I like GIFs because they tell a story with moving pictures that would take many paragraphs if I were to write it out. People don’t read unless they have to. A picture is worth a thousand words. A3 Environmental Consultants is lucky enough to have a graphic artist freelancer who is reasonably priced and exceptionally
- Published in Marketing Scientific Services
Welcome, 1099 contractors! At A3E we like to make industry friends so we’re giving you some environmental report examples for your review. It was 5 short years ago that A3 Environmental Consultants was started by our fearless boss lady, Alisa Allen. Her initial goal was to be an Freelance Environmental Consultant to her friends in
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I’ve been a lifelong entrepreneur. I have a keen perspective on starting, and (trying to) grow a company. I’ve started (+/-) 5 companies and in all my time, A3 Environmental Consultants is by far the best team I’ve ever been on. I’m proud to be working with the smartest, most dedicated and hardest working people
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Commercial Real Estate (CRE) professionals call us looking for environmental advice all the time. We’re happy to be your trusted environmental resource and are on-call to answer questions and help with strategy. We can’t do our jobs without environmental data resources of our own. Some of these are environmental databases of known contamination which we
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If you are here looking for a SBA RSRA template download, you can only be an environmental consultant or freelance environmental consultant who is looking to do one of these reports for the first time. Fear not, they are pretty easy and your pals here at A3 Environmental Consultants are here to help. First, let’s
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Commercial Real Estate developers are notoriously impatient. The following story is about a Site Remediation Program (SRP) nightmare we are currently working through. Buying a Contaminated Property in Chicago, Illinois We were contacted by a commercial real estate developer who had purchased a former plating facility in a great location to build their next development.
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Who Pays For The Phase 1 ESA? Like most real estate deals, it is negotiable. However, usually the party borrowing money is required by the bank to purchase the Phase 1 ESA as part of their due diligence. A seller can commission their own Phase 1 ESA and provide it as part of their marketing
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It’s never a happy situation to find yourself in when you’re responsible for finding an Environmental Consulting company to do a Phase II ESA on a property you own or a property you want to purchase. Chances are good you’ve never done it before. Below, we try to give you some quick advice on how
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The Small Business Administration (SBA) has very specific environmental due diligence procedures which can be confusing. To sort it all out for you, A3 Environmental Consulting built this infographic SBA Environmental flow chart. Depending on the type of loan you are applying for and the use of the property you are buying, you can determine
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The elusive SBA Environmental Questionnaire Form. Your first question is why is it so hard to find? It would be awfully nice if the Small Business Administration provided this in an easy format. They don’t. But not to worry, we’re going to cover it every way possible here. SBA Environmental Questionnaire, what is it and
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Before you spend a fortune on Environmental Due Diligence, First Search an Environmental Database to see what you are getting into. Working at A3E Consultants for as long as I have, I have come to realize that not every problem needs the most expensive solution to solve it. You can take a more nuanced approach.
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There would be very few environmental consulting companies that could operate with a nationwide footprint if it weren’t for freelance environmental consultants. If those companies did exist, they would be enormous and every expensive. It’s almost impossible to staff the entire country with offices and consultants. Having a network of resources you can call helps
- Published in Due Diligence, Marketing Scientific Services
The Auto Signature is the single best marketing hack you can do for your Environmental Consulting business for no money at all. What is an Auto Signature? In every email client, Outlook, Gmail, etc… there is a setting where you can create your automatic sign-off to any email. You might think the auto signature is
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If you started a small business, you’re eventually going to need an amazing small business lawyer. How do you know your lawyer is any good? I’ve been an entrepreneur for 25 years and I’ve made mistakes. I’ve tried to learn along the way and make good decisions. I hope you find value in what I
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An amazing environmental insurance broker is a necessity in the environmental consulting business. What makes an insurance provider amazing? If you don’t have insurance you will find yourself excluded from many, if not most, environmental consulting projects. If you do get hired, it will be as a 1099 subcontractor and often your client will “sell”
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IEPA CCDD LPC-667 Download (PDF) Click Here! This is a blank Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) Clean Construction Demolition Debris (CCDD) form LPC-667 in editable PDF format. If what you’d like to dump at a CCDD facility is “Painted CCDD” which is uncontaminated broken concrete without protruding metal bars, bricks, rock, stone, or reclaimed or
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IEPA CCDD LPC-663 Download (PDF) Click Here! This is a blank Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) Clean Construction Demolition Debris (CCDD) form LPC-663 in editable PDF format. A3 Environmental Consultants wants you to have this in the event you have soil you need to dispose of. The CCDD facility is going to need your paperwork
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IEPA CCDD LPC-662 Download (PDF) Click Here! This is a blank Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) Clean Construction Demolition Debris (CCDD) form LPC-662 in editable PDF format. A3 Environmental Consultants wants you to have this in the event you have soil you need to dispose of. The CCDD facility is going to need your paperwork
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Do you find yourself asking where you can dump clean fill dirt near your project? A3 Environmental Consultants is here to help. We found ourselves wondering the same thing for the projects we work on. We built this map to help find the closest facilities. First thing to notice, this is only good for Illinois
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Vapor Intrusion is the ability for volatile organic compounds to migrate from contamination in soil or groundwater through porous building foundations into areas of habitation, causing risks to health and human safety by inhalation of indoor air. The contamination occupies the void space between particles in the soil as a vapor. The vapor is known
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NFR means “No Further Remediation”. It’s a letter given to a landowner of an environmentally contaminated property stating that the property currently meets environmental standards set forth by the state. Depending on the state you are in the letter may be called a NFA letter, for “No Further Action”. This does not mean the property
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You’ve asked the internet what the best environmental engineering firms are in Chicagoland and the internet delivered you to the website of A3 Environmental Consultants. Full disclosure, we’re not environmental engineers, we’re environmental consultants. My first question for you, is do you know the difference? Are you sure you need an environmental engineer? Unless you’re
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SRP is the industry abbreviation in Illinois for “Site Remediation Program” which refers to a body of law and regulation pertaining to contaminated properties. It describes a regulatory program where a landowner can voluntarily investigate and/or remediate their property to receive a NFR (No Further Remediation) letter. The Illinois EPA is authorized to issue No
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A3 Environmental Consultants has developed a free tool for people buying and selling freelance environmental consultant’s services. If you click here, it will take you to our switchboard where you’ll find a link to the ArcGIS map. The ArcGIS map is stored behind a mandatory login. We do this to prevent scammers and spammers from
- Published in Marketing Scientific Services
First, Welcome! If you’ve been in the Environmental Consulting industry long enough you know people get awfully freaky about their list of Freelance Environmental Consultants. We’re not that way. We want both the Indy EP’s AND the companies that might need their services to be successful and to charge every penny the market will bare
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You’ve asked the internet what the best environmental cleanup companies are in Northern Illinois and the internet delivered you to the website of A3 Environmental Consultants. Full disclosure, we’re environmental consultants. My first question for you, is what kind of environmental cleanup are we talking about? In order to give you the best advice, I
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The smartest thing ever said in government was when Donald Rumsfeld said: there are things we know, there are things we know we don’t know, there are things we don’t know we don’t know. We make decisions every day with imperfect information. We do the best we can and we seem to get by as
- Published in Marketing Scientific Services
You’ve asked the internet what the best environmental engineering companies are in Chicago and the internet delivered you to the website of A3 Environmental Consultants. Full disclosure, we’re not environmental engineers, we’re environmental consultants. My first question for you, is do you know the difference? Are you sure you need an environmental engineer? Unless you’re
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I know you can hardly contain yourself. The new Small Business Administration (SBA) Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Record Search With Risk Assessment (RSRA) is OUT!! Download Official RSRA SBA SOP 50 10 6 by clicking here. I know you didn’t ask for it but you also might need the SBA Environmental Flow Chart which
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You’re here because you need a SBA Environmental Reliance Letter. You most likely just had a Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment done and now you’re submitting it to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for approval. You also work for a bank or other financial lending institution and you don’t do this very much. If you
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As with all things, prices may vary based on many factors but here at A3E our Phase 1 Environmental cost vary around $1900. But read on because there’s a lot that goes into the pricing of a Phase 1 ESA. Table Of Contents How Risky Is the Target? How Far Is The Project? How Extensive
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You’ve asked the google-tubes who the best environmental consulting firms are in Chicago and it delivers you to A3 Environmental Consultants corporate marketing posts. You’re probably thinking, you’re in for some completely biased information. To be clear from the outset, I think A3E is pretty amazing but I’m going to do my best at guiding
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An EDR Report is an Environmental Database Report which costs $127 and is completed in 24 hours in most cases. To be fair, “EDR” is also a company which creates these EDR Reports. When A3 Environmental Consultants prepares these reports we use a data provider called ERIS who’s data we believe is better than EDR.
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A desktop risk assessment is an environmental database report (EDR) where the scientist who is performing the report doesn’t leave her desk. So much of what we do involves sampling, testing and site visits. It makes the distinction between “desktop” work and “field” work that much more poignant. Desktop risk assessments are done by computer
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The average cost of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is about $1900 depending on who you call and how involved the site is. That’s what we here at A3 Environmental Consultants charge for most projects. But there’s a lot more to it, so stick with me if you’re interested in learning more. What kind
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Due Diligence Period is a legal contract timeframe in which a buyer can inspect a property to determine if a transaction is worth the price being paid. When purchasing really expensive assets there is a lot of things that are unknown to the buyer while the buyer is still prospective. The seller doesn’t disclose everything
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What is a brownfield? It’s an urban or suburban site which had a former use such as housing or a factory. Very often, these sites are diminished in value and sit fallow for years because of real or imagined contamination at the site. There are more brownfield sites than you think. Think of any corner
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Here at A3 Environmental Consultants, we’ve found the general public doesn’t know much about what we do and has more than a few preconceived notions. This post is about some of the the things we’ve come across which people frequently didn’t know. Environmental Remediation: Once soil is contaminated, there’s no cleaning it. No matter what
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CCDD stands for Clean Construction Demolition Debris. Similarly, USF is an abbreviation for Uncontaminated Soil Fill. In Illinois both of these terms are used interchangeably as “Clean Fill”. Both of these terms refer to a body of laws unique to Illinois whereby clean materials can be put into old gravel, sand or limestone mines. These
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MAC stands for Maximum Allowable Concentration. It refers to the maximum allowable levels of contamination in clean fill (CCDD). CCDD stands for Clean Construction Demolition Debris and is a body of laws from the IEPA (Illinois EPA) that regulate clean fill operations in Illinois. Only the State of Illinois has CCDD regulations so if you’re
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The information below represents a EULA, End User License Agreement regarding A3 Environmental Consultants services. This document can be downloaded for your records by clicking here. 1. Estimated Fees Unless the Scope of Work provides otherwise, the Estimated Fees contained therein constitute A3 Environmental’s estimate of the probable cost required to complete the proposed Project.
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You’re probably wondering how you’ve lived so long on this planet without ever knowing how Illinois landfill pricing works. Settle down nerd. I’m not going to answer every question you have, just give you a slightly better understanding. This article is designed for regular people, new environmental consultants and trucking companies that haul clean fill,
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The following is a guide for regular people regarding CCDD – which stands for Clean Construction Demolition Debris. In this primer, we’re going to take a beat to cover background information you’ll need to keep in mind while reading. I’m making the assumption that you, the reader, is not an engineer or environmental consultant but is in an industry that is touched by these regulations.
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As an environmental consultant, we’re frequently asked for advice that veers out of our lane and into what environmental lawyers do best. While I’ve never meet or talked to the good people over at Spencer Fane, they seem to have some pretty good, concise, advice about environmental law. The following is gleaned from their website,
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I thought this article was great information that most people in a property transaction never hear about. You can read the whole thing by clicking here. Lenders, borrowers, purchasers, sellers, and even contractors sometimes get annoyed with environmental lawyers when we insist on reviewing Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) draft reports, looking at the
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You have (or think you have) a leaking underground storage tank (UST). Maybe you’re about to buy or sell a property. Either way, you know it’s going to be a problem. The government doesn’t like underground tanks, it especially doesn’t like them leaking and it gets twitchy if the tank isn’t being currently used for
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Marketing Scientific Services: What Website Functionality Looks Like As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one type of website functionality that matters, and all things flow from it. In our world functionality and “strategy” are the exact same thing. The strategy is to get the person on your website to email or call you. The
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Office culture drives who arrives at your doorstep to be hired. If you want a place people want to come work, you have to be a place people want to come work. Below is our bosslady having fun on the electric scooters we bought to go to the local restaurants at lunch. It’s covid times
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My wife has been in the environmental consulting business for her whole career. There’s been a repeating pattern I watched her go through while working for other people. They take scientists and rightfully give them all the scientific work they can do. All the while, they do absolutely no marketing. Then, for whatever reason, their
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I’m a big fan of being yourself even if being yourself is a little weird. Below is a video of the skeleton crew which was left after COVID struck in March, clowning around and vamping on the 40 year anniversary of the Breakfast Club movie. You might think something about you, the job you do
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