Work of an Environmental Consultant

I am working as an environmental consultant and I had an opportunity to make a presentation regarding my profession at the office of CSIJ the other day. It was a nice opportunity for me to summarize what I have been doing so far in the field of environmental consulting services.

In the beginning, there is no legal definition of an environmental consultant, so that anyone who wishes to become an environmental consultant could become an environmental consultant and call themselves as an environmental consultant without any authorized permits or licenses. In this sense, an environmental consultant is different from an attorney. Anyone who hopes to undertake the professional work of an attorney requires a legal certificate of an attorney.

Since there are not any legal definitions of an environmental consultant, environmental consultants have been working in a variety of fields and I am no different from them. I have been working for three different types of clients. The first one is governmental offices, the second is manufacturing companies, and the last one is financial institutions. Those three clients are conducting totally different types of business, however there are demands for environmental consulting services in the three different sectors.

Governmental offices request environmental consulting firms to conduct various kinds of research or supports in order for the offices to develop, implement, and promote environmental regulations. In this modern time, regulatory frameworks of environmental regulations become so complex that no governmental agency can proceed with their jobs without helps of private consulting firms.

On the other hand, there are also demands of environmental consulting services from manufacturing companies, especially which expert their products to foreign countries. Now is the globalization age, so products could be circulating all over the world. Manufacturing companies have to confront environmental regulations when exporting products and placing them on the market in the host country. Each country has its original environmental regulations on import products. Regulatory frameworks which restrict import activities are so complex that a good number of companies call for the support of environmental consultants.

Financial institutions hire environmental consultants as well. Such financial institutions do not actively invest money in a company or a project which violate environmental good practices. Environmental consultants are then requested to conduct environmental audits to evaluate environmental performances of a company or a project when financial institutions decide whether or not to invest money.

In the near future, I think that environmental regulations on a household sector will be strengthened because there are currently little restrictions on the use of energy and materials against the residential sector. If so, demands for environmental consulting services will be created as well. In such cases, my clients will be not only business operators, but also a consumer. Retail business seems interesting, too.