Are you in need of water quality monitoring or other environmental consulting support? If so, you probably already realize the magnitude of your decision. Your water quality monitoring is a critical piece in public safety and health. If you use a civil engineering firm that is not equipped to conduct your water quality monitoring adequately, you could end up with poor surface water quality. This could make you subject to interruption to your business operations, regulatory fines, or putting the public in danger.
For this reason, it is critical your water quality monitoring service is conducted by an environmental consultant who is equipped and well-suited for your business. To help you to this end, we’ve put together a guide to finding the best environmental consulting service for your needs, below.
Three Tips for Choosing an Environmental Consulting Service
- Trust is key.
While you might be an expert in your industry, you most likely are not an expert in all things related to the environmental impact of business operations (and if you are, you really don’t need an environmental consultant at all, do you?). In other words, at a certain point, you have to just trust the guidance of your consultant. If you feel like you need to micro-manage or second-guess the judgement of the environmental consulting service you’re using, you’re either doing it wrong, or you need to find a new environmental consulting firm. Either way, you’re setting yourself up to fail.
Before you select a environmental consulting firm, ask a lot of questions. Be nosy. Look around. Talk to other similar businesses who have used them. Make sure you are choosing a environmental consulting firm that you feel comfortable relying on to steer your company in the right direction. If you’ve chosen an environmental consulting firm that you have complete faith in, you’re less likely to feel the need to micro-manage them, and you sleep better at night, knowing your company’s environmental impact analysis is in good hands. - Think long-term while choosing a environmental consulting firm.
Finding the right environmental consulting firm for your business needs might feel overwhelming, but if you do it right once, you’ll never have to do it again. When you establish a strong working relationship with the right environmental consulting firm, your relationship will benefit you for years and years. After the environmental consulting firm does one project for you, they’ll have a good understanding of your business operations, risks, and needs, which makes future projects you’ll need them for far easier. There won’t be as much (if any) ramp-up time to get them up to speed for the next project.Additionally, if your environmental consulting firm has an ongoing relationship with you, instead of a one-off project with a set end date, they have a vested interest in your success. You’ll find the quality of service you get from this kind of relationship is often superior, while looking for environmental consulting firms, and any other kind of business arrangement.
It might feel easier to just choose the environmental consulting firm with the lowest bid, or to go with the fastest and easiest solution. However, if you keep in mind that you’re looking for a long term environmental partner, rather than just a solution for this project, you’ll make your life far easier in the future.
- Nothing replaces having a physical presence during your project.
In our modern way of doing business, everything and anything can be completed with a click of a button. We are on the brink of being able to order toilet paper online and having it delivered to our front door, without ever leaving our couch. However, this is not the case for environmental consulting services. In order to be accurate, you need a man on the ground, collecting soil samples and conducting site investigations.
This is easily the most important piece in providing accurate and usable environmental analysis. If the service you are investigating doesn’t make it a priority to put “boots on the ground” in the investigation phase, you want to find a new environmental consulting firm. Their data is skewed or based on information that you could collect yourself, with the help of an internet search engine.
Do you have any questions about finding an environmental consulting firm? Please share in the comment section below!
