Environmental Consultancy

Are you also observing how the world governments are formulating new environmental regulations and norms from time to time to achieve environmental targets? And, why wouldn't it be such a case? Considering the poor state of our mother earth, be its air, water, or land, it seems high time everyone took an enthusiastic approach towards adopting sustainability. Here, some might wonder what would happen if one ignored these environmental laws and continued running its work operation. Well, the answer is quite simple, it can not only attract legal hassles with hefty penalties for the person but also lead to the shutdown of its work operations temporarily or permanently. At the same time, one may argue that going through complex environmental laws can be quite troublesome for laymen, apart from understanding which ones apply to their business. And here, the role of environmental consultancy firms comes into the picture. 

What are environmental consultancy firms? An environment consultancy firm helps organizations address their environmental issues related to pollution control, natural resource management, waste management, etc. and guides them on how to comply with the environmental compliances that they’re obliged to.

The significance of having an environmental consultancy firm can be acknowledged by the fact that every sort of business today has one or another environmental issues to take care of and they can’t afford to ignore them in the presence of such legal regulations. Furthermore, the governments be it the central or state are doing their every bit to create awareness about the environmental challenges that are present there and majorly focusing on the enforcement of environmental regulations formulated for the businesses. And, with these trends, anyone can easily conclude that the need for environmental consultancy is only going to grow over time.

An environmental consultancy firm consists of a team of experts, who’re qualified in the studies of law, geology, environment, and engineering, and have years of experience dealing with the aspects of regulations & norms associated with environmental laws. With scientific knowledge and technical expertise, an environmental consultancy firm is proficient in conducting thorough environmental assessments for organizations. And at the same time, providing them with the guidance to reduce their carbon footprint and develop sustainable and resilient businesses. 

We often witness when organizations conduct any of their projects, how many of them result in affecting environmental and social surroundings. Here, hiring an environmental consulting firm can prove to be quite significant as it can inspect the project location, review the literature, together with figure out the potential impacts and suggest possible mitigation measures to avoid/reduce/mitigate the impacts.  

In general, the environmental issues are related to the following areas: 

Below are the key roles an environmental consultancy firm can perform for an organization:

• Assessments of facilities for potential contamination issues.
• Environmental impact assessments
• Assessment of air, water, and soil 
• Solutions for improving and managing the environment
• Tackling biological and chemical hazards
• Environmental regulatory and legislative compliance 
• Waste management and channelization policies
• Environmental audits
• Sustainability and energy solutions
• Human health and site safety guidance

With India approaching the path of sustainability comes the regulations and norms that are mandatory for all businesses to follow if they want to avoid getting into legal trouble. And here, having an environmental consultancy firm by side can put your business in a win-win situation. The reasons are usual, it can help you understand which environmental laws apply to your business, track the development of environmental targets, and produce environmental reports when the need arises. Well, the list of benefits doesn’t end here.

Let us walk you through the advantages an environmental consulting firm can bring to your business: 

• Helps you understand which environmental compliances concern your business

The list of environmental laws devised by both the central and state governments is quite long and understanding which ones you need to follow can be quite troublesome. Indeed, there is the internet with tons of information to guide you through the environmental laws, but the question is how any business person without prior relevant knowledge would understand their complicated nature. This becomes more true when a mere mistake on your part can put your business in the eyes of legal authorities and leave a negative impact on it. 

An environmental consultancy firm can efficiently handle this situation for you as it can help you understand which environmental laws concern your business and what should be done to follow them. 

• Devise action plans to achieve environmental targets

After a thorough analysis of the daily operations and the impact they’ve on the environment, an environmental consulting firm can devise an action plan for a business to ensure it complies with the regulations & norms and make it more sustainable to achieve the desired environmental targets. Here, it’d also save the effort and time of the business people as they’d be able to focus more on the ways to expand it, rather than on worrying about the environmental legalities.

• Introduce ways for efficient use of resource

In general, we’ve seen many businesses making fortunes at the expense of the environment, but that’s not possible now when both governments and societies are keeping a close watch. That’s why hundreds of businesses are looking for ways where they can honor environmental legalities, alongside keeping their business running. 

Here, an environmental consultancy firm can provide many mitigation solutions, such as reducing energy consumption & expense, recycling waste materials for reuse, or using more environmentally-friendly material alternatives. These environmentally-friendly approaches not only will optimize the business’s efficiency but also save it a lot of money. 

• Tackle Health and Safety Concerns

Undermining health & safety concerns is a big headache when it comes to Indian industries. Bad environmental surroundings, including poor air quality and toxic materials, put the lives of millions of employees at risk and often lead to fatal incidents. Experts from an environmental consulting firm can help mitigate such dangers at workplaces and also work toward fulfilling the occupational safety, health, & working condition codes.

CEPI (comprehensive environmental pollution index) comes in handy to find out the quality of the environment for a specific area and that’s the reason, both the central and state pollution control boards have been strongly advised by the NGT to enforce it and take it into account from time to time. As per CEPI, industrial clusters are categorised as polluted industrial areas, which can be further divided into three sub-categories as follows: 

• A critically polluted area (CPA).
• A severely polluted area (SPA).
• Other polluted areas (OPAs).

As per the Indian constitution, the state must “protect and improve the environment and safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country”. Considering this, many environmental laws have been implemented to date, which include:

General

Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and amendment in 1991

This act empowers the Indian government to take steps towards improving the state of the environment and release measures to stop people from polluting it. Under this act, the central government has approved several rules and notifications, such as:

• Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules 2016 (as amended)
• Solid Waste Management Rules 2022 (as amended)
• E-waste Management Rules 2022 (as amended)
• The Plastic Waste Management Rules 2022 (as amended)
• Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules 2016 (as amended)
• EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) guidelines
• Battery Waste Management Rule 2022
• Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules 2016 (as amended)

Water

• Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974 (as amended)

Another major step towards sustainability came with this act, which aims to stop and take control of water pollution and to maintain/restore the good quality of water. Under this act, central and state pollution control boards were established to monitor and enforce environmental regulations.

• The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules 1975 (as amended)

Air

• Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 (as amended Intending to prevent, control, and abate air pollution, this act acts as the first step taken by the Indian parliament toward combating the poor quality of air.
• The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules 1982 (as amended)
• EIA Notification 2006

Forests

• Forest(Conservation) Act 1980 
• The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016
• National Green Tribunal Act 2010
• Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 (Published on 28.06.2022)
• Compensatory Afforestation. Fund (Andhra Pradesh) Rules 2018
• Biodiversity Act 2002

Wildlife

• The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 1993
• The Wildlife (Protection) Rules, 1995
• The National Board for Wild Life Rules, 2003

Regulatory Enforcement and Compliance

What’s the benefit of formulating environmental laws if one fails to keep a compliance check? This is why an upward trend has been witnessed in recent years in the enforcement of regulations by both the central & state governments. The majority of the states have come forward with the idea of installing continuous online emissions/effluent monitoring systems. If approved, this can help State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) obtain real-time information to check the compliance of organisations in their respective states.

Furthermore, the judiciary of India, including the Supreme Court and the High Courts also keeps a close watch on how effective the implementation and enforcement of environmental laws are.

Environmental Permits

Under environmental regulations, there are many permits that businesses must get to run their day-to-day operations. Generally referred to as consents/authorizations, these environmental permits are granted by the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCB). Though, the following are some exceptions where environmental clearances are given at the central level:

• CTE (Consent to Establish) and CTO (Consent to Operate)

As the name suggests, CTE is a must to get before you set up an industry, plant, or process. Once the construction of the unit finishes, you can apply for CTO that acts as legal consent for authorising it. To obtain them, you can submit a combined consent application to the concerned State Pollution Control Board.

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Certification

Under the E-Waste (Management) Rules 2016, every Indian manufacturer/ importer of electronic equipment needs to obtain EPR for waste management such as plastic, E-waste, Battery waste and Hazardous waste. To get EPR certification, you can apply to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as it is the authorization authority in this case.

• Clearances from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)

There are many instances where you are required to get clearance from the central environment ministry. For instance, we can refer to environmental clearance under the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Notification of 2016 (for Category A projects) or while importing/exporting hazardous waste under the Hazardous and Other Waste Rules 2016. 

• Central Ground Water Board to get permits related to the extraction of groundwater. 
• Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO)

If you’re dealing with explosive products, such as the storage of diesel at the workplace for power generators, then you’re bound to obtain permits from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (formerly known as the Department of Explosives).

Formulating environmental regulations will be meaningless if there aren’t any penalties for the companies liable for non-compliance. Saying that fines & legal implications are the actual enforcement force behind them wouldn’t be wrong. All the various environmental legislations (Water Act, Air Act, & Environmental Protection Act) we discussed above contain provisions for the organisations that violate them.

If the business activities of an organisation violate these acts, then every person who is in charge of that organisation and responsible for the conduct of its business activities will be found guilty and punished accordingly.

Corpseed is India’s top environmental consultancy company, which has been providing services in the field of environment for years and acts as a one-point solution for all the issues related to the environment ranging from registrations/certifications, authorization, compliance report preparations to complete waste management, ESG (Environment Social and Governance), EIA (Environment Impact Assessment), etc. With more than 50 most acclaimed environment professionals, Being known for the best environmental services in India, Corpseed has already served more than 5000 domestic & international clients to date and is growing at an unprecedented rate.