Avenue, Suite 250, Fairfax VA 22031, phone (703) 849-8888 or fax (703) 207-3561. Some of his other reports and articles are available at low cost, along with other "risk communication" materials, from the Center for Environmental Communication at Rutgers University by phoning (908) 932-8795. The publications list is available via internet at <http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~cec>.

This sample screen shot from "Outrage," a computer program based on Sandman's theories, shows how his advice is designed to help companies predict and counteract community anger over corporate practices.