Environmental Consultancy

Whether you’re buying, selling, redeveloping or managing land and buildings, our environmental consultancy team can give you the expert guidance you need to ensure that risks, constraints and opportunities are fully taken into account in decision-making.

We pride ourselves on our technical knowledge across a wide range of disciplines – from contaminated land to flood risk to environmental impact assessment – as well as our commercial understanding and focus on finding the best solution.

We have a successful track record of achieving excellent results for private, public and third sector clients across portfolios and on individual sites. Our long-standing relationships and volume of repeat business are testament to this.

Environmental Consultancy Services

Environmental Risk

Our goal is to protect the value and liquidity of your assets as well as realise opportunities to improve overall performance and value during your ownership.

We provide a ‘one-stop’ environmental due diligence service, which successfully brings together the four investment critical aspects of the acquisition process. Our scope is designed to be practical and flexible, allowing you to select the aspects / services that are most material to your business and assets.

Contaminated Land – We aim to quantify, remove or reduce the risks associated with ground contamination, bringing more cost certainty to the transaction process. By commissioning a Phase I assessment, and where necessary, Phase II intrusive investigations, you can negotiate from a position of authority, with knowledge of the implications of site conditions. We have substantial technical experience and in-house resources to deliver first class quality assured advice throughout the UK and EMEA, together with very satisfied high profile clients.

Contact: Ed Blackburn - Senior Director, Head of Environmental Risk | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 3416 | +44 7921 061 226

Flood risk – Our in-house team brings to bear substantial hands-on experience developing flood models and data, assessing risk to new developments, identifying mitigation strategies and working with communities and businesses at risk. We interpret the complex datasets and present you with a concise, commercially-focused view of the likelihood and consequences of flooding. Our advice goes beyond standard automated datasets to identify implications relevant to your business and objectives, providing you with a real advantage in the market place, whether you are facing a risk from the sea, rivers or more local sources.

Contact: Tim Fay – Associate Director, Flood Risk Lead, Environmental Risk | [email protected] | +44 2032141860 | +44 7500920845

Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard – We will critically appraise the appropriateness of the Energy Performance Certificate in terms of your business standard and quantify any limitations. By commissioning a desktop analysis, and where necessary, a full assessment with inspection, you can steer the transaction negotiations, with a complete understanding on energy performance and opportunities for improvement. Our in-house team has a strong track record of improving poorly rated assets in a cost-effective way to ensure that you get the maximum value for the minimum risk.

Contact: Chris Peirce – Building Physicist, Environmental Risk | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 3393

Environmental Social Responsibility – We will confirm the overall sustainability performance of a property to allow you to understand and mitigate any impact to your business standard or investment strategy. By commissioning an ESR review and, where necessary, detailed energy and water audits you can be informed of the current benchmarked performance and identify responsibilities, measures and costs required to improve overall efficiency. Our advice and recommendations, as part of a real estate company, is always commercially driven and cost-effective.

Contact: Neelum Choudhury – Associate Director, Sustainability Consultancy | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 2970

Environmental Planning & Assessment

Our goal is to help you deliver viable, sustainable developments that satisfy the many competing demands placed on them through the planning system.

Environmental Impact Assessment – We provide a ‘one-stop’ EIA project management and coordination service, which simplifies lines of communication and avoids problems that can arise when individual topics are dealt with in isolation.

Our success is built on effective, early engagement with key stakeholders and a focus on delivering proportionate assessment – providing the right level of information to allow well-informed and timely decisions to be taken by determining authorities, as well as the swift delivery of consented schemes.

When we need specialist advice – on anything from great crested newts to archaeological deposits – we call on our extensive network of expert consultants to identify cost-effective solutions.

We are registrants on IEMA’s EIA Quality Mark scheme, which provides external accreditation of our environmental statements and project control and management processes, and demonstrates our commitment to excellence in EIA activities | More H ere

Contact: Georgina Dowling - Director - Head of Environmental Planning & Assessment | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 3247 | +44 7920 072 509

Socio-economic and Health Impact Assessment – We provide insight into the potential effects of schemes on an area and its community - from quantifying economic opportunities, such as job creation and local spend multiplier effects, through to defining capacity demand on local schools and GP surgeries. Our expertise is often integral to the masterplanning process, informing phasing strategies to ensure schemes are straightforward and deliverable.

The increasing recognition of the effect surroundings have on communities’ wellbeing and the downstream costs of this on individuals’ health and public health services delivery have placed a greater emphasis on the consideration of health impacts at the planning stage.

We work with design teams, clients and statutory consultees, such as Clinical Commissioning Groups, to influence developments to deliver healthier environments. We analyse development interventions in the context of a comprehensive evidence base to evaluate the likely effectiveness of such measures and present the findings in a Health Impact Assessment.

Contact: Georgina Dowling - Director - Head of Environmental Planning & Assessment | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 3247 | +44 7920 072 509

Contaminated Land Assessment – We provide commercially-focused contaminated land assessment services, from desk-based environmental risk assessments to ground investigations to site remediation and subsequent validation.

Our in-house procedures and training are continually reviewed and updated so that all our consultants have the necessary skills to characterise sites and evaluate risk, design targeted and cost-effective ground investigations and identify bespoke remediation solutions. Where geotechnical data is required in conjunction with the ground investigation, we can manage the appointment of appropriate specialists and the delivery of the required outputs.

We ensure clarity in all our reports, which are delivered to standards required by local authorities and the Environment Agency, to allow well-informed and timely decisions to be taken.

Contact: Andy Morgan, Associate Director, Environmental Risk | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 2240 | +44 7771 974 934

Flood Risk Assessment – We provide pragmatic and commercially-focused flood risk advice to enable sustainable redevelopment in areas at risk of flooding, minimising the risk to people and property while maximising opportunities.

Our flood risk team is experienced in developing flood models, communicating flood risk information to diverse stakeholders and working with multi-disciplinary teams to develop proposals in line with regulatory requirements. Our involvement in the early stages of redevelopment can prevent abortive work by highlighting where flooding poses constraints or opportunities.

We take pride in our concise and proportionate Flood Risk Assessments and have a good track record of demonstrating viability without the need for complex and costly flood or drainage modelling. Where such work is necessary, our team’s experience and commercial focus means we are well-placed to manage the appointment of appropriate specialists, using our communications expertise and pragmatism to ensure technical details are tailored for planners and regulators to understand.

Contact: Tim Fay – Associate Director, Environmental Risk | [email protected] | +44 20 3214 1860 | +44 7500 920 845

Sustainability and Energy Statements - We proactively engage with the local authority and embed ourselves within the design team to ensure your development meets sustainability and energy policy. Our advice is both pragmatic and proportionate to the development, whether it forms part of a major masterplan or estate regeneration scheme or a small residential building. We have substantial experience both nationally and in London, where we can provide the necessary advice and services to meet the Greater London Authority’s Zero Carbon policies, including the carbon offsetting calculations.

Contact: Stephen Kent – Senior Sustainability Consultant, Sustainability Consultancy | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 3324 | +44 7769 367 465

Sustainability Consultancy

Our goal is to achieve regulatory and policy compliance, reduce operational costs and enhance your credibility.

Sustainable buildings are not only great for the environment, they can also deliver significant financial advantage for owners and occupiers. We devise effective strategies for individual assets and portfolios to maximise and improve their sustainable performance throughout the project lifecycle, tackling key issues such as energy, water, waste and wellbeing.

Green Building Certification – whether for planning compliance, corporate compliance or to make an asset stand out in the marketplace, we provide certification consultancy and assessments for construction, fit out/refurbishment and operation. We are licenced to undertake assessments using the following tools:

• BREEAM: New Construction, Fitout and Refurbishment and In Use

• LEED: Commercial Interiors and Building Operation and Maintenance

• SKA: Office Fit-out

• WELL: Building Standard and Community Standard

Contact: Neelum Choudhury - Associate Director, Environmental Consultancy | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 2970

Health, Wellness and Occupier Engagement – we provide practical solutions to enhance your buildings and workplaces, while balancing environmental and corporate real estate requirements.

Research by the CBRE’s Workplace team has shown significant increases in staff productivity and satisfaction from wellness initiatives, resulting in measurable financial benefits. Whether you are an occupier, owner or developer, focused on a single location or a multi-site programme, we can assist you to use wellness to your advantage.

Our services include: wellness design, live indoor environment quality monitoring, wellness activation programmes, wellness quick scan, change management, WELL building standard gap analysis and full WELL certification.

Contact: Hannah Scott - Sustainability Consultant, Environmental Consultancy | [email protected] | +44 20 3257 6020 | +44 7342 066 443

Sustainable Asset Management – we work with asset managers and their building managers to ensure that the investor’s sustainability agenda is embedded in the management of each property, maximising the performance of an asset within the available service charge. We can also help establish key performance indicators that reflect your business goals and drivers so that the performance can be monitored over the long-term and reported clearly and effectively.

Contact: Neelum Choudhury - Associate Director, Environmental Consultancy | [email protected] | +44 20 7182 2970