Why do you need an environmental assessment?

Business Blog

If you have purchased, or are considering purchasing a brown field site for development you will need to have an environmental assessment conducted to identify any possible land contamination. The growing number of developments taking place on brown field sites has led to an increasing awareness of the potential dangers land contamination can pose to new buildings, as well to to existing developments. It is not just land purchased for development that may be affected, land contamination may also affect land that is dormant or being prepared for sale for other purposes. The contamination may have occurred as a result of a prior use of the site, or it could have been caused by activity on neighbouring sites.

What's involved in an environmental assessment?

Environmental assessments vary depending on your circumstances. You may need to consider; risk assessment, remediation design, ongoing monitoring and sampling, or waste acceptance criteria in the assessment.

Whatever type of assessment you need the first stage will probably be a historical review of the site looking back at all the available data and the public records to see how the land has been used over the years, and what possible sources of contamination may be present. This will usually be followed by a walk around the site inspecting the land to investigate site conditions and to take samples where appropriate. If land contamination is confirmed then your environmental assessment should suggest remedial action or ongoing monitoring of the site which will need to be agreed with the appropriate authorities before it is begun.

What skills are needed?

To properly be able to investigate, assess, and suggest appropriate remediation of contaminated land means possessing an full understanding of specialist disciplines such as geology, toxicology, hydogeology, soil mechanics, and risk assessment all of which may be needed to accurate examine the causes and nature of the contamination and to determine the best way to restore the contaminated land.

Conducting a full investigation and preparing a detailed environmental assessment will involve co-ordination with the appropriate authorities regarding not just the investigation strategy to be used, but the right remedial design and the final discharge of any planning conditions which are attached to the land.

Effectively dealing with land contamination and obtaining a detailed environmental assessment is a vital first step when considering purchasing, or building on any brown field site. Failure to follow the correct procedures and apply proper remediation to contaminated land will only lead to much bigger problems later on when the authorities become aware of the situation. Get your environmental assessment done now.

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2 August 2017

Pitching my business

I have a pretty successful local startup but I know that I could do even better if I expanded my business to a larger market. Unfortunately no matter how protiable a local small business is, no bank will lend me enough money for an international expansion. That's why I am preparing to pitch my business to equity investors and potential joint venture partners. Having a strong pitch will help maximise my chances of success. My blog has some of my work on improving my pitch and should be useful to anyone who is looking to pitch their business to investors.