Sustainability Instructor

Harvard University School of Continuing Education

2002 - 2021

Optimization Industrial Processes Lecturer

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

1996 - 2011

Civil and Environmental Engineering Lecturer

Tufts University

1988 - 1996

Awarded the Petra T. Shattuck

Excellence in Teaching Award at Harvard University

June 2008

Dr. Pojasek is best known for his use of the international “high-level structure” that is used to integrate international standards for use at the corporation, its operating facilities, and the suppliers to operate a risk management and sustainability system.  Having worked for one of the largest ISO standards advisory and certification, SAI Global (Sydney), he became certified in competency-based training to work with corporations, their large customers, the operating facilities and the suppliers to manage the ‘effect of uncertainty’ in their risk management program.  He recently wrote on his experience with formal risk management programs in a book, entitled, “How New Risk Management Helps Leaders Master Uncertainty.”  Dr. Pojasek used the high-level structure to improve the gate-to-gate process effectiveness and resource efficiency across  supply chains in up to 30 countries.  He is the author of “Organizational Risk Management and Sustainability: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide” that is used as a text in the on-line, action learning organizational sustainability course at Harvard University.  He has taught that course for the past 18 years and was recognized with the receipt of the “Petra T. Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award.  He taught process improvement and resource productivity at Tufts University and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Pojasek has had a long career in the areas of ethical training and implementation of management system standards (used more than 40 international standards) to create effective processes, efficient operations, and efficacious strategy. He used value stream diagrams to help key people to manage change and to create leading indicators to foster manufacturing excellence.  His process improvement methods were presented in his book, “Making the Business Case for EHS” and won an APEX Award for the best “how-to” book in 2005.

For the past four decades, Dr. Pojasek has worked at more than 500 facilities in almost every North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) category. He has been called upon to evaluate the adequacy of materials use and process waste management for particular points in time. Dr. Pojasek has worked in all ten regions of the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and has served for eight years on its Science Advisory Board. He has experience in a number of countries including: Canada, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, and Romania. He has litigation experience including involvement in the negotiation and conduct of Supplemental Environmental Programs (SEPs) in regulatory enforcement cases.

The Center for Corporate Performance & Sustainability was created in 2020 to collect approximately 100 published papers, 15 books, 30 training programs, and information from his college courses.  Starting in the fall of 2020, the Center will be offering continuing education courses and action learning training courses to its members.  Many of the participants in the Center’s initial programs are former students of Dr. Pojasek along with some of his clients.  Competency-based training programs will be offered in companies to bring together the manufacturing excellence methods that Dr. Pojasek has pioneered or improved.

Books

• Organizational Risk Management and Sustainability - Practical Step-by-Step Guide

• Making the Business Case for Environmental Health & Safety

• An Organizational Guide to Pollution Prevention

Awards

• APEX Best Column Award - Environmental Quality Management Journal, 2009

• Pollution Prevention Champion Award, National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, 2008

• Meritorious Service to Pollution Prevention, Canadian Pollution Prevention Roundtable, 2008

• APEX Best Column Award - Environmental Quality Management Journal, 2007

• APEX Best How-to Book "Making the Business Case for EHS", 2006

• Outstanding Contribution to Pollution Prevention, American Institute for Pollution Prevention, 1994