Environmentalist

Investments Through Sisterhood is comprised of a group of 14 professional women with diverse backgrounds ranging from the medical, legal, and education fields. I actually do not fit into one of those categories as I am an Environmental Consultant. What is that you ask? Well let me try and explain. I assess any environmental risk that may be associated with a property for a variety of client types. My degree is in chemical engineering, but after a few environmental classes, it became my minor, then my profession. The majority of my clients are lending institutions that want to know what type of liability may come with the property that they are lending on in case of default due to the potential escalated costs of cleanup that may range from $50,000 on the low end to multiple millions of dollars. My clients include real estate developers, investors and attorneys. My analysis of properties includes site visits to the property, interviews with persons knowledgeable of the property, research of federal and state environmental databases, and research of historical maps, aerial photographs and city directories. I would then compile the information into a report for the client. I also work on determining what type and amount of contamination is at a property if there are indications of it and also on cleanup of contamination at a property if it is identified. this has proven to range from leaks of petroleum from leaking heating oil tanks to heavy metals from historical manufacturing at a site. This work has allowed me to travel across the United States and see some beautiful locations that I might have not ventured to on my own including Iowa, Oklahoma, every corner of Texas, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Washington State. I had a near perfect career transition to a management position just before the birth of my first child and just before 9/11. The travel stopped, but I had other things to keep me busy including my husband and now two (2) daughters. As the head of my department, I concentrated on developing client relationships as well as making sure that quality environmental reports were being produced by my staff. As they say, the client is always right and I have learned that this is an edict that you must live by for success. I now have 15 years in this profession and have lived through the real real estate downturn of the late 1990s, the real estate boom of the 2000′s and now the GREAT RECESSION! I am now the sole survivor of the environmental group at my company working only with subcontractors. Its a new world, but I am learning to cope, especially since I am gainfully employed and not one of those aforementioned subcontractors like every member of my former staff and many other people that I know in my field. My clients are still out there and say they’re on our side, but no longer have the stomach to lend. Here’s to change that I can believe in in 2010, the return of a healthy commercial real estate market!