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"1 What Is Environmental Consulting? People, People who need people Are the luckiest people in the world --Bob Merrill and Jule Styne, "People" 1.1 The Environment and Environmental Hazards To understand what constitutes environmental consulting, we first must understand the meaning of "the environment." Webster's Dictionary defines environment as the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival. Let's dissect this definition and discuss how it pertains to the contents of this book. As the definition indicates, physical factors include climate and soil, where climate includes the air, sunlight, and one of the fundamental requirements for life on earth (and a topic of discussion in many of the book's chapters), water. The chemical factors include the interactions between many of these physical factors as well as chemicals that occur naturally and those introduced by mankind. The "living things" indicated in the definition encompass the full range of living things: microbial, plant, and animal life. Conditions that have the ability to affect these living things are known as environmental hazards. An environmental hazard should not be confused with chemicals that can adversely change the environment. These chemicals, known in various contexts as pollutants or contaminants, are one of the three essential parts of an environmental hazard. For an environmental hazard to exist, three conditions must be present (see Figure 1.1). There must be a source of the pollution, a receptor for the pollution, and a pathway connecting the two. "--

An den Fallstudien, jeweils mit unterschiedlicher Akzentsetzung, wird der Einsatz von Beratungsunternehmen zur Verbesserung der umweltorientierten Entwicklungspraxis gezeigt. Beratungsunternehmen - hier die "Environmental Resources Limited" (ERL) in London - werden von Trägerorganisationen oder von Regierungsinstitutionen der Empfängerländer beauftragt. Herausgearbeitet wird, daß es zusätzlich zu consulting-typischen technischen und Management-Aufgaben gilt, oft erst die beteiligten Institutionen in den Entwicklungsländern zu stärken und so die nötigen Voraussetzungen für sinnvolle Projekte und langfristig nachhaltige Entwicklung zu schaffen. Zwar wird diese Consulting-Tätigkeit zunehmend anerkannt, jedoch insofern beeinträchtigt, als der Umweltbereich faktisch noch immer hinter ökonomischen Entwicklungszielen rangiert, und weil Widerstände aus den Institutionen selber kommen. (APAF-Glz)

AbstractThis article aims to describe, with the aid of a number of case studies, the role consultants are playing in bringing improved environmental management to fruition in developing countries. In spite of environmental considerations entering the political agenda in the early 1970s, global environmental deterioration continues. Donor agencies have thus recently greatly accelerated their assistance in this area, but are themselves not equipped to deal with many of the problems and issues and so have hired consultants to undertake aspects of the work programme. Typically consultants are undertaking sector studies, pollution control, environmental improvement studies, and project and programme assessment, and are seen as being primarily responsible for technical aspects. It has become clear that unless technical recommendations are firmly tied into institutional and management structures, the goal of long‐term sustainability of projects will not be realized. Whilst the need for institutional strengthening in this respect is widely recognized, it often fails to materialize as a consequence of internal resistances. Furthermore, environmental goals are still often seen as secondary and contradictory to economic development goals, and are therefore not taken adequately seriously. The article includes four case studies, which illustrate the kinds of measures which are currently considered to be necessary to ensure the implementation of sustainable development programmes and projects.

Seit 1989 werden durch das Bundesumweltministerium und das Umweltbundesamt mehr als 100 Umweltberatungsprojekte unter der Trägerschaft von etwa ebenso vielen Bundes- und Dachverbänden gefördert. Im Rahmen der Evaluationsstudie werden stellvertretend für das Gesamtprogramm 32 dieser Vorhaben unter Beteiligung von 27 unterschiedlichen Verbänden auf ihre Wirkungen hin untersucht und einer vergleichenden Bewertung unterzogen. Insbesondere geht es dabei um die Frage, inwieweit die geförderten Aktivitäten zur dauerhaften Etablierung des Umweltthemas und konkreter Umweltberatungsleistungen innerhalb der Verbandsstruktur beitragen (interne Nachhaltigkeit) und inwieweit sich Projektwirkungen auch über die Verbandsstrukturen hinaus, d.h. unter den Zielgruppen oder anderen Projektbeteiligten verbreiten (externe Nachhaltigkeit). Auf der Grundlage einer theoriegeleiteten Evaluationskonzeption wurden mehr als 60 qualitative Interviews mit Verbandsmitarbeitern und Projektbeteiligten durchgeführt und die schriftlichen Projektmaterialien ausgewertet. Die Ergebnisse der Studie belegen, dass das Förderprogramm hinsichtlich der Etablierung von Umweltberatungsstrukturen ausgesprochen erfolgreich ist, wenngleich es noch nicht in allen Verbänden gelingt, diese Strukturen finanziell dauerhaft abzusichern. Auf der Grundlage einer empirisch begründeten Typenbildung können die untersuchten Verbände fünf verschiedenen Typen zugeordnet und differenzierte Empfehlungen für die weitere Förderpraxis abgeleitet werden. Valide Aussagen über die externe Nachhaltigkeit sind wegen der Vernachlässigung der Wirkungskontrolle bei der Projektdurchführung nicht möglich. Nach Auffassung der Forschungsteilnehmer könnten der Aufbau geeigneter Qualitätsmanagementsysteme und die Einrichtung eines kontinuierlichen Wirkungsmonitorings zu einer Verbesserung der Beratungsleistungen und damit auch zur Steigerung der Umwelteffekte des Förderprogramms führen. [Referat: ICG2]

AbstractMost accounts of businesses and regulators depict adversarial relationships. In these accounts, businesses typically seek to avoid or limit public regulation or, alternatively, to distort it so it serves private rather than public ends. This article uses a study of the environmental consulting industry to explore a different set of relationships between businesses and public regulation. These consultants generally work for for‐profit companies, and they serve as regulatory intermediaries between businesses and government. Those dual roles raise concerns that environmental consultants, like many other businesses, will seek to subvert regulatory schemes or will serve as instruments of regulatory capture. While some evidence supports these concerns, interviews and documentary research also demonstrated widespread perceptions that consultants play two other roles. First, environmental consultants strive to operate as trusted facilitators of constructive relationships between regulators and regulated entities. Second, for combined reasons of profit motive and value‐based moral commitments, environmental consultants also strive to act as guardians and proponents of the public values underlying environmental regulation. These roles have implications for descriptive understandings of the functioning of regulatory regimes and for regulatory system design. Most importantly, in contrast to literature emphasizing the need to protect regulatory governance from private, for‐profit entities, these findings illustrate how for‐profit regulatory intermediaries can work to bolster regulatory governance.

As the City of Red Deer continues to grow, it is necessary that the urban development do not disturb Hazlett Lake and the plant and animal species in the area. For the prevention of wildlife/habitat disturbance, water pollution and weed evasion, a monitoring program was implemented. In any environmental management project, there are three stages of steps that must be completed. Firstly, before any of the field work begins, safety protocols, geographic information system (GIS), and environmental policies must be considered. The GIS is a very helpful tool in this project because it is a monitoring program and the changes to the wetland can be seen over time. Next, the field work begins. With Hazlett Lake, water sampling, sediment sampling, vegetation and wildlife assessments and noting the water level are all crucial tests that have to be completed each year the program is in place to maintain the wetland's overall health and track any observed changes. Once the results from the lab arrive, they are compared to government guidelines to determine if the wetland's health is being maintained and if any preventive measures need to be taken. The results are also compared to previous years to determine if any changes occurred. It was found that fluorene in the sediments and pH in the water were higher than guidelines. These areas will be especially monitored with care to ensure the wetland is conserved.

The Öko-Institut e.V. in cooperation with IUW-Integrierte Umweltberatung and POPs Environmental Consulting have prepared an expert opinion on behalf of the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt). The aim of this document is to provide missing information related to the use of PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid) in electroplating and to compile it as a basis for reporting to the European Commission in line with article 12 of the EU POP regulation. The use of PFOS is allowed in the EU "for non-decorative hard chrome plating in closed loop systems". In the current document, examples from five existing electroplating facilities are used to show the distinctive features characterizing a closed loop system and the measures that can be applied to extend the closed system. The data of five reference electroplating facilities have been collected based on an interview guide agreed with the Federal Environment Agency and incorporated into the report anonymously. Additionally, the term "non-decorative hard metal plating" is critically reviewed, and compared with the alternative terms, "functional chrome plating" and "functional chrome plating with decorative character". In addition, an overview of possible substitutes for PFOS is provided. The risks relating to persistence, biodegradability and ecotoxicity of using these materials cannot yet be assessed as these aspects are still insufficiently tested. Raising awareness about available fluorine-free surfactant alternatives (e.g. in the form of stakeholder consultations) would advance the current dawdling debate and transparency on the replacement of PFOS. It is also assumed that a forced public promotion of the subject would greatly accelerate the process of substitution of PFOS in the plating sector. In this document, a number of supplementary results and conclusions are presented and an initial recommendation to update the EU POP regulation is presented.

The B.C. Government and local governments have started different initiatives aimed to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings. Currently, the city of Vancouver is developing a green building strategy (GBS) that will be implemented in several phases and will pursue a mandatory regulated green building strategy for most new development in the city. Similarly, the B.C. Government is proposing a B.C. Green Building code for early 2008 which will address, among other things, new provisions of green building regulations. It is foreseeable that in the near future the government will require that all new building construction follow certain green building guidelines which will result in an increasing demand for green building services. This increased demand will generate an opportunity for companies that can offer expertise in this field, as this type of new construction will require additional capacities or expertise that medium and small developers do not possess at this point in time. Bigfoot Consulting will offer green consulting services to satisfy the underserved demand for green building expertise. Currently the competition is quite fragmented and recent entrants have not been able to meet current excess demand. Competitors offer either specialized niche consulting or a more comprehensive range of services, and range from well-established architectural firms to new ventures. Bigfoot will provide a comprehensive range of green consulting services targeted to individuals (B2C) and to development teams in the construction industry pursuing green building standards (B2B) in the GVRD. Bigfoot will differentiate itself from its competition by leveraging UBC's 11 years of experience in green building and sustainable community planning, and will draw on the qualified personnel pool that the Sustainability Office currently possesses. Importantly, Bigfoot will offer UBC's own green building standard, REAP, for the first time to the off-campus development market. Bigfoot will require a $50,000 budget from UBC in order to cover short-term costs and the addition of one salaried consultant to operate under this business plan. Based on the economic forecast and estimated market share, Bigfoot can expect to certify 18 projects to the REAP standard in the first year and generate net income before taxes of $122,025. This represents a profit margin of 40% in Bigfoot's first year of operations. Disclaimer: "UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report." ; Business, Sauder School of ; Unreviewed ; Graduate