HOW IT BEGAN

I founded TINA Consultants Ltd in October 2000 to develop a more effective approach to the management of environmental issues. This after questioning the way environmental issues are often managed in the offshore oil and gas industry.

It all consolidated through an email conversation with my friend Simon. As a subject title we adopted the acronym TINA, which stands for:

There Is No Alternative

At the start of the conversation, this stood for: there is no alternative to the way in which we approach environmental management, because if there was, people surely would have found it and put it on the map.

Instead, we felt ourselves on what we called The Rocky Road; a steep, windy track full of boulders; tough going for even the best of 4-wheel drives. We found ourselves in a reactive mode with seemingly intractable divisions between the industry, its legislators and its stakeholders. We found projects being delayed by the fear of legal challenge and we found the need for more and more factual information to support industry development plans. We saw even our most sincere answers result in yet more questions. We found the rocky road to be an uphill struggle, with the end of it out of sight. It felt like a dead-end. Other images that came to mind were a hamster wheel and traveling alongside a canyon which has no bridges.

After describing the rocky road, our desire to find an alternative had grown. We were now looking for the 'non-existent' TINA way.

We started by mapping the terrain. We found polarized views and distrust, but also compassion. We found a heavy reliance on science, even in subjective situations. We found the attention focus on residual environmental impacts, rather than on improvements that were achieved. We saw fingers being pointed rather than responsibilities being shared. We found established concerns about impacts on wildlife and emerging concerns about social impacts.

We found that man’s relationship with nature is dualistic in that we want to protect the environment, but also aim to overcome its limitations. We are thus faced with a dilemma. Feeling guilty helps us to manage the difference between desirable and desired, between wanting a cleaner environment and wanting to survive it.

We felt that this guilty feeling is at the foundation of the rocky road and the key to finding the TINA way. Obviously, the solution does not lie in soft shouldering the guilt, nor does it lie in blaming people for feeling guilty.

Instead, the TINA way takes us to what we referred to as The Sacred Ground. We defined this as the piece of ground between industry, its legislators and its stakeholders that has defined their differences over the years, that neither party feels they can enter, an area which, if we are willing to go into, we impel our stakeholders to join us. It is this sacred ground where more effective environmenal management is possible.

We ultimately found an alternative way. It requires courage, and is a simple four-step process as follows:

1. Firstly, we must step out of our Box of Blame.
2. Secondly, we must admit to not knowing for sure whether our operations and the products that we produce are indeed compatible with conservation objectives.
3. Thirdly, we must ruthlessly identify the specific gaps in our understanding. They are key to focusing our efforts and to help challenge established practices and expectations.
4. Fourthly, we must address these gaps in understanding. Both internally, and by sharing them with our stakeholders. Gaps in understanding show compassion and invite participation. Gaps in understanding lead to understanding, and this works in two directions.

In commemoration of this early email conversation, I adopted the name TINA Consultants for my company. A TINA consultant is a consultant who shows the TINA way. You may even be a TINA consultant yourselves.