Speaking With Private Industry Professionals

Going into this project it was important for me to understand all the parties impacted by environmental regulations. Not only did I want to understand environmental consulting from the profession itself, but also the perspective of businesses. For almost all businesses their primary concern is what the timeline is and how much it will cost. Understanding how those goals of industry can be combined with the goals of environmentalists is one of my primary goals in my original work. I want to showcase instances where this has been possible and the changes that are made on not simply just a burden on the company. However, I also understand that some of the financial benefits may not be seen in such a tangible way. For example, cleaning up a toxic waste site has the long run benefit of reducing medical costs within the local community. This may not appear the same as how developing a brownfield site in an urban area may lead to new businesses that boosts that local economy.

Regardless of perspective on environmental consultants, it is important for environmental consultants to have a friendly relationship with industry because they are often one of the primary outlets for proper regulatory compliance. If industry does not believe that consultants have their best interests and they do not use them to their advantage, then policy may not lead to as effective of change.