Peter Sandman

Peter Sandman is a low-profile but very influential US-based ‘risk communication’ adviser. He is best known for his “Risk = Hazard + Outrage” formula. [1]

Sandman has advised tarnished companies and industries on how to re-invent themselves as a way of easing community-driven constraints on their current and future business. [2]

Sandman has also been a pioneer advocate of governments and corporations creating community advisory panels as a way of reducing ‘outrage’ and ‘engaging’ with the community. [3] His analysis has been incorporated into “Outrage” software to assist governments and corporations manage public relations controversies. “[4]

Sandman also works for non-profit groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund. [5] Sandman - who can command consultancy rates from $US650 per hour for domestic work up to $1250 per hour for his overseas work - has his supporters among even notoriously conservative companies. [6]

Clients

On his website - dated 2002 - Sandman includes what he refers to as a 'representative' list of his past and current client Corporate and Trade Association

• American Crop Protection Association
• American Forest & Paper Association
• American Petroleum Institute
• Association Française des Enterprises pour l’Environnement
• AWB Limited
• BHP Petroleum
• BP Amoco
• Cable & Wireless, PLC
• Canadian Pulp and Paper Association
• Carpet and Rug Institute
• CH2M HILL
• Chemical Industries Association (U.K.)
• Chlorine Chemistry Council
• Connex Southeastern
• Dow AgroSciences
• Dow Chemical Company
• DuPont
• Entergy
• European Petroleum Industry Association
• FMC Corporation
• Gas Research Institute
• Gould Electronics, Inc.
• Hoffman LaRoche
• Inco
• Monsanto
• Noranda Inc.
• Norsk Hydro
• North Limited
• Novartis
• Ontario Hydro Services Company
• Optus Communications
• Phelps Dodge Corporation
• PPG Industries
• Procter & Gamble
• QST Environmental
• Reputation Qest
• Rio Tinto (CRA/RTZ)
• Shell International Ltd.
• Southern California Edison
• Suncor Energy
• Talisman Energy Inc.
• Vulcan Chemicals
• Western Mining Corporation
• Weyerhaeuser Company
• Yellowstone Pipe Line Company

Government and Non-Profit

• Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation
• American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Association of California Water Agencies
• Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies
• City of Charlotte, NC
• Consumer Federation of America Foundation
• Environmental Defense
• Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development
• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• National Environmental Education & Training Foundation
• National Institutes of Health (Occupational Safety and Health Branch)
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation
• Ontario Ministry of the Environment
• Office of Emergency Services, State of California
• Port of Portland (Oregon)
• President’s Commission on Environmental Quality
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Swedish Radiation Protection Institute
• Tennessee Valley Authority
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• U.S. Department of Defense
• U.S. Department of Energy
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Washington State Department of Ecology
• World Resources Institute

Sandman does not disclose on his website what exactly he worked on for each of his clients. However, his work included the following:

• advising on the Nevada nuclear waste dump for the U.S. Department of Energy; [7]
• on radon testing in houses and home testing for lead for the U.S. Environment Protection Agency;
• advising Shell International on handling the controversy over its involvement in countering the advocacy of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in November 1995 by the then Nigerian military dictatorship;

Other clients not included in Sandman's ‘representative’ list include Pasminco, ARCO, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, Ciba-Geigy, Exxon, Intel, Union Carbide, Placer Pacific, CSR, Energy Resources of Australia, the Minerals Council of Australia, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. These additional clients and the specifics of what he worked on for some of them was confirmed by Sandman. [8]

Contact information

Peter M. Sandman
59 Ridgeview Rd.
Princeton NJ 08540-7601 USA
Phone: 1-609-683-4073
Fax: 1-609-683-0566
Email: peter AT psandman.com
http://www.psandman.com/

Other SourceWatch resources

• Chilling and Gassing with the Environmental Defense Fund
• Community Advisory Panels: Corporate cat-herding

Articles By Sandman

• ""Speak with One Voice" — Why I Disagree", Risk = Hazard + Outrage, July 26, 2006.

General Articles

• Bob Burton, "Advice on Making Nice: Peter Sandman Plots to Make You a Winner", PR Watch, Volume 6, No. 1, 1st Quarter 1999.
• Bob Burton, "Packaging the Beast: A Public Relations Lesson in Type Casting", PR Watch, Volume 6, No. 1, 1st Quarter 1999.
• Bob Burton, "Community Advisory Panels: Corporate Cat Herding", PR Watch, Volume 6 No. 1, 1st Quarter 1999.
• Bob Burton, "Mad as Hell? This Program May Have Your Number", PR Watch, Volume 6, No. 1, 1st Quarter 1999.
• Bob Burton, "Chilling and Gassing with the Environmental Defense Fund", PR Watch, Volume 6 No. 1, 1st Quarter 1999.
• Judy Treichel and Steve Frishman, "Sandman's Cagey Tactics", PR Watch, Volume 6 No. 2, 2nd Quarter 1999.
• Bob Burton, "Some Clients of Peter Sandman", PR Watch, Volume 6 No. 1, 1st Quarter 1999.
• Geoff Kelly "Mining PR Exec Lauds Peter Sandman", PR Watch, Volume 6 No. 3, 3rd Quarter 1999. [At the time Kelly was Group Manager Corporate Communication WMC Limited and Victorian President, Public Relations Institute of Australia].
• The most detailed outline of Peter Sandman's views on how companies should manage outrage is "Responding to Community Outrage: Strategies for Effective Risk Communication," which is available for $US30 from the American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2700 Prosperity Avenue, Suite 250, Fairfax VA 22031, phone (703) 849-8888 or fax (703) 207-3561.
• Some of his other reports and articles are available at low cost, along with other "risk communication" materials, from the Center for Environmental Communication at Rutgers University by phoning (908) 932-8795. The publications list is at http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~cec/pubs.html
• Leonie Wood, "Sorry is the hardest word for AWB", The Age, August 16, 2006.
• Kelly Cryderman, "PR pro advice costs Tories $35K", Calgary Herald, May 25, 2008.