Radical Transparency

Episode 132 marks a special installment of The Far Middle as Nick spotlights CNX Resources’ historic and innovative Radical Transparency initiative. But before dropping the puck on the Radical Transparency discussion, Nick pays tribute to the legendary Montreal Forum in this episode’s opening sports dedication. The Forum opened its doors 99 years ago this week, and “was constructed in 159 days, can you believe that,” says Nick. “It would take longer today to draft the permit request for such a venue, and the actual permit review and approval process might not take 159 days, but instead 159 months.” Nick reflects on the property’s history, in particular its seven decades as home to the Montreal Canadiens, as well as other notable hosted events. “What made the Forum in Montreal a shrine,” asks Nick. “Doers building things to last. Seeing those things they built thrive and make history of their own. And sprinkling in fits and starts of innovation and continuous improvement.” With that observation, Nick connects to CNX’s new Radical Transparency initiative. Introduced this month on November 2nd alongside Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Radical Transparency is a “partnership and agreement that’s going to move the state of the art forward to a higher and better place when it comes to how responsible manufacturing of domestic energy and natural gas is performed,” explains Nick. Nick looks back on how a data reporting challenge served as the impetus for Radical Transparency. That challenge drove CNX’s performance to a better place as a new regulatory reporting group was established alongside new data and IT platforms. Through those improvements and investments, the foundation was laid for Radical Transparency. The Radical Transparency website is now live at http://www.cnxradicaltransparency.com/ providing background and contextual information about CNX’s operations and development process. As opposed to policy driven by out-of-touch ideology or mysterious and unknown data (recalling episode 124 on the recent University of Pittsburgh’s natural gas studies), Radical Transparency will help craft policy based “on data, and the rational, and the known,” says Nick. Revisiting the initiative’s announcement earlier this month, Nick highlights that extraordinary day alongside many community leaders, including Governor Shapiro, Pennsylvania Environmental Council President Davitt Woodwell, and Boilermakers Local 154 Business Agent Shawn Steffee. Those assembled were “a coalition of the willing, a coalition of doers wanting to get something done on advancing the state of the art.” Nick underscores that this is just the start of Radical Transparency and now the real work begins to make it an engine for continuous improvement. In closing, Nick connects back to the Montreal Forum and the band Rush who played the venue several times. “The trio of Rush is the greatest band pound for pound in the history of rock,” argues Nick. “They weren't afraid to break rock norms through the years to innovate, much like what we're trying to do today with Radical Transparency.” Listen as Nick concludes with a few interesting factoids from the band’s Exit… Stage Left album.