Opportunities for enhancing or restoring the natural environment may also arise during project development and we help you take advantage of them.
Naturally, project risks to the environment – such as a pollution incident – or from the environment – such as flooding – may occur at any stage in the project life cycle. The activities, management structures and permitting involved at each stage demand different approaches. A common element is the need for specialist expertise and practical experience that understands where risks and opportunities will arise for each environmental aspect.
Planning
We have led the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of massive projects in recent years, where the EIA forms the framework within which environmental risk assessments are performed. For oilfield developments in Pakistan and the Middle East, we adapted our client's sector specific risk assessment methodology. For many EIAs of highways schemes that we've led in the UK, such as the A3 Hindhead tunnel, we follow standard methodologies set out in WebTAG guidance. For London's Crossrail, we completed the environmental assessment that our client presented as part of hybrid bill considered by Parliament, a process with its own specific requirements. Within these frameworks we employ a range of advanced assessment techniques, including deterministic and stochastic modelling of flood risk, air quality, and pollution migration.
A common outcome for all methodologies is a list of the identified risks, with a set of actions to mitigate each one, set out clearly for our clients and their agents to implement.
Development
During development and construction projects, we build the environmental risks identified during the planning stage into comprehensive construction and site environmental management plans. These set out how risks are to be monitored and mitigated to avoid, for example, waste disposal, pollution incidents or damage to habitats, and emergency responses in the event of incidents. Our comprehensive environmental management plan for the A3 Hindhead tunnel, with its successful implementation during construction, was recognised by our client as a model of its kind.
Operation
We conduct environmental audits of ongoing organisations and sites to assess risks to and from the environment, and potential breaches of environmental permits and regulation. Our comprehensive company-wide survey of environmental risks at all of Thales GB’s sites, for example, identified risks following the consolidation of the company’s corporate organisation; we later helped Thales GB develop its first corporate environmental policy and management system as a long term measure for the management of risks.
Services
- Emergency response planning
- Environmental auditing
- Environmental impact assessment
- Environmental management plans
- Environmental management systems
- Environmental modelling
- Environmental monitoring
- HAZOP studies
- Pollution control
- Risk assessment and mitigation