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SUSTAINABILI TY Consulting environmental consultants Modern professionals partner with clients to improve triple-bottom-line while reducing projects’ effects on the planet.
Flood says that there is a fundamental shift in how modern environmental consulting firms relate to clients and their work. “In the past, environmental compliance was viewed as a drain on our client’s bottom line. Today, we focus on minimizing carbon emissions and the use of energy, water, and materials,” he says. “Through resilient and sustainable design, we aim to improve our client’s triple-bottom-line of social, environ- mental, and financial benefits.” “Environmental services represents a diverse array of capabilities – site assessments and remediation, multimedia ... compliance, environmental planning, and permitting to name a few – and clients come to us to solve a diverse array of challenges.” SOUGHT-AFTER SERVICES REDUCE RISK. Michael Fos- ter, contaminated lands service line director at Kleinfelder (San Diego, CA), an 1,800-person global science, architecture and engineering consulting firm, says that the firm has found that its environ- mental services are one of the most sought-after service lines by clients. “Environmental services represent a diverse array of capabilities – site assessments and remediation, multimedia (i.e., soil, groundwater, air, surface wa- ter) compliance, environmental planning, and per- mitting to name a few – and clients come to us to solve a diverse array of challenges,” he says. Across all of the possible activities, the most valu- able role Foster believes that Kleinfelder provides is to reduce its clients’ environmental liability and risk exposure. “It’s more than a matter of assisting clients as they maintain compliance with permits and other reg- ulatory requirements, it means looking for oppor- tunities to optimize existing environmental pro- grams, methods, mechanical systems and report- ing,” he explains.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
E nvironmental consulting: It’s an industry term, but just what does it mean? Who are these pro- fessionals, and what do they do? When is an en- vironmental consultant needed on a project? We went to a few sources to answer these questions. “In the past, environmental compliance was viewed as a drain on our client’s bottom line. Today, we focus on minimizing carbon emissions and the use of energy, water, and materials. Through resilient and sustainable design, we aim to improve our client’s triple-bottom-line of social, environmental, and financial benefits.” ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE – NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE. At Hatch Mott MacDonald (Milburn, NJ), a 2,700-person, full-service consulting engineering firm, Donald Flood, principal and corporate marketing officer, says that the environmental consultants at Hatch Mott MacDonald become an integral partner with their clients, so the clients can achieve their busi- ness solutions, particularly in the areas of environ- mental compliance, permitting, stewardship, sus- tainability, and resilience. “While we are still quite active in remediation, this is much different from the industry’s previous fo- cus of reversing damage that had been caused in the past,” he says. “Working as a strong client ad- vocate, we are proactive in our approach, incorpo- rating sustainability and environmental compli- ance into all aspects of our client offerings. Early involvement is the key to maximizing the benefits that we can bring to a project.” Hatch Mott MacDonald’s approach to projects in- corporates techniques that combine short-term capital outlay and long-term operating costs, in line with their clients’ goals and objectives for sus- tainability and compliance.
Donald Flood, Principal &
Corporate Marketing Officer, Hatch Mott MacDonald.
See ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING , page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER JULY 20, 2015, ISSUE 1112
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