Harold J. Taback

Biography

In my HTC consulting firm I learned that my young engineers and scientist who were evaluating the performance of various plants were put upon to fail to report violation to the corporate headquarters.  When discovered, my inspectors said that he would jeopardize our contracts with that plant by reporting a violation that the plant manager had asked him to not report. I had an immediate discussion with my inspectors.  My colleagues at the A&WMA aske me to chair a national committee that first met in 1958 in Anaheim, CA. We formed a committee, developed a Code of Ethics and held workshops at various meetings over the years.

In 2000 I was asked to write a column in the EM magazine call the "The Ethics Corner".  Each edition had an ethical dilemma, often submitted by readers, and a discussion of how to handle the dilemma with the least negative results. I was invited to many A&WWMA over the years from coast to coast and even in Canada.

In June 2011 I was asked to support a colleague, Ram Ramanan, to co-author a textbook type document to address the ethics faced by environmental professionals. Dr. Ramanan had been an environmental consultant who retired to become professor of Ethics and Sustainability at Illinois Institute of Technology. He said that there was no textbook for this subject that is not a mandatory requirement for accreditation of engineering schools. Using my Ethics Corner results , together we wrote the book ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY:A Casebook for Environmental Professionals.

Education

BSME University of Rochester and MSE Princeton University

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Combustion chemistry and rocket propulsion design
Air Pollution Causes and Corrective Action - 100 technical papers.
Indoor Air Quality problems and solutions

Personal Interests

Writing and lecturing about ethical behavior by environmental professionals.

Books