14 Aug What is Environmental Due Diligence and why is it Necessary?
What is Environmental Due Diligence (EDD)?
Due diligence environmental site assessment or EDD is the assessment and management of environmental liabilities and hazards. It can take different forms and be performed through several methods, but the objective is always the same: to establish that your organization is compliant with environmental regulation and safeguarded against environmental disasters such as soil and groundwater pollution.
Environmental Due Diligence is both a legal and technical activity – an action of analyzing your organization’s site or a place that your organization is looking to acquire. It is often illustrated by a formal assessment of the organization and land to identify any current or previous environmental conditions and contaminations and quantify economic and legal risks.
Let us read on the importance of getting environmental due diligence services:
Environmental Due Diligence is a kind of proactive environmental management. Some of the benefits of getting due diligence environmental site assessment are:
- Avoidance of legal prosecution;
- Best Management support as well as involvement in environmental attitude and performance;
- Positive public relationships;
- Long-term assets gain;
- Improved environmental performance
In addition to being proactive, unrecognized environmental liabilities and permit requirements can prove costly for organizations. By executing due diligence environmental site assessment, an organization will have an awareness of historical environmental aspects and permit conditions that might produce large remedial bills in the future. It also allows for the proper management actions to be put in place.
Moreover, Environmental Due Diligence is closely linked to the ‘polluter pays principle’ as set out in the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) Regulations 2015. According to the ‘polluter pays principle,’ any producer of pollution will be liable to pay for its clean-up and remediation. This links to environmental due diligence services because if an organization purchases or inherits property that is already polluted, and there is no clue of the previous landowner, and also there is no proof to support the claim that the past occupier caused the pollution, the burden to clean-up and remediate any adverse environmental impacts of the contamination is also inherited. Thus, Environmental Due Diligence can aid in an organization’s understanding of their liability for clean-up operations, provide defense against prosecution, and mitigate the amount of any imposed fines.
- Phase I Environmental Assessments!
The primary purpose of getting a phase I environmental assessment with environmental due diligence services is to invoke the innocent landowner defense in the event some historic pollution is found on the property. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, also known as CERCLA, supplies this defense for landowners who attend appropriate due diligence before purchasing any land or property. It also protects those who buy a property through eminent domain or obtain contaminated land.
We need to take several variables into account, depending on whether the estate transaction is commercial or residential during the environmental assessment. Scientists and experts will review public records and look at the chain of ownership for that building or land and those encompassing it. They will examine any old gas stations, chemical spills from train or truck accidents, or if there was a former dry cleaning business on or near the site, and if so, whether these issues were cleaned up or contained in the past.
Due diligence environmental site assessment in the ecological aspect also involves testing for things like radon in residential buildings, and other risk factors as demanded by national, state, and local governments. Each community has several standards for zoning or authorizing, and such information must be known, as ignoring such steps could lead to administrative hearings, fines, or other consequences
Regardless of whether the purchase is for a residential or commercial transaction, environmental due diligence has to be a crucial task completed before closing the deal.
Conclusion: Being one of the most advanced and known Florida health risk assessment organization, Fulcrum is offering you outstanding Environmental Due Diligence services. We are also offering you transaction screening assessment services. We have already worked on many complex projects. Connect with us and explore our exceptional environmental due diligence services.