Author: Jackie Cabrera

Understanding the Regulator’s Perspective at Perc Sites

Posted on by Jackie Cabrera

WHAT’S A BIG DEAL, AND WHAT ISN’T?

BY: JEFF CARNAHAN

As we all know, at some time in the not too distant future, you or someone you know will have to deal with the result of the accidental release of perchloroethylene (Perc) or Stoddard solvent to the subsurface. Even if the release is decades old and unknown to the current owner or operator, soil and/or groundwater contamination may come to light during a property transaction, a business or property refinance or through the course of standard environmental due diligence investigations.

As I talk to dry cleaners across the country, I’ve noticed a common state of bewilderment regarding how the extent contamination is going to be a real problem for them. I hear questions like, “How bad can it be?” “Will the regulators actually care that much?” Well, they may, or they may not because it depends on the situation and on which state or regulatory program you find yourself involved with during the environmental investigation and cleanup process.

Environmental regulatory agencies are part of the U.S. government and prioritize contaminated sites based on whether or not people are currently, or could come into contact with toxic chemicals (e.g. Perc). The three primary ways (or pathways) that people can be exposed to these chemicals is by:

  1. Getting contaminated soil or groundwater on their skin;
  2. Eating and ingesting contaminated soil or groundwater; or
  3. Inhaling the chemicals through vapor intrusion from the contaminated soil or groundwater.

If it is determined that one of these potential exposure pathways is occurring, the contaminated site becomes a priority to the regulators and their immediate objective is to stop the exposure immediately, even before the extent of the impacts have been fully defined. While it certainly makes sense to stop ongoing exposures to hazardous chemicals, some potential exposure pathways take more time, effort and money to evaluate than others.

ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS ENFORCED BY THE ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATORY AGENCIES​
Regulatory guidance documents are pretty consistent in their recommended investigation and assessment approaches for soil and groundwater.

The Regulation of Groundwater Contamination
There is a fairly standard approach for determining if there is an area near a contaminated site where people are drinking the groundwater and if they would be at risk if the groundwater was impacted with contaminants. If there is groundwater pulled from a well pump and it’s used for human consumption in the impacted area, someone is probably being exposed. Groundwater usage can be halted quickly and an alternative water supply can be installed or provided to reduce future risk of exposure.

In this graphic, a dry cleaner’s perc release is contaminating a well pump that is used for drinking water. Contamination that impacts groundwater is taken very seriously because of the potential impacts on human health.

This assessment can usually be conducted during the standard course of subsurface investigation activities without great delay to the overall project. If your dry cleaner site is located in a geographic area where groundwater resources are commonly used for drinking water, then you can likely expect pretty aggressive regulatory demands to determine the entire extent of groundwater contamination.

The Regulation of Soil Contamination
Soil contamination issues alone don’t usually drive aggressive regulatory action. It’s very common to see shallow soil impacts located beneath buildings or paved areas in dry cleaner release scenarios. Luckily, the threat of a person coming into direct contact with the contamination is pretty low.

People and businesses are at a low risk for coming into contact with soil contamination unless it migrates to water sources or transforms into vapor intrusion.

As a practical matter of the way soil impacts migrate away from the area of original release, the highest concentrations of PCE are deeper the farther away they get. So in situations where soil impacts do happen to migrate away from paved areas, they are deep enough not to create an immediate threat of contact. If enough subsurface investigation sampling has been performed to let the regulators know that there aren’t significant groundwater impacts present and that vapor issues aren’t causing a problem to nearby occupied buildings, you can probably expect that the regulators won’t be overly alarmed by the soil contamination itself. The main issue with soil impacts, however, is that they usually serve as a longer-term potential source for continued contamination migration to groundwater or vapor problems.

THE REGULATION OF VAPOR INTRUSION INVESTIGATIONS IS STILL INCONSISTENT​
It is much more difficult to assess who may be breathing impacted vapors emanating from subsurface impacts, and dry cleaners can expect a significant push from regulators to make a very prompt assessment of vapor intrusion concerns. The assessment of vapor intrusion issues remains at the forefront of the regulatory agency’s mind at nearly every dry cleaner site where soil or groundwater contamination has been identified.

The initial studies of vapor intrusion at regulated environmental cleanup sites go back as far as 1989. Nearly a decade later the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued some of the first guidance to assist with the investigation of vapor intrusion. It wasn’t until 2002, however, that the U.S. EPA issued subsurface vapor intrusion guidance methods that could be applied at environmental cleanup sites across the country.

Some of the vapor intrusion investigation methods currently being enforced by state regulators are narrowly based on the 2002 U.S. EPA guidance, yet some have been revised or were developed in later years when advances in the study of subsurface vapor migration, human toxicology, and predictive screening approaches could be incorporated. Fortunately, there were many private and public research organizations studying all aspects of vapor intrusion issues and their findings were constantly being incorporated into revised and re-issued guidance documents and a final technical guide by the U.S. EPA in 2015.

Since that time, the community of vapor intrusion regulators and agencies have been begun to start focusing in on this 2015 Technical Guide as the standard for conducting vapor intrusion assessments and evaluating existing or potential vapor intrusion exposure scenarios. Still, however, some state programs have not yet been updated, or have taken the initiative to maintain their own standards for application during dry cleaner contamination investigations.

Since the vast majority of contamination issues in the dry cleaning industry are related to past releases of Perc, which is extremely volatile, vapor intrusion issues will continue to be aggressively pushed by the regulators. As a default approach, it is not uncommon for regulators to consider every home, business or other occupied building within 100-feet of a significant groundwater plume of volatile contaminants (e.g. Perc) as a potential vapor intrusion concern.

The potential that building occupants may unknowingly be breathing potentially harmful levels of impacted air due to subsurface contamination in the soil and/or groundwater. This is a view of a vapor mitigation system on top of a building to disperse contaminated vapors above breathing levels.

In our experience with dry cleaner sites and where they are located, this could include the need to enter and collect samples from a large number of buildings, houses, schools, and apartment complexes. While this broad, brushstroke approach will definitely determine which buildings vapor intrusion may pose a true health risk; it may also expose the business and/or property owner to legal issues related to identified exposure conditions.

WHAT DRY CLEANERS CAN EXPECT​
Regulators in different parts of the U.S. and Canada will react differently to the same dry cleaner site, depending upon what is of most concern at the time the release comes to light. The evaluation of the groundwater, soil, and vapor intrusion exposure pathways is a complicated mixture of screening levels, attenuation factors, partition coefficients, preferential pathways, and regulatory guidance.

A good environmental consultant needs to be sophisticated enough to extract the appropriate information from the latest research and be able to present a strong argument to the regulatory agency whereby the assessment is appropriate and protective, but not overblown or too overcautious. As research advances are made and databases are updated, your consultant needs to be one step ahead of regulation and be able to help you understand what the right amount of “push” is from the regulators.

Ensure your consultant has the experience and knowledge to work with the regulators so that creative, but correct and effective investigation and screening methods can be considered and implemented. Remember that guidance and regulation are based on scientific research and databases.

Contact EnviroForensics, the dry cleaning industry’s most trusted environmental consultant.

As seen in Cleaner & Launderer

Jeff Carnahan, President at EnviroForensics
Jeff Carnahan, LPG, has 20+ years of environmental consulting and remediation experience. His technical expertise focuses on the investigation and interpretation of subsurface releases of hazardous substances for the purpose of evaluating and controlling the risk and cost implications. He has focused on being a partner with the dry cleaning industry for the past decade, and he’s a frequent contributor to the national dry cleaning publication Cleaner & Launderer. He is an industry leader in understanding that environmental risk includes not only cleanup costs, but also known and unknown third-party liability.

Four Types of Brownfields Redevelopment Financing That Are Not Grants

Posted on by Jackie Cabrera

Finding Brownfields funding and securing it can be challenging for municipalities. When applying for EPA Brownfields grants, there’s about a 65% possibility that your request could be denied losing all hope for EPA funding for the coming year. So, whether you’re replacing or supplementing, your EPA grant funding sources, here are four other financing resources.

Municipalities across the country have abandoned industrial and commercial properties—from old manufacturing platers, metal platers, and oil distributors, to dry cleaners, gas stations, and manufacturers—that are affected by environmental contamination. Redeveloping blighted, underutilized, and contaminated properties, while protecting public health and the environment, require a strategic and well-designed plan to ensure the property turns back into a productive piece of the community and an improved tax- base for your city. And to do this, you need funding.

Brownfields Financing Sources

So, you didn’t receive the EPA Brownfields grant that you had hoped to receive for your city. Luckily, there are other funding opportunities for financing your environmental investigation and cleanup. These opportunities can be made available to municipalities and developers through economic development incentives and insurance claim settlements.

Remnants of an old abandoned industrial facility with graffiti on the walls.

What Are the Four Types of Brownfields Funding?

Outside of the EPA’s Brownfields grant program, municipalities do have alternative funding options available, and with the right partners and strategies in place, those options are readily accessible. The top four options include:

1. Confidential Insurance Archeology
Confidential Insurance Archeology® searches for old CGL insurance policies that can be used to pay for environmental investigation, remediation, and legal fees. Insurance archeology restores financial viability to contaminated properties and gives cities an opportunity to fund the environmental cleanup necessary for their Brownfield sites.

2. Potentially Responsible Party Search
A Potentially Responsible Party (PRP) search can identify and locate former property owners and site operators along with the documentation needed to hold them accountable for a potential contribution to the environmental contamination that links them to the site.

3. Municipal Development Incentives
Municipal development incentives are available from local or state sources and can assist with the cost of environmental and infrastructure work. Examples include:

  • The Industrial Grant Fund (IDGF) encourages municipalities and other eligible groups to redevelop properties by providing assistance to fund infrastructure enhancements including sidewalks, airport facilities, rail spurs, fiber-optic lines, etc.
  • The Community Revitalization Enhancement District (CReED) credit allows applicants to redevelop or rehabilitate properties within a CReED, and includes tax credits for costs incurred during environmental remediation activities.
  • The Industrial Recovery Tax Credit (Dino) credit allows applicants to receive tax credits on expenditures related to the rehabilitation of industrial properties that are at least 100,000 sq.ft. in size. Eligible costs include property acquisition, environmental remediation, and other hard costs.
  • The Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is available for local governments to help finance both new development and the development of blighted areas.

4. State Trust Funds
State trust funds are available for sites ranging from underground storage tanks left behind at old gas stations, to PCE (Perc) or TCE remediation for dry cleaning solvents used at old dry cleaning businesses. If your city has old gas stations or dry cleaning sites with contamination, there may funding opportunities that can be tapped into to clean up these sites. Read more about state trust funds for dry cleaners.

If you’ve already completed a Brownfields redevelopment project, you can try to use a cost-recovery claim to be reimbursed for costs already incurred. While there is no guarantee you will recover 100% of what you spent on the cleanup, you should be able to recover some of your costs if you can locate and prove that there were policies in place that would defend you against environmental liability. Each case is specific and depends on each state’s case law to determine how your insurance policies would apply.

How Do I Use These Other Funding Resources?

If you didn’t receive EPA Brownfields grant funding, or only received enough funds to pay for a portion of your Brownfields projects, then you should:

  1. Find an environmental consultant that can locate all available funding options for your Brownfields property, including your historical insurance policies.
    The bottom line is there are billions of dollars in unclaimed assets available to parties looking to defend environmental claims. If you are a municipality or business needing to manage your historical, current, or future environmental liabilities, you can use these insurance assets to evaluate and clean up your Brownfields site.
  2. Find an environmental consultant that can interface with your insurance carriers on your behalf.
    For over 25 years, EnviroForensics has been working with insurance carriers to unlock previously untapped policy coverage. We fight for our clients’ funding needs and have worked with companies and organizations ranging from mom and pop businesses to Fortune 100 companies.
  3. Find an experienced environmental consultant that can take care of your Brownfield sites from beginning to end.
    From site investigation and cleanup to litigation support and site closure, EnviroForensics will handle your environmental liability.
A team meeting to discuss project details.

EnviroForensics helps community leaders convert blighted and contaminated properties into valuable community assets that are ready for redevelopment. From due diligence to redevelopment, EnviroForensics is invested in revitalizing properties to better serve the surrounding communities. We manage all aspects of the environmental cleanup to ensure your redevelopment goals are reached. Our specialty services provide a less costly way to redevelop Brownfields.

Contact us today to begin your path to redevelopment with alternative funding options

A Dry Cleaner’s State Funding Challenges Solved by Insurance Archeology

Posted on by Jackie Cabrera

Insurance archeology solves funding issues for a dry cleaner who was distressed by the lack of effectiveness of his state’s environmental response fund.

 
This is the story of a Wisconsin dry cleaner who wanted to retire, but his property was plagued with environmental contamination and funding challenges despite his enrollment in Wisconsin’s Dry Cleaner Environmental Response Fund (DERF). Here’s how he found a way to get his unsellable property clean and ready for redevelopment.
 

The Discovery of PERC Contamination

The dry cleaner was in operation from 1968-2001 and throughout that time tetrachloroethene (PERC), a dry cleaning chemical, was used to clean its customers’ clothes. PERC became a common dry cleaning chemical in the 1930s and is now less frequently used in dry cleaning operations due to concerns for worker health and the environment.
 

Engaging the DERF

In 2001, the dry cleaner decided to retire and utilize the Wisconsin DERF so he could sell his business. The fund was contributed to through a license fee and a solvent fee by dry cleaners. Luckily, the dry cleaner owner contributed to the DERF program while in business and was eligible to utilize the funds for his investigation and remediation. 

In hopes of selling his dry cleaning business to a buyer, he had to conduct an initial environmental investigation to begin the environmental due diligence process and gain access to his DERF reimbursements.
 

Working with the State’s Environmental Response Trust Fund

From 2002-2011, the dry cleaner paid for his clean up activities out-of-pocket while waiting for his reimbursements to come through from the DERF program. He contracted an environmental firm to conduct Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments (ESA), but the environmental firm’s work was constricted to a very slow pace due to the slow payments from DERF. 

By 2014, the dry cleaner was well into his retirement and was no longer running his business, but he still needed to clean up the environmental contamination in order to sell the property. After spending roughly $250,000 out-of-pocket for his environmental investigation and remediation work, he had completely run out of personal funds. He could no longer pay for any additional work upfront and he could no longer wait on reimbursements from DERF.

Learn how state-funded environmental cleanups programs are being phased out.

 

Contacting local dry cleaning association for help

After the frustration the dry cleaner experienced with the DERF program, he contacted the Wisconsin Fabricare Institute (WFI), part of the national Drycleaning and Laundry Institute (DLI), for help on how to get him through this predicament. WFI recommended contacting EnviroForensics and its insurance archeology division, PolicyFind to find alternative funding sources.
 

Engaging with EnviroForensics

PolicyFind conducted insurance archeology to locate the dry cleaner’s old insurance policies. They evaluated the dry cleaner’s historical commercial general liability (CGL) policies and developed an insurance claim strategy to access funding that could be used to complete the environmental investigation and remediation–so he could finally sell his property. 

To recap, in order to solve the dry cleaner’s financial challenges, PolicyFind:

  1. Conducted Confidential Insurance Archeology® to find the insurance coverage that would pay for the cleanup.
  2. Tendered the insurance claim with the insurance carrier, which led to the carrier confirming that the insurance would pay for the environmental work.

The switch from using DERF funds to historical insurance coverage to pay for the environmental work allowed the dry cleaner to finally clean up his property, which was a precursor for being able to sell his property.
 

The environmental investigation and remediation process

Once the insurance archeology funds were secured, EnviroForensics completed the remaining site investigation activities which included soil and groundwater delineation as well as vapor intrusion assessments. The results showed that there was soil contamination, which required additional remediation to gain site closure. Geologists and engineers developed a remediation plan to demolish the building and remove the existing contamination. EnviroForensics conducted a soil excavation and removed approximately 400 pounds of PERC and 670 tons of contaminated soil.

The amount of perc and contaminated soil from one dry cleaner is shown in the above two graphics. It’s astonishing to see the physical evidence from three decades of small and accidental releases of perc from a dry cleaner.
 

After the remediation, EnviroForensics completed a Phase I ESA to prepare the property for resale and helped the former dry cleaner find an investor to purchase the property, who took on the remaining environmental liability, which included ongoing environmental monitoring.
 

EnviroForensics helped find a buyer

Since the majority of the environmental work was complete and the CGL insurance policies had enough funding for the ongoing environmental monitoring, the investor felt comfortable working with EnviroForensics to settle the environmental claim and continue cleaning up the property.

Map overview of the former dry cleaner in Appleton, Wisconsin.

 

A New Life for the Property

The ongoing site work facilitated the sale of the property and future redevelopment plans are underway for potential reuse as a commercial office building. 

The former dry cleaner site is nearing the end of its investigation and remediation work. The closure of the site, under the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), is anticipated after minor investigation follow-up activities and continued environmental monitoring by 2021.

EnviroForensics is the most trusted environmental consultant in the dry cleaning industry. Learn more about our services for dry cleaners.

 

EnviroForensics® is a full-service environmental consulting firm that has cleaned up more dry cleaning sites than any other firm. We’re the only firm that focuses on finding the money to pay for investigation, cleanup, and legal fees. We restore the value of your property while protecting you from regulatory and legal issues.

Does Your Portfolio Have Liability Issues?

Posted on by Jackie Cabrera

Environmental liability can complicate and even derail acquisitions while unexpected liabilities can significantly affect a company’s bottom line. But old insurance policies may hold hidden assets and could remove your unwanted liability issues.

To get started, first answer the following questions to determine if your portfolio has liability issues.

  1. Are contamination issues preventing an acquisition or land purchase?
  2. Have you considered using the old insurance owned by companies that you’ve purchased or are considering?
  3. Does your portfolio include old manufacturing sites?
  4. Are any of your companies paying for environmental investigation and cleanup?
  5. Are environmental liabilities impacting the balance sheet of any of your portfolio companies?
  6. Is environmental work being delayed or dragged out to preserve the EBITDA of any of your portfolio companies?

For an explanation of commonly used environmental terms in M&A, visit our Common Environmental Terms in Mergers and Acquisitions post.

If your portfolio has deals which involve environmental liabilities, we can help you save them. We’ve found over $5 billion in usable assets for clients since 2008. Through our unique insurance archaeology division, PolicyFind™, we reconstruct historical insurance coverage, locate funding for cleanup costs and legal defense against third-party liabilities. We manage environmental claims, provide remediation services and offer guaranteed cost-cap cleanups to effectuate a transaction.

Fill out our contact form for a confidential consultation.

Common Environmental Terms in Mergers and Acquisitions

Posted on by Jackie Cabrera

Known or unknown environmental liabilities are major risks when executing mergers and acquisitions. When contaminated property is involved in a transaction, the buyer typically wants no part of the associated liability. Here’s an explanation of common environmental terms you’ll encounter in the M&A world.

What is environmental liability?

An environmental liability, in context of a purchase or sale of a company refers to potential environmental costs that may be incurred post-transaction related to some or all of the assets being acquired or leased, including real estate where there’s possibility of contamination. Buyers will search for potential environmental issues during due diligence, particularly in shares purchased where they are not just the assets of a company, but also the liabilities. Sellers must be prepared for buyers conducting environmental assessment during the due diligence process. An environmental assessment should be conducted whereby a review of all potential hazards and a quantification of remediation costs are completed. If land and a building are purchased, buyers will look to reduce the purchase price for the estimated remediation costs. Buyers will also require seller indemnity for any environmental costs that are incurred post-transaction related to pre-transaction activities because environmental liability is retroactive.

 

What is real estate due diligence?

Real estate due diligence is the evaluation of a property’s potential petroleum or hazardous materials impacts to the environment. It is used to assess environmental liabilities and risk and to satisfy all appropriate inquiries to allow the user to qualify for landowner liability protections. Due diligence on a property is performed through Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs).

Due diligence is required during business and property acquisitions to determine if the business operation and/or associated properties carry any potential environmental liabilities including hazardous waste contamination, lack of permits, permit violations, and compliance deficiencies.

 

What is an environmental assessment?

It’s the assessment of the environmental consequences. It is defined by the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) as the “process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions be take and commitments made.” This may include Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) and site characterization and investigation. Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESA) incorporate historical documentation, records review, site reconnaissance, interviews, and government records to determine if a Recognized Environmental Condition (REC) exists for the site. Phase II ESAs and site characterizations include sampling media for laboratory analyses. The purpose of these steps are is to ensure that decision makers can accurately consider the environmental impacts, risk, and liability when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project.

 

What is Insurance Archeology?

Insurance archeology is the process of recovering historical insurance policies that covered individuals and businesses. Organizations with a history of providing product or processes that have the potential of causing harm or accident to others must make sure that their liability is mitigated. Historical insurance can be a huge benefit for these organizations because old insurance policies can be used to pay for costs associated with environmental contamination investigations, legal representation, and even the cleanup of contaminated sites.

 

Why are historical Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies valuable?

CGL insurance policies can be worth millions of dollars and can help pay for environmental investigation and due diligence, cleanups, legal fees, cost recovery and policy buyback. They also protect the policyholders from lawsuits and administrative orders. CGL insurance policies are purchased by business owners to cover them against their business’ liability exposure. This is very important in determining whether an individual or business’ old insurance policies can be used to pay for environmental investigations and cleanups.

 

Learn more about our mergers and acquisitions services.

How Historical Insurance Can Help Get Your Environmental Cleanup Back On Track When the Wisconsin Dry Cleaner Environmental Response Fund (DERF) Goes Broke

Posted on by Jackie Cabrera

By Dru Shields
Director of Sales, EnviroForensics®

Let’s face the facts, the dry cleaning industry has seen its fair share of environmental problems, which are very complicated and costly. Some Wisconsin drycleaners are fortunate to have access to a limited amount of funding for environmental cleanup, which is partially sustained by a tax on certain dry cleaning solvents. If their sites are eligible through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ (WDNR) Dry Cleaner Environmental Response Fund (DERF), this fund can bring financial benefits to drycleaners required to clean up their property in Wisconsin. There are a few limitations to consider, however:

  1. The DERF process is a reimbursement program that requires you to pay upfront for the environmental investigation and cleanup. Many drycleaners don’t have the money to pay for this work. We are even aware of several drycleaners who have had to take out business loans to make upfront payments.
  2. Over the past eight years, the DERF fund has run out of funding three times. This leaves drycleaners in a scary situation since it is a reimbursement-based program. DERF reimbursements are currently taking two and a half to three years to process, meaning that if you made a claim today for money you already spent, you might not be reimbursed until the end of 2020 or beginning of 2021. In the meantime, the WDNR has expressed no intention to slow down on its enforcement activities requiring continued investigation and remediation at impacted sites, despite the lack of available DERF funding.
  3. The DERF program requires a deductible payment that can exceed $35,000, and caps the amount of eligible funding for each site at $500,000. Many environmental cleanups at drycleaner sites exceed $500,000 and oftentimes can be double or triple that amount.

These are frightening facts for drycleaners relying on the DERF. The one financial solution that is still available for drycleaners trying to do the right thing by cleaning up their properties are historical insurance assets. In Wisconsin, Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies from before 1985 may very well cover dry cleaners for environmental releases. This means that if a dry cleaner can find its (or its predecessor’s) insurance assets, those policies could help pay for the investigation and clean up required by the WDNR. They would likely also protect you from any neighbors who could sue for environmental damage to their property.

Our Unique Advantage
We are the nation’s leading environmental engineering firm and the industry leader for cleaning up PERC contamination from current and former drycleaners. We have worked with small business owners just like you for over 20 years and have helped Wisconsin drycleaners since 2008. In fact, we are actively cleaning up over 100 drycleaner sites right now.

Our business-oriented strategy focuses on helping business and property owners locate and use old insurance policies to help pay for the environmental cleanup work, which does not require you to make payments upfront like the DERF. Our goal is to help our clients achieve Site Closure and free them from environmental liability by cleaning up soil and groundwater contamination with minimal out of pocket expense. In the instances where our clients also own the real estate, our process can help restore their property to fair-market value. We pride ourselves on fighting for our client’s best interests.

Our process is proven; we have countless satisfied clients. Please consider having a free and confidential conversation with John Neu, our Wisconsin Sales Executive to answer any questions you may have about our services. You can reach John at 866-888-7911 or by email at jneu@enviroforensics.com.

Making a difference in 2018: Why this work matters to us

Posted on by Jackie Cabrera

By Nancy Shields
President, EnviroForensics®

The calendar has turned to 2018: there is so much to look back on with pride and so much to be excited about in the coming year! Over the years, our team has grown in size and expertise, our revenue goals have gotten increasingly more ambitious, and our office space larger. But, at least one thing remains the same and will continue to be a guiding force in our success: our culture of making a difference.

“Many CEO’s and other leaders tell me about their plans to give back and volunteer after retirement. I tell them, while in your present position you probably have more influence and the ability to help than you ever will.” –Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni, the author of The Advantage and several other great books for business hit the nail on the head here. I also think it is important to point out that his words apply to everyone within an organization. I believe that most people want to give back, but may feel like they don’t have enough time to do so because of time commitments associated with their careers. Some people spend a significant part of their working lives anticipating a time when they’ll be able to devote themselves to their favorite causes during retirement. At EnviroForensics®, we take the approach to encourage our employees to make a difference each and every day.

We encourage team members to bring their favorite charities to work and organize regular philanthropic pursuits like our lunch packing for the Pourhouse, our Coat and Supply Drive for the Hoosier Veterans Assistance Foundation (HVAF), our monthly coffee charity, or the number of fundraising events we host for Water for Empowerment each year. But, on days that we aren’t directly giving to a charitable organization, we are still striving to be the heroes in our clients’ lives. One very important and basic premise is to simply live our company’s Core Values and act as heroes for each other. One of those values is to “Rely on Each Other’s Strengths”. To us this means also being there for one another, mentoring from our particular strength, and allowing other team members to mentor us as well. It’s hard to find something more fulfilling than helping someone else grow and develop in their career, especially when they will spend so many hours of their lives at work.

We are a business – so our clients are the focus and those clients would not be able to manage their environmental liabilities without us. However, the same goes for our individual team members who rely on each other to navigate and accomplish the complex tasks often found in each of our projects.

All of our teams make a difference:

  • field professionals take care of the work on the ground often working long hours in extremely uncomfortable weather conditions to accomplish company and client goals;
  • engineers figure out logistics for mechanical remediation applications;
  • geologists examine the extent of contamination in the subsurface and/or biological/chemical remediation applications, and help the team understand the geological conditions in the area surrounding the work site;
  • Vapor Intrusion (VI) team members provide expert assessment and direction regarding potential vapor intrusion scenarios and mitigation procedures;
  • project managers push the projects and orchestrate all of the moving parts and pieces related to field events, deliverables, and managing resources;
  • senior project managers continually coordinate client goals and objectives with other project stakeholder demands and sensitivities;
  • sales and marketing teams play a big role in client relationships;
  • and every company has the unsung group of heroes who man the phones, fill the copy machines, manage the money and the general office environment.

Every part of the team is vital to the success of our projects and the company as a whole. We work hard to assure that our company culture works towards making a huge difference in the client’s life.

Environmental cleanups can cost millions of dollars and take years to complete. We are committed to helping our clients avoid certain financial ruin by finding their historical insurance assets and pushing for the most thorough and timely remediation plan. Like I said earlier, this does not happen without the concerted efforts of each individual on the team working towards the same goal to make a difference in someone’s life. We know that we’re doing important work for deserving people and that will continue to guide us to even more success in the coming year!