Engineering change through environmental compliance at 3M

By David Nesseth  

In a field often dominated by men, 3M Corporate Environmental Specialist, Catharine Urquhart, says that after more than 20 years in her career, she thinks less and less about being in the minority, and more and more about how to take environmental compliance to the next level. 

Based in London, Ontario, Urquhart, 46, grew up with an engineer father, married an engineer husband, and has three kids. Now, when she’s not cycling, reading or spending time with her loved ones, she often spends her days dealing with government commitments for reporting, such as greenhouse gas emissions and stormwater permits, or working with National Pollutant Release Inventory data.  

Urquhart’s job is to ensure 3M has all the right permits in place at manufacturing facilities across Canada, whether it’s Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) information, ensuring Environmental Activity and Sector Registry (EASR) are in place, or implementing 3M internal environmental programs.  

She looks at her role at 3M as helping the company be an upstanding corporate citizen.  

“It’s that feeling that you’re doing the right thing for the company, and preserving the company’s reputation. You feel good at the end of the day knowing you did everything you could to protect the environment,” Urquhart told ES&E Magazine. 

Since then, the toughest parts of the job world have always been the things that can’t be learned in school — the ins and outs of the company — where she’s been now for more than two decades. It’s taken quite some time, she says, to hit her stride as a woman in engineering.

“I self-censored my voice for so long before I realized that my voice was worth adding to the table,” recalled Urquhart, who spoke with ES&E Magazine just after International Women in Engineering Day on June 23. 

Urquhart says she rarely is reminded that she’s somewhat of a minority in some instances in the workplace, as positive change has been substantial. But she says there are certain elements of office dynamics — and even emotional labour — that are ingrained in ways that people may not often realize. 

“You may be asked to be the person who will organize the potluck or take meeting minutes,” she says. “It seems that in some organizations, it is the default to ask women to do these things. Of course, it’s okay to agree to do these things if you like to do them, but at the same time, you shouldn’t feel obligated.”

It may be a bit of a holdover from the days of companies strictly hiring female assistants and leaning on women for the more organizational aspects of running a company, Urquhart says. 

Urquhart takes the lead for environmental compliance at facilities across Canada. 3M has manufacturing facilities in Perth, Brockville, London and Chicouitmi and she also supports non-manufacturing facilities and US facilities as needed.  Urquhart maintains all submission requirements, permit conditions and regulatory deadlines for Canada. She also participates in internal audits as an auditor in coordination with regulatory experts. 

“With some audits we go beyond compliance with the regulations,” Urquhart says. “The company continues to seek out ways to go beyond our permitted and regulatory requirements.”  

N95 respirator facility

One of the most high-profile and memorable periods of Urquhart’s role at 3M was her assistance in making the company’s N95 respirator facility a reality during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2021. The new respirators provided frontline workers with protection in the fight against COVID-19 and ensured Canada had a reliable supply in the event of any future outbreaks. About 700,000 N95 respirators were shipped from the plant in April 2021, with the first wave of that vital PPE sent to health care, education and other public-sector institutions.  

That first shipment rolled out just eight months after the governments of Canada and Ontario reached a five-year agreement with 3M for the provision of 50 million respirators annually. Through this partnership, 3M expanded its Brockville manufacturing facility to produce made-in-Ontario N95 respirators.  

Urquhart recalled that 3M’s Brockville masking tape facility had some extra land where they could build a respirator production facility. It was her responsibility to amend all the required permits to allow the plant to get up and running as quickly as possible, despite construction efforts having to navigate COVID protocols. 

“We were able to open the plant in short order to get critical PPE out to the nurses and doctors and health care workers who needed it. It was a case of working with the government and consultants to get them the required information for their reviews quickly.  I think we had the whole facility up and going in about nine months.” 

As Urquhart moves forward in her career, she hopes to be able to support young people coming into the field to be more open with their opinions and ideas, regardless of their gender, in order to find their voice at a company. 

“Your perspective is unique and it’s valuable in any setting,” she says, noting that the idea of embracing unique perspectives of all kinds is part of why companies have been striving to diversify workplaces.  

“I encourage people to make sure that they’re speaking up.”