Legacy Environmental Liability Management: Top 5 Opportunities to Achieve Maximum Business Value

From nailing down how and under what circumstances you capitalize on opportunities to reduce liability, to sailing through your auditing process, this discussion centers on some of the pitfalls organizations fall into and how to avoid them. It will also address how to create a management process that balances reserve setting, liability reduction, and cash flow to benefit your balance sheet and satisfy the C-Suite.

Top 5 Pitfalls

• Not setting a legacy liability management philosophy that balances cash flow, reserve setting, and liability reduction
• Assuming reserve equals total liability--not knowing the difference between reserve and total liability
• Using an inconsistent process with multiple stakeholders
• Not educating and pushing back on your auditors
• Not recognizing or taking liability reduction opportunities when they present themselves

Top 5 Opportunities

• The Three P’s—understand and create your philosophy, program, and process
• Right Organizational Buy-in—accommodate your 3 P’s with leadership and financial/audit team
• Documentation—use good, reproducible, easy-to-understand estimating tools to help your leadership and auditors
• Patience—recognize it takes a little bit of time and leadership but it’s worth the payback. Take the time to reinforce the process and relationships
• Closure—challenge your consultants to close sites, not just maintain the status quo

Speakers

Scott Recker

Senior Consultant

Scott has more than 30 years of EHS experience. Scott, our Environmental Remediation Practice Leader for Antea Group, focuses on the strategic development and management of regional and national project teams to solve environmental business problems. His strengths lie in his ability to quickly assess organizational needs related to environmental business issues and to build teams that provide unique solutions in an environment of strong communication, high energy, and cooperation. His primary assignment is working with clients to build and/or maintain environmental liability reserve programs. His expertise also encompasses regulatory negotiation, expert witness testimony, management systems, complex multi-source investigations, and remediation portfolio management. Scott earned a Masters in Hydrogeology from Eastern Kentucky University and his Bachelors in Geology from the University of Cincinnati.