Environmental Impact Assessment
Our EIA team sits at the forefront of environmental assessment practice. We ensure the best people work with you from inception to delivery.
We believe that setting the right strategy to meet your objectives from the beginning is the best way to realise value, manage risk and deliver positive outcomes. A cornerstone of our service is strategising to assist you in navigating the (what can be a complex) interface between regulation, programme, planning, consenting, licensing, confidentiality, team assembly and project design to achieve project success.
For clients with particularly complex, novel or high-profile proposals, we offer Strategic Environmental Advisory — a senior leadership role that sits above and alongside the EIA process. This positions environmental expertise at the heart of project strategy, helping you to anticipate regulatory risk and make informed decisions before formal assessment begins.
We take the time to listen to you, establishing your goals and work with you to drive better project outcomes. We tailor the approach, methodology and strategy to suit each client and each project.
We are thought leaders. Our team are active contributors to national discussions on the future of EIA, participating in the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP)UK Impact Assessment Steering Group and in ongoing roundtables with legal professionals and government advisors. Working with ISEP, we have contributed to the authorship of national guidance documents on delivering proportionality in EIA, responses to Government white papers and sponsor and present at impact assessment conferences. This places us right where we need to be to navigate you through National regulatory change, across: England (including the upcoming transition to Environmental Outcome Regulations); Wales; Scotland; and Northern Ireland.
We go above and beyond on project work – with a mind on broader project stewardship and delivery, thinking outside of our specific scope and lane to the betterment of project delivery and proportionate outcomes. Our shared drive to deliver proportionate outcomes, ie. only what the regulations require us to, demystifying regulatory and technical process, is delivered through our EIA services.
We manage project risks, stakeholder dialogue and setting the framework for EIA during design and assessment. Working with you, we will establish the most appropriate path through EIA legislation to ensure the right outcome for your proposals.
EIA should only apply to projects where significant environmental effects result and where not addressed through other legislative or policy mechanisms. We produce evidence-based screening reports to robustly screen out those projects which do not require EIA, ensuring that only those proposals likely to be significant are taken forward in the EIA process.
Where significant effects are identified and EIA is required, we work alongside design teams, challenging technical consultants and identifying/resolving environmental issues through design. We prepare comprehensive Scoping Reports evidencing those topics to be scoped out, limiting the breadth of the future assessment within Environmental Statements.
We lead and coordinate the production of Environmental Statements proactively taking a role in diligent identification and management of project risk and ensuring the EIA process resolves impacts through the design process.
Our approach to robustly preparing Environmental Statements to withstand third party challenges, alongside clear identification of risks and mitigation, speeds up determination and helps prepare for project implementation.
We will challenge the team to be proportionate and commercial regarding the identification of mitigation, focussing on the amelioration of any significant effects to achieve a positive outcome through determination. We lead the identification and recording of mitigation as a tool for you and your clients to clearly understand mitigation to be taken forward, including in conditions.
For projects where environmental complexity, regulatory uncertainty or programme sensitivity demands senior-led oversight, we offer Strategic Environmental Advisory. Working with you at leadership level, we advise on regulatory pathways, risk exposure and environmental strategy - before and alongside the formal EIA process. This is particularly suited to nationally significant infrastructure, novel industrial processes and projects operating in evolving regulatory landscapes.
