When you contact a consultant for support in developing a project, the goal is to get assistance for technical-administrative documentation.

The company that proposes its project to the Authorities, in the case of interventions subjected to the EIA procedure, is required to present the Environmental Impact Study and selecting a reliable partner for the elaboration of the technical documentation can also delegate relations with the various competent bodies.

How to select environmental consultants? In the following article, you will find some tips to direct the project towards efficiency.

Clarifications on the environmental impact study

The document, to which we will refer for the sake of brevity also as SIA, must be drawn up by the company that proposes the project and contain a description, as complete and detailed as possible, of its characteristics and possible implications for the environment.

Furthermore, in the impact study, the situations before the operation and the post-operation forecast must be described.

It is with this in mind that the importance and value of the experience of the environmental consultant are inserted: thanks to the knowledge of the impact of the different projects in the various types of territories, it will be able to set the document so that it anticipates the requests of the Authority, optimizing approval times.

Areas of competence of environmental consultants

The consulting companies combine engineering and environmental knowledge, offering their support to public bodies and private companies with the aim of preventing, controlling and reducing the impact of human activities on the environment, for a more careful management and sustainable territory.

To assess the experience of the consultant for the study of environmental impact and to guide the choice towards the success of the project, it is necessary to take into consideration the sectors in which it was acquired.

In the private industrial sector, the competences concern different types of environmental impact:

atmospheric emissions

the drains in the sewers

discharges into surface water bodies

water supplies from wells or aqueducts

the acoustic clearance

waste recovery

If then the consultancy company is structured to support the project in progress and in the environmental monitoring phase, it is ensured that the requirements of the Bodies are respected, precisely because they are already described in detail in the authorization documentation and in the EIA.

In fact, in order for the project costs and timescales to be optimized, the construction site organization for the construction of the work must already include the plants and installations that will be used to implement mitigation measures and environmental monitoring.

If the consultant knows the territorial dynamics and has managed on other occasions the authorization practices in the places of the project, he will know the impacts and will know how to streamline the procedures, anticipating the objections of the Authorities.

Some examples?

For road and railway works, it is important to consider the management of excavated earth and rocks

Emissions are to be assessed in industrial and waste-to-energy plants

For landfill projects, farms or slaughter facilities, the study concerns odor emissions

In cableway installations, overhead cables and power lines, the impact on birdlife must be considered

The choice of a structured Environmental Consultancy Company with a widespread presence in the area will help project proponents to provide on-site support and monitor all phases, without subcontracting and consequent slowdowns.