Chemical industry's community advisory panels: What has been their impact?

The American chemical industry is sponsoring over 300 community advisory pa nels (CAPs) at pla nts a cross the country to repair lost trust and credibi lity. CAPs are an innovation in community-corporate relations and are incre asingly being adopted by other industrial sectors. This paper reports on a national survey of CAP community members and the company representatives th at collaborate with them. The survey suggests that CAPs alert companies to community concerns and promote trust between members and sponsoring compani es. CAPs are less effective in stimulating changes in environmental perform ance and, like many citizen advisory groups, have difficulties serving as s ystematic links back to the community. While business and industry organiza tions a re well represented on CAPs, environmental and community organizati ons are not and neither are medical or other health or safety professionals . Significantly, these latter groups are most likely to feel that one of a CAP's main functions is to influence a plant's health, safety, and environm ental performance. A CAP is perceived to be more effective by members when it has a significant commitment by the plant manager, a professional facili tator, and a diverse membership. A majority of community members, but not o f company representatives, feel that access to independent technical expert s and members with technical background contribute to a CAP's effectiveness . While new to corporations, CAPs raise many of the same issues as governme ntal citizen advisory committees, including representativeness, intentions of the institution being advised, and availability of independent technical expertise so that participation is fair and competent.