Find the best Environmental Monitoring company in just three steps

How can I find a good Environmental Surveillance company? Surely you have asked yourself that question, especially if your project has been subjected to an Environmental Impact Assessment. Here you will find information about what you need to consider when hiring a company. Following these steps, you will save time and money.

It is likely that your Environmental Impact Assessment states the following: “To carry out the environmental monitoring and surveillance program, the developer must designate a person in charge and notify the environmental bodies of this appointment”. This is when the search for an environmental monitoring and surveillance company begins. Here is what you need to know for this search to be a success.

Step One. Search for the environmental monitoring company of your dreams.

The first thing you usually do when you are looking for something is to “Google it” … well done! But keep in mind that there are more companies out there than those you will find AND not all of them are what they look like… Let´s put it this way, you can find “environmental consultants” that the only thing that they have of “environmental” is their name and the recycling bin in their office, so they are only using this adjective as a strategy to attract clients.

Investigate the profile of their technicians, experience, companies and organisations they work with, etc. A bad environmental consultancy can not only prevent you from earning the money you deserve, but also make you lose your reputation and time. Trust us, we know what we talk about.

Apart from Google, you will definitely ask friends and colleagues about recommendations on reliable environmental consultancy companies. So far so good, you are doing so well! BUT you can make a big mistake if you don’t ignore comments like “call this, they don’t show up at your house” or “they don’t charge you for the trip” or “call this, they make the report from the office“. Be careful of contacting these “professionals”, their ethics (or means) might sound a bit suspicious.

After doing one of these two things (or both), you are now in a good position to request a quote from the environmental monitoring company you have chosen. And here is when you face another challenge.

Caption: Environmental Surveillance in a photovoltaic solar plant.

Step Two. Choose the best environmental monitoring company.

After choosing some potential environmental companies, you should ask them for a quote. For this, you must take the following steps:

– Provide complete and identical information to all the environmental companies selected. This will allow you to make a more accurate price comparison. The information you should provide to ensure excellence in environmental monitoring is: Environmental Impact Assessment Resolution, detailed plans of your project or activity, the technical project and anything you think could help to design an accurate environmental monitoring quote.

– Ask for the quote and wait. Extra tip: if you have to wait too long… maybe not worthy.

– When you receive the quote do not focus only on the price. Here are two useful exercises:

• “Intercalibration check”: confirm that all the quotes include the same services. For example, look at the frequency of environmental surveillance visits, number of reports produced, extra assistance offered, improvements, etc.
• “Actio realis verification” or true action: consider if what you have been offered is feasible in time and form. Example: an environmental consultant cannot offer a weekly environmental monitoring of a power line of 30 km, only accounting for the work of one technician. This would imply that the technician must cover 60 km in a day. There are longer ultramarathons than this, but a weekly ultramarathon… it is too much! This is the reason why you should verify whether the statements in their quote are feasible. Otherwise, you will be evaluating positively an environmental consultant that may not meet the minimum requirements.

Caption: Wildlife monitoring in Environmental Surveillance tasks.

Step three. Hire the selected environmental monitoring company.

Here is when the environmental monitoring company´s work begins, and to get the best from it we recommend:

– Let the company know your doubts, concerns and maybe even your fears. As an environmental company, we have noticed over the years that people or companies hiring an environmental surveillance company sometimes see us as the public enemy No. 1. Nevertheless, our main objectives are:

• Environmental monitoring with the best guarantees.
• Comply with the regulations and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
• Be the link between our client and the Environmental Administration.

Caption: Environmental Monitoring at a work site

From now on, you can forget about the environmental surveillance of your project (only if the environmental consultancy selected is the right choice, of course). If you are not sure it is, you can always contact us and see if we could be the best choice for you.