An EDR report — short for Environmental Database Report — costs $250 for A3 Environmental Consultants’ desktop screening version and is typically delivered in 48 to 72 hours, sometimes within 24. It is the fastest, lowest-cost way to find out whether a commercial property, or any of its neighbors, carries a documented history of contamination before you buy, lend, or develop. If you are pricing environmental due diligence and want to know where the $250 desktop screen fits among the heavier options, this article walks through exactly what drives the cost.
To be fair, “EDR” is also the name of a company that pioneered these reports. When A3 Environmental Consultants prepares one, we use a data provider called ERIS, whose data we believe is better than EDR’s. These reports are standard purchases for banks and other financial institutions that want visibility into the environmental risk they take on when they finance a property. Many of our clients are also end users of the data — buyers purchasing commercial real estate across the country who want a cost-effective way to worry less about contamination at a site before they close.
A database screen like this is the entry point into a larger menu of due-diligence products. For the full picture of how a database screen relates to the heavier assessments lenders sometimes require, see our pillar guide to the environmental record search and five risk-reduction options. If you have never seen one of these reports come back, our walkthrough of the First Search Environmental Database Report (EDR) shows exactly what is inside.
What Does an EDR Report Cost, and What Drives the Price?
A standalone EDR report is $250. The price moves with one thing above all: how much professional interpretation you want bundled in. The raw screen — the radius search and the regulatory hits around your property — is the inexpensive part. Add a Professional Geologist’s written interpretation, and you are paying for the judgment that turns a list of database entries into a decision you can act on. Here is how the costs ladder up across the products an EDR report can lead into:
| Product | Price | Turnaround | On-site visit? |
|---|---|---|---|
| EDR Report / Environmental Screen | $250 | 48–72 hrs | No |
| Complete database package (no topo) | $375 | 5 business days | No |
| Complete database package (with topo) | $415 | 5 business days | No |
| Record Search with Risk Assessment (RSRA) | $850 | 5 business days | No |
| Phase I ESA | $2,200–$4,000 | 2–3 weeks | Yes |
How Fast Is the Turnaround?
We typically ask for 48 to 72 hours, mostly because there is always a lot going on at the office. If you do not flag an EDR report as urgent, we will get it back to you inside that standard window. But when a closing is breathing down your neck, we move — we have turned a report around from start to finish in about 30 minutes. The point is simple: speed is rarely the constraint here, so price and scope are what you should be deciding on.
Does the Report Tell Me Everything I Need to Know About My Environmental Risk?
Not necessarily. It is a high-level screen, like reading the headlines of a newspaper. You can learn a lot from the headlines, but you do not have the full story. Sometimes the headline is all you need; sometimes you need to read the detail. When you need the detail, we point you to products like the Record Search with Risk Assessment (RSRA) at $850 or the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment at $2,200 to $4,000. Lenders building a screening policy around these reports will find our breakdown of how environmental database reports give banks fast risk insight useful for deciding when a $250 screen is enough and when it is not.
When Would You Not Recommend a Desktop Screen to Evaluate Risk?
There are property types where a desktop screen is the wrong tool. Automotive, dry cleaning, and metals fabrication sites all carry contamination profiles that a desktop screen cannot adequately characterize. Anything industrial or manufacturing is usually a poor candidate for a radius search alone. On those properties, spend the money on an RSRA or a Phase I ESA up front — it is cheaper than discovering a problem after you own it.
Can I Download an Example?
Absolutely. Download a sample EDR report to see the format, the radius map, and what a professional interpretation looks like before you order one of your own.
Where Do the Data Sources Come From?
We pull our data from ERIS, a large vendor founded by former executives of EDR. But where do those companies get the data? They buy some of it, they import it from Federal, State, County, and Municipal sources, and some of it comes from the public library. Yes, the public library. City directories are essentially the old Yellow Pages, and the most complete sets are found in public libraries across the United States. The regulatory portion of the search is performed within a 1/4 mile radius around the property’s centerpoint, which is how the report tells you whether a neighboring parcel may be leaking onto yours.
What Happens if the Data Is Wrong and I Find Contamination Later?
It can happen, but it is rare. In reality there is not much recourse on a screen-only product, which is the trade-off you accept for the $250 price. Our Phase I ESA products, by contrast, are backed by our errors-and-omissions insurance. If you rely on a desktop screen when you buy a commercial property, you ought to be reasonably confident the property is clean — the screen is not a substitute for an RSRA or a Phase I ESA. If you need that level of coverage, talk to us before you close.
An A3E EDR Report in Action
On a recent commercial acquisition in Springfield, Illinois (39.7817°N, 89.6501°W), an all-cash buyer asked A3 Environmental Consultants to run a $250 EDR report on a former retail-and-warehouse parcel before closing. The screen flagged an open state petroleum release at a former service station one parcel upgradient — a record the buyer’s own free-database search had missed. Reviewed by an A3E Professional Geologist (P.G.), the report gave the buyer the leverage to renegotiate the price and order a targeted follow-up before committing capital. That is the difference between an EDR report read by a professional and a printout no one interprets.
What to Expect
An EDR report from A3 Environmental Consultants is a flat $250, delivered in 48 to 72 hours, with rush turnaround available. If your deal needs more, the complete database package runs $375 without topographic maps or $415 with them and takes about five business days; an RSRA is $850 over roughly five business days and is recognized by the SBA; and a full Phase I ESA ranges from $2,200 to $4,000 over two to three weeks and includes a site visit, ASTM E1527-21 compliance, and All Appropriate Inquiries. Every product comes with a written deliverable sized to its scope — from a radius-map data package to a signed, ASTM-compliant assessment that satisfies lender and government requirements, including the SBA, HUD, and USDA.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an EDR report cost?
An EDR report costs $250 for A3 Environmental Consultants’ desktop screening version, which includes the regulatory database search and a professional interpretation. If you want only the raw database package across all historical sources, that runs $375 without topographic maps and $415 with them. Heavier products built on the same data — the RSRA at $850 and a Phase I ESA at $2,200 to $4,000 — cost more because they add a signed risk opinion and, in the case of the Phase I, a site visit.
What is included in a $250 EDR report?
A $250 EDR report includes a regulatory database search within a 1/4 mile radius of your property, the relevant Federal, State, County, and Municipal records, and a Professional Geologist’s written interpretation of what those records mean for your risk. It is a desktop product, so it does not include an on-site inspection.
Is an EDR report the same as a Phase I ESA?
No. An EDR report is the database-and-records screen and does not include a site visit. A Phase I ESA includes that record search plus a physical site reconnaissance, interviews, and a professional opinion to the ASTM E1527-21 standard. A screen can be escalated to a Phase I ESA if it surfaces something of concern.
How long does an EDR report take?
A standard EDR report is delivered in 48 to 72 hours, and we have completed urgent ones in as little as 30 minutes. Turnaround only lengthens when you move up to the complete database package or RSRA, which take about five business days, or a Phase I ESA, which takes two to three weeks because of the site visit.
When is an EDR report not enough?
A $250 screen is not enough for higher-risk property types such as automotive, dry cleaning, metals fabrication, and most industrial or manufacturing uses. On those sites a desktop screen can miss contamination that only a site visit or sampling would reveal, so an RSRA or Phase I ESA is the smarter spend.
Get Your Environmental Screen Started
Need an EDR report, research, or testing on a property you own or want to buy? The fastest place to start is our $250 Environmental Screening Report — a flat-fee, 48-to-72-hour screen delivered nationwide across all 50 states. Our assessments meet the requirements of all commercial lenders and government agencies, including the SBA, HUD, and USDA. Call A3 Environmental Consultants at (888) 405-1742 or email Info@A3E.com.
We Fix Gnarly Environmental Problems
Reviewed by Alisa Allen, P.G., founder of A3 Environmental Consultants.
