Buying an environmentally compromised site can have serious economic, legal, and image consequences for companies. This is why Environmental Site Assessment is currently becoming a fundamental tool during the real estate and corporate transactions.
It makes buyers aware of the environmental criticalities of the property they are about to purchase. Furthermore, buyers are made aware of any type of duty to be fulfilled (environmental obligations, adaptation of projects to environmental regulations, limitations to the use of the area, etc.);
There are some issues that need to be dealt with before acquiring a company or a real estate asset and one of them is to identify the responsibilities and related environmental risks. With an Environmental Site Assessment, it becomes easier to know about:
- The presence and management of hazardous substances present on the site, as well as associated potential risks and liabilities;
- Previous or potential events of contamination through releases of dangerous substances;
- The environmental conditions at the property, including the conditions of the buildings and environmental matrices (soil, groundwater, surface water, etc.);
- Previous, current, and future safety measures relating to the property involved in the transaction.
Operating procedures of environmental site assessment
It is carried out through two main phases:
Phase I: investigation of the past and present use of the property, in order to identify potential environmental risks. This phase includes an on-site inspection, a desk study, and a documentary analysis;
Phase II: conducted on the basis of the results of Phase I, it is aimed at a more in-depth investigation into the potential presence of dangerous substances at a property and the extent of any contamination present on site.
Furthermore, the purpose of this phase is to identify further environmental criticalities relating to discharges and deposits of non-compliant waste, etc.
An environmental site assessment process covers all aspects related to the contamination of a site or land and makes it possible to identify and quantify environmental risks during M&A operations.
Phase 1 ESA in Edmonton makes it possible to identify areas of known soil pollution and those at potential risk of pollution on an industrial, logistics, real estate site, and recommend, if necessary, a phase II study to assess the environmental liability.
The steps in a phase II study then include:
- Field investigations: soil drilling and soil and groundwater sampling;
- Laboratory analyses;
- Drafting of the phase ii report.
It is very useful to carry out phase II because it allows stakeholders to have concrete results and a real vision of the state of pollution, with a view to possible negotiations on the price or for establishing liability guarantees.
A phase II study is therefore the appropriate tool to estimate the environmental liability linked to the pollution of soil, groundwater, and/or surface water from historical or current activities of an industrial, logistics, or real estate site.
The team of Anderson Environmental is made up of many different professionals capable of conducting Phase 1 ESA in Toronto and Ontario and Phase 2 ESA in Toronto and Ontario.
The goal of Anderson Environmental is to evaluate every environmental aspect of real estate and corporate transactions and make clients aware of the actual environmental conditions of the property they are interested in.