What is ”environmentaltranslation?” Simply put, it is the trans-lation of documents that focus on suchthemes as the environment, environ-mental effects, or the environmentalperformance of governments, compa-nies, products, and services. That defi-nition is wide enough to include highlytechnical academic papers, dense gov-ernment reports, product newsreleases, adult and children’s literature,and advertising. The June 2008 issueof The ATA Chronicle contained anarticle on this very subject that recom-mended that if you want to positionyourself as an environmental trans-lator, you should try to be a “one-stopshop for all…environmental transla-tion needs.”1 However, given the diver-sity of environmental documentsneeding translation, some might findthis rather difficult. Below are somespecific examples of environment-related documents for which there issome level of translation demand.Although I draw from my experienceas a Japanese translator, the informa-tion is pertinent to all languages.

Corporate LiteratureEnvironmental Reports/CSR Reports

One fairly significant source ofwork in this field is a document putout by corporations called a CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) report,

which discusses an organization’sresponsibility for the impact of itsactivities. In the 1990s, a handful ofcorporations started publishing so-called environmental reports occa-sionally, in which they talked abouthow they were saving energy in theworkplace, taking steps to reducewaste emissions, and even sendingstaff members out to do neighborhood

cleanups. More and more businessesstarted to produce these reports, andeventually their scope grew to includeeconomic and social concerns as wellas the environment. This practice wasin keeping with a concept known asthe “Triple Bottom Line,” which saysthat a business should not be judgedjust by its economic results, but by itseconomic, social, and environmentalresults. Now there are three bottomlines, not just one.

Environmental reports have mostlygiven way to CSR reports. In keeping

with the “triple bottom line” concept,these reports are generally organizedinto three main sections correspondingto economic, social, and environmentalconcerns. CSR reports are publishedonce a year as a sister publication tothe traditional annual report.

Translating CSR reports is moder-ately difficult, about the same asannual reports. Generally, they are not

highly technical and the writing isfairly straightforward. A translatordoes not need an advanced degree inenvironmental studies to translatethem. You do, however, need to beable to write well enough for publicconsumption, and corporate clientscan be very demanding about thequality of the work.

Marketing LiteratureAnother type of environmental

subject matter you are likely toencounter some day is marketing

The ATA Chronicle � March 200924

Environmental topics bring plenty of examples of terms and concepts that are not as

straightforward as they appear.

Environmental Translation: Market Overview

By Patrick Oblander

25The ATA Chronicle � March 2009

literature, such as corporate pressreleases. Most of you have probablytranslated a press release at somepoint in your career and will eventu-ally come across one that deals withthe environment. This might includecoverage of the launch of a newproduct that the manufacturer wantsto advertise as eco-friendly, or itmight be a statement that the businessis providing financial support to someenvironmental nonprofit. The diffi-culty level of this type of translation

will be no higher or lower than anyother corporate press release, which isusually not very difficult at all, somost translators can handle suchreleases easily. You do, however, haveto be able to write clearly, since thetarget audience is the general public.

Internal Documents Corporations also put out a lot of

documents for internal use that relate tothe environment, such as environmentalstandards. Because corporations arevery interested in raising the environ-mental awareness of employees, thesedocuments can include internal policies,standards or procedures for employeereference, or educational materials.The difficulty level can vary consider-ably, although the translation might behard if the document uses a lot oftechnical or internal jargon withwhich you are unfamiliar. As a rule,

however, environment-related internaldocuments are no more or less diffi-cult to translate than similar internaldocuments that do not concern theenvironment.

Material Safety Data SheetsOne of the most familiar environ-

mental documents of all is theMaterial Safety Data Sheet (MSDS).Most translators working in this areaare familiar with these sheets andknow how important they are. An

MSDS is a document that describesthe toxic properties of a chemicalproduct and gives instructions for pre-

venting accidents and for respondingin case such measures fail. The diffi-culty level of this type of translationcan be rather high. It really dependson how comfortable you are withchemistry.

Applications for Certification Another type of corporate literature

that bears mentioning is certification lit-erature. For example, you have prob-ably heard of Energy Star, a program tocertify energy-efficient consumer prod-ucts. There are all types of certificationsthat corporations are trying to earn.Some of these are environment-relatedand some are not; some are mandatoryand some are voluntary. Among theenvironment-related ones, several cometo mind: ISO 14000 standards,European Union directives like RoHS(the Restriction of HazardousSubstances Directive) and WEEE (theWaste Electrical and ElectronicEquipment Directive). There are manymore that few people have heard of,such as Forest Stewardship Council cer-tification.

When you translate terms like “wilderness” or“natural,” which carry a lot of cultural context, makesure you really understand and convey that context.

Environmental Translation WorkCorporate LiteratureCorporate Social Responsibility ReportsMarketing LiteratureInternal DocumentsMaterial Safety Data SheetsApplications for Industry Certification

Non-corporate LiteraturePatentsAcademic Research PapersEducational Materials

Examples of

The ATA Chronicle � March 200926

One thing these examples have incommon is that they are global pro-grams, which means at some point,translation services will have to beprovided if, for example, a Japanesecompany wants to be certified. Theprocess and documentation will bevery different in each case dependingon the certifying body. To give you afeel for what certification literature islike, let me discuss one example withwhich I am somewhat familiar: theForest Management certificationprocess overseen by the ForestStewardship Council (FSC).

The FSC program is intended topromote responsible management ofthe world’s forests based on 10 princi-ples that include, for example,reducing the environmental impactfrom logging operations, but also sev-eral non-environmental concerns, likerespecting the rights of indigenouspeoples. It is not exclusively an envi-ronmental program.

If you happen to own a forest and arein the business of harvesting and sellingyour trees, you are the type of personFSC wants to have apply for ForestManagement certification. The reason aforest owner might want to get FSC cer-tification is because some governmentsprovide tax incentives for those who do,and some governments practicing greenprocurement will preferentially buyproducts with the FSC mark.

Since the program is global, atranslator is occasionally needed totranslate FSC certification literature.One of FSC’s partner organizationsperforms inspections of forestry com-panies, looking at management poli-cies and practices, and writes up theirreport to FSC. In my case, this iswhere the translation demand occurs:translating reports of the Japanesecertifying enterprise for submission to FSC.

Certification literature, in my experi-

ence, includes some of the most chal-lenging material I have found to trans-late. It is definitely not meant for thegeneral public, and in the case of FSCdocumentation, it covers not justforestry practices but some disciplineswith which I am considerably lessfamiliar, like geology. It is also excitingto translate, because this is one of thefew types of translated literature thatreally put my academic major (forestry)to the test, and second, certification lit-erature is very optimistic. It is based on

the premise that we can do things abetter way—whether it is growing treesin a healthier environment, makingcleaner or more efficient products, orsimply doing business more ethically.

Non-corporate LiteratureNon-corporate entities also write

plenty of environmental literature.Because interest in the environment isso high, the associated literature is verywide-ranging and could includepatents, academic research papers, andeducational material. What you need totranslate any of these types of materialis a reasonably strong background inscience, the ability to read and under-stand the specific literature, and, ofcourse, the ability to write in the appro-priate style for the target reader.

Coming to Terms with TermsAs with any other area of knowl-

edge, environmental topics bringplenty of examples of terms and con-cepts that are not as straightforward asthey appear. Without delving intoadvanced technical terms, let us lookat some basic terms that you arebound to come across sooner or later.

It is hard to translate a concept fromone language to another if peoplespeaking the same language do not fullyagree on what a term means. Take anexample from English: conservationversus preservation versus protection. If

I am committed to environmentalpreservation and you are in favor ofenvironmental protection, and yourmother belongs to the ConservationSociety, are we on the same side? Incommon usage, yes, we probably arebecause these three terms are largelyinterchangeable. You may come acrossmaterial that makes an important dis-tinction, however. If we are talkingabout forests, historically conservationhas meant exploiting the forest in a sus-tainable way, but nonetheless exploitingit—which means cutting trees downeventually. Preservation, on the otherhand, has historically meant keepingsome environmental asset in its currentstate. Forests, however, cannot be pre-served like jam: they are dynamic andconstantly changing ecosystems, so pre-serving a forest implies not interferingwith natural changes in that forest.

According to an authoritative agro-

Environmental Translation: Market Overview Continued

Even simple concepts can get lost in translation if long-established practices are based on

different assumptions.

27The ATA Chronicle � March 2009

forestry dictionary I own, theJapanese equivalents of these termsare: for preservation, forprotection, and for conservation.2

However, the English terms are ofteninterchangeable, so the word youselect will depend on what you feel isright in that context.

Naturally, there is confusing termi-nology within Japanese as well. Whatis the difference between and ? The distinction israrely explained within Japanese, butit is largely a matter of degree. InEnglish we are accustomed to talkingabout “environmental impact,” whichis generally considered the equivalentof . But we really do not havean eloquent fit for , which Ihave seen variously translated as“environmental burden,” “environ-mental load,” and even “environ-mental impact,” which would make itthe same as . First of all, Isuggest that you do not translate

as “environmental impact,”because in the U.S. in particular,“environmental impact” has somepretty strong legal implications. Forexample, an environmental impact issomething relatively major likedestroying wildlife habitat that cankeep you from building a ski resort. Incontrast, refers even to rela-tively minor effects that our everydayactions have on the environment, suchas driving a car. Over time I havecome to accept the most common andliteral translation, “environmentalburden,” as legitimate English, and Ido see the term popping up more andmore in native English literature.

Bridging Cultural DividesAt times terms and concepts that

are common in one language losesomething in translation because theyare in a different cultural and historicalcontext. One example is the word

“wilderness,” meaning an environmentunaltered by human activity. To theancient Romans, the wilderness wassomething to be frightened of and con-quered. Modern Americans, in con-trast, like the idea of wilderness as anenvironment untouched by humanactivity. But one is less likely to hear,for example, the Japanese idealizewilderness, because in Japan it is veryhard to find any landscape withoutobvious signs of human alteration. Ifyou look up the word “wilderness” inan English-Japanese dictionary, youwill find several definitions, but not asingle Japanese word that captures allthose positive and negative shades ofmeaning that the term has collected inEnglish.

Our environment shapes our ideals.In general, the Japanese tend to beless interested in the virgin forest andmore in the working forest. Japan’sforests are dominated by artificiallyplanted evergreens, but the laborshortage has caused owners to skipthinning. As a result, the trees are notgrowing to maturity. The problem isnot too much human activity in theforest, but too little.

So when you translate terms like“wilderness” or “natural,” which carry alot of cultural context, make sure youreally understand and convey that con-text. Also, do not forget the legal con-text. For example, a product that can beclassified as “organic” in the U.S. mightnot qualify for that label in Japan.

Long-established Concepts: a Slippery Slope

There is one further wrinkle tocontext that I would like to explore,and that is the fact that the primaryindustries—agriculture, forestry, andfisheries—have a deeply embeddedcultural context. For example,Japanese forestry practices developedin isolation from any other country forcenturies, so there are a number ofterms and ideas that do not appearelsewhere. I would like to back this upwith a story from my own experience,which will require me to digress into afew technical details, so please bearwith me—I will get us back on point.

A few years ago, I interpreted forseveral days for the owner of aJapanese company that wanted to buysome forested land in Shikoku, but heneeded international financing. To getthe financing, he needed to have anon-Japanese forestry consultant cer-tify that the land in question reallycontained all the timber indicated bythe records. This involved takingsome measurements on the ground, aprocess called a timber cruise, andcrunching some numbers in the office.

When a forester does a timbercruise, he is measuring two things.First, he will go to a few sample plotsof ground and determine how manytrees there are per hectare (or per acre,in the U.S.). Then he will look at theindividual trees in the plots and esti-mate how much volume of usablewood there is in the average tree. �

When every company is calling itself an eco-friendlycompany, you do have to start wondering if

it is all just greenwash.

The ATA Chronicle � March 200928

He multiplies the two together todetermine how much wood volumethere is per hectare or acre. For thisparticular project, the Japanese busi-ness owner provided some raw dataand the American forestry companytook the data and ran this very simplecalculation. That is, until the Japanesebusinessman nudged me and said,“Why aren’t they including the slopefactor?” Despite having a master’sdegree in forestry, I had never heardof this practice. When I interpretedthe question for the American crew,they also had no idea what he wastalking about.

The Japanese fellow tried to edu-cate his American counterparts. “Lookat it this way,” he said. “You have twoplots of land, each one measuring onehectare, or a square of 100 meters by100 meters. (See Figure 1.) SupposePlot A is on flat ground, a 0% slope.Suppose Plot B is on a 40% slope. Youare still measuring the land as if itwere two-dimensional, as if it wereflat. But what if you aligned your per-spective with the slope? You wouldfind that in one dimension the plot isnow actually longer, 107.7 metersaccording to the Pythagorean theorem.You would really have more squarearea than that one hectare, wouldn’tyou? So that means more room fortrees, right? Therefore, shouldn’t youfactor in the slope so that the resultshows more trees, and consequentlymore timber?”

Once these interpreted words gotout of my mouth, the two gentlemenon the Japanese side were noddingtheir heads. Those on the Americanside—all experienced foresters—stood in stunned disbelief. They hadnever heard such a thing, and theywere trying to digest it to see if therewas any rationality to this. The morethe two sides discussed it, the moreheated the conversation got, because

each side firmly believed what itbelieved based on its respectiveindustry traditions.

The two sides never did come to anagreement. The Japanese side thoughtit was incredibly obvious: the morespace you have, the more trees. TheAmerican side thought that it wasimpossible, because even if your sur-face area increases as measured on theslope, those trees still grow straight upand need just as much lateral space asif they were on flat ground.

It was not until years later that Ifinally figured out the source of theconfusion. The Japanese gentlemanwas looking at an average number oftrees for the wider region and treatingthat as an index to be adjustedaccording to local conditions. HisAmerican counterparts were fol-lowing a statistical procedure, whichassumes that every patch of ground isunique and needs to be sampleddirectly to draw any conclusions. Iftheir survey was planned properly

Environmental Translation: Market Overview Continued

Figure 1

Plot A

Plot B

10,000 m2

100 m

0% slope 40% slope

10,000 m2

100 m

107.7 m100 m

100 m

Even simple concepts can get lost in translation if long-established practices are basedon different assumptions. During interpreted talks, the Japanese party explained that in theabove example, Plot B (on a 40% slope) contains more area than Plot A (on a 0% slope),even though both measure 100 meters x 100 meters two-dimensionally. This is becausemeasured parallel to the angle of the slope, Plot B is actually 107.7 meters long on the Xaxis, and therefore 10,770 meters squared in area, compared to 10,000 meter squaredfor Plot A. With more space, he concluded, Plot B contains more trees.

The American side agreed with the geometry, but rebutted that, even so, this doesnot mean Plot B contains more trees, because the trees still need just as much lateralspace. The disagreement hinged on the different assumptions each side traditionallyused to estimate timber volume. The Japanese side was using a regional index ofvolume per hectare (or per acre) and adjusting according to ground conditions, while theAmerican side would have measured specific plots on all types of ground conditions toderive the volume per hectare statistically.

29The ATA Chronicle � March 2009

according to statistical principles,sample plots would have been takento reflect all conditions in the forest,and if there were more trees on someplots—for whatever reason—thiswould be reflected in the results.

For us as translators, it does notmatter who was right—what matters iscommunication. Both sides were oper-ating from assumptions that held cur-rency within their respective industrytraditions. I give this anecdote to rein-force my point that an industry thathas matured in isolation can come upwith its own concepts that may beantithetical to what its counterpartfrom another culture believes.

At times like this, the best you canhope for is that you have not only a lan-guage interpreter but also a cultureinterpreter—someone who knows theindustry traditions on both sides and canhelp each side make sense of the other.

But Isn’t It All Just Greenwash?Going back to the environmental

literature, and seeing how much of itcomes from corporations, we some-times have to ask: Isn’t it all justgreenwash? I am referring to the prac-tice of using environmental languageto cover up environmental problems orto sell more products. A company maycall itself eco-friendly because it triesto save energy and recycle, and at thesame time it may be pumping chemi-cals into the sky and water. Whenevery company is calling itself an eco-friendly company, you do have to startwondering. So how do you tell if it isall just greenwash? There are a fewtools on the Web. Just google the term“greenwash” and you can find severalsites that take businesses to task fortheir allegedly deceptive claims.

As a person who translates CSRreports from time to time, I am espe-cially interested in knowing whether

these reports are really advancing theenvironmental cause or are justspreading disinformation. Certainlyevery business wants to be seen in thebest possible light. That is why everyCSR report gives examples of eco-friendly things the business is doingto save the planet. Where CSR reportsget interesting is when they reportunfavorable information: maybe thebusiness leaked radiation, or maybefactory and office energy consump-tion increased instead of decreased. Inany given year, the business can reportthis information and say it was ananomaly, and now it is putting pro-grams and safeguards in place tomake sure it does not happen again.But what if it does happen again?What if these things happen year afteryear? This is when the reportingprocess starts to pressure the business,because readers (including investorsand customers) are going to notice.

My personal opinion is that on bal-ance we are doing a good thing for theenvironment by translating CSRreports and similar literature, becauseyou cannot get away with greenwashforever. The bottom line is, the moreinformation being disclosed, the better.

Final ThoughtsTo close, I continue to advertise

myself as an environmental translatorbecause I find the material to be reallyinteresting, and everybody likes totranslate material they find inter-esting. Beyond interest, though, it isalso very rewarding, because overtime I believe my work helps to makea difference, and unlike a lot of otherthings I have translated, I know fromthe feedback I have received that thereare lots of people who will read andscrutinize this material, because theytake as much interest in it as I do.

Notes1. Dahlberg, Abigail. “Going Green:

Translating Environ men tal Texts.”The ATA Chron icle (American Trans -la tors Association, June 2008), 12.

2. Gakujutsu Yogoshu Noga kuhen(Ministry of Edu -

cation [Japan] and Japanese Instituteof Land scape Architecture, Tokyo:Maruzen Co., Ltd., 1992).

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