The Watts envest environmental audit service provides clients with an independent assessment, determining which environmental liabilities may exist within any forthcoming purchase or sale. Watts envest has built up a reputation with both the property and financial sectors, for providing tailored, pragmatic advice, assisting clients during the often complex, due diligence decision process. The environmental audit scope of services includes:

• an internal and external inspection of the site;
• an external inspection of the immediate site environs;
• a search of archive records encompassing historical mapping, available library literature, street directories and aerial photographs;
• regulatory enquiries including building control, environmental health, planning, Petroleum Licensing Authority and the Environment Agency;
• a review of previous investigation reports, including data room information;
• a review of the site's environmental sensitivity based upon available geological, hydrological and hydrogeological data; and
• provision of a factual and interpretative report, including a risk assessment and environmental liability risk rating, with reference to relevant regional legislation.

A desktop environmental audit (which excludes a site visit) can also be provided where considered appropriate.

Tailored due diligence services, including detailed compliance audits, hazardous buildings materials assessments and strategic pre-demolition environmental advice can also be incorporated into the environmental audit procedure, should it be required within the deal structure and the wider objectives of the transaction.

Contaminated land guidance and legislation have been implemented across Europe in recent years, to identify and clean up polluted sites that pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment.

A Phase II soil and groundwater intrusive investigation should ascertain whether or not contamination is present beneath a site and what actual level of risk should be associated with any forthcoming transaction. The scope of service includes:

• soil and groundwater intrusive contamination investigations and ground gas monitoring to confirm or rule out potential impact;
• human health and ecological risk assessment;
• hazardous material survey, including asbestos, CFCs, PCBs and radioactive materials; and
• assessments relating to the storage and handling of hazardous substances, including technical compliance, spill and accident prevention.

Developers of brownfield sites may require geotechnical reporting. Using established relationships with geotechnical consultancies, geotechnical investigations can be sub-contracted to produce a combined geo-environmental report specific to client requirements.

Remedial techniques have changed a great deal in recent years. With the advent of tougher legislation, making landfilling of contaminated soil and groundwater more expensive, new technologies are increasingly being employed to clean up sites in a timely and cost effective manner.

The Watts envest Phase III remediation design and management service ties in closely with our environmental development monitoring capability (see page 8) and includes the following:

• design, implementation and management of soil, groundwater and ground gas remediation; and
• site decommissioning and demolition.

Providing funding for development projects - whether debt or equity - exposes the funder to environmental risk. Budget and cash flow control considerations, together with remediation design, procurement, programme and other aspects, all contribute to the overall environmental risk. Watts envest's environmental development monitoring advice has proved to be essential to funders in ensuring that proposed development and remedial works are kept within budget and timescale and are in line with regulatory authority demands. The scope of service includes:

• independent validation of remediation schemes;
• agreeing a suitable remediation design;
• appraising the proposed costs of the remedial works;
• correspondence with the regulatory authority throughout the duration of the project, including final sign off;
• understanding the client's financial commitment to the scheme;
• professional evaluation of chosen remediation consultants, contractors and sub-contractors;
• ensuring all statutory requirements will be met; and
• monitoring programme during and after the construction phase.

The following service products provide clients with further tools to implement sound risk management strategies and to protect asset and corporate reputation:

• above and below ground fuel tank integrity testing;
• soil gas sampling and analysis;
• environmental management and environmental accounting;
• energy efficiency assessment;
• environmental emissions monitoring and survey (air, water, noise);
• deleterious materials management;
• environmental impact assessment; life-cycle analysis of properties, including building materials and waste;
• greenhouse gas emission abatement strategies, including strategy for compliance to Kyoto Protocol;
• waste management and minimisation strategies; and
• HSE compliance and assessment.

• advice on implementation of environmental criteria into fund and asset management strategies;
• environmental assistance for insurance matters and legal issues; and
• environmental advice for project finance.