Entry by JoeDerhake

Entry

Maybe my wife should have written this one—or maybe she would have advised young people to not…better to marry a doctor.

 

More seriously, how do consulting firms love their environmental professionals?   When you run an environmental due diligence firm, you have to be good at it if you want to succeed. 

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First of all, employees need respect.   Firms that focus on environmental due diligence have advantage in terms of respecting the environmental professional.   I began my career at a civil engineering firm that was good at Phase I Environmental Site Assessments, but focused more on engineering disciplines.  There was a sense that you need to become a PE to move up in the company.   Also, in my experience, sometimes firms that are good at a great many cool engineering things have a hard time recognizing the Phase I Environmental Site Assessors as equals to the big shot engineers who are doing $100 million federal contracts.  

 

Secondly, employees need a challenge.  The key is to focus on due diligence and all of the ins-and-outs of a Phase I ESA and the commercial real estate business.   Consulting in commercial real estate transactions provides an endless helping of interesting and nuanced situations.  I find the field interesting because of the intersection of environmental science and business.   Also, environmental due diligence intersects so many other disciplines:  industrial hygiene, environmental compliance, environmental remediation, and building sciences to name a few.  A good Environmental Professional must continue to accrue expertise in the adjacent fields.

 

Third, most environmental professionals relish a sense of team.   When an employee feels like he is part of a team, he will work hard for the company and his teammates.   The sense of achieving things together is a very rewarding part of work.   Much of the love that the EP feels may come from their peers.   Team building activities create a great sense of culture, accountability… and maybe love.

Happy holidays.  Hopefully your families will heap the love on their environmental professional this year.

Keywords

Environmental Professional, Environmental Site Assessor, Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, Phase I ESA, environmental due diligence