Susan Saltzman
Research Fellow
Susan Saltzman is the former president of Saltzman Consulting Services, which provided regulatory expertise regarding the safe and legal shipment of packaged dangerous goods. She has over 30 years of industry experience as a research chemist, patent searcher, and hazardous materials consultant. A former board member of the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council and chair of its International Regulations Committee, Saltzman served as an international industry adviser to governments. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from Brooklyn College and an M.S. in organic chemistry from the University of Minnesota. In 1992 Saltzman received the George M. Wilson Award for Promoting Safety in the Hazardous Materials Industry from HMAC and the RHYTHM (Remember How You Treat Hazardous Materials) Recognition Award from Du Pont. She is a recognized expert in the field and has written technical articles and reports of technical meetings for Hazmat Packager and Shipper (West Chester, PA) and Hazardous Cargo Bulletin (London).
In 2004 Saltzman joined CHF as a volunteer visiting fellow. Her current research for the Environmental History and Policy Program, which is essentially complete, includes the state of sustainability reporting standards and metrics among chemical, petroleum, and pharmaceutical companies. Her findings explore the fact that corporate sustainability reporting has essentially replaced traditional financial-only reporting among major corporations in the last two decades. However, there is no comparability among sustainability indicators and report formats between industries and companies, no metrics for many indicators, and little or no translation of environmental impacts into financial implications. There are over 100 institutions with an interest in this area, and their activities and publications have been documented. A white paper providing a historical perspective and a state-of-the-art report is in preparation.