Approach

Our primary approach to environmental consulting is to provide accurate results and practical solutions.

• Our work is driven by our client’s goals and objectives, regulatory and procedural requirements, technology, and project budget.
• Our projects are completed in a timely and cost effective manner.
• By identifying the client and project’s applicable Challenges, Opportunities, and Strengths we plan and structure our projects to ensure that objectives are fully realized.

 WEI Internal Resources

Our expertise and experience has allowed us to create numerous internal tools to effectively develop and manage our projects.  This includes cross-referenced databases of our library resources, protocols, reports, legislation summaries, professional directories and specific site documentation.

Our accounting and time management systems have been internally modified to specifically satisfy the needs of our clients and our fiscal responsibilities.

Safety Compliance

WEI requires all personnel and contractors to follow WEI’s published ”Environmental, Health & Safety Management Program”, industry procedures, and applicable government rules and regulations.

Safety and Environment

Environmental and safety issues are frequently linked and often must be addressed in tandem. Through our association with reputable health and safety consultants, WEI is able to provide its clients with a single source for the development and auditing of their environmental and safety and loss management programs.

This strategic link of environmental and safety elements provides WEI clients with combined “go-forward” recommendations that can be actioned more effectively and efficiently by a client’s operations department.

WEI is a contractor subscriber to ISNetworld, Complyworks and PICS.

Associate Services

Our many years in business translates into more than just report binders on the shelf.  It has provides us with a “filtering” of the marketplace for knowledgeable specialists who share our philosophy and project methodology and have become our “allied professionals”.  This ensures that our clients receive consistently high value and interpretation of data within any discipline required in their projects.  Our associates include specialists in:

• air emissions
• groundwater technology
• safety, occupational health, WHMIS, industrial hygiene
• geomatic services
• aquatic environments
• marine biology
• transportation of dangerous goods
• oil spill research and response mechanisms
• pipeline linear development and siting
• database and computer E-commerce development

Community and Environment

WEI directly supports its local community with sponsorship and financial assistance to selected youth, cultural and environmental organizations.

Contracting a Consultant

Should you hire “outside” consulting services?

This can be a difficult question to answer.  In some cases an environmental consultant may be contracted to provide an independent view of an operation or to augment the workforce of a client.  If a client has environmental personnel on staff, an independent third party consultation may still be required for financial institutions or other external business transactions.  However in most cases it may come down to a client having insufficient internal resources to complete needed work or focusing on their strengths and delegating their weaknesses.

A client should only hire a consultant if the project scope and objectives are well defined.  Although a good consultant can help a client define the project, inadequate planning on the client’s part can still cause incomplete work that does not satisfy the client’s “perceived result”.  It can also create unnecessary expenditures and poor relations between the client and consultant and internally within the client’s organization.  In the initial planning meeting, ensure that the consultant has a full appreciation of the client’s needs and has a defined scope, task list and protocol for the project.

The client should also ensure that the consultant has obtained the required certification for the applicable environmental discipline or is supervised by someone who maintains the certification.  It may also be required by the client’s company to verify that the consultant carries the necessary insurance requirements including Commercial General Liability and Errors and Omissions coverage

The expense of hiring a consultant is of critical importance.  An experienced consultant should not only be able to provide a fairly accurate cost estimate but also a list of potential variances to the estimate.

And remember that a valuable consultant will also be scrutinizing the client to verify that the client’s organization fulfills the consultant’s own client criteria.

Memberships / Associations

To ensure a level of creditability and an assurance of consistency, WEI maintains individual and corporate membership and abidance with the codes of practice of the following organizations:

• Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA)
• Environmental Services Association of Alberta (ESAA)
• Auditing Association of Canada (AAC)
• Eco Canada (Environmental Careers Organization)