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    MaxEng
    New Trade Organization for EPs Taking Form
    Topic posted December 8, 2011 by MaxEngElite Contributor, last edited January 19, 2012
    509 Views, 6 Comments
    Title:
    New Trade Organization for EPs Taking Form
    Content:

    Those commonground members who are also active on LinkedIn may be aware of an initiative to establish a new organization for Environmental Professionals and the firms that employ them.  The umbrella motivation seems to be that, although professional engineers have a trade organization (NSPE), their employers have one (ACEC), and professional geologists have one (AIPG), there is no integrated organization that serves the same function for environmental professionals.  Motivations mentioned for forming such an organization include the following:

    • competent practitioners would like marketplace distinction from "fly-by-night" firms, and from unqualified persons who claim to be EPs
    • EPs would like to have a common voice by which they can obtain a "place at the table" when regulations such as AAI are proposed or revised
    • continuing education opportunities can be simplified and centralized
    • common interests of environmental firms can be promoted
    • the perceived efforts by professional engineer organizations to shut non-engineers out from environmental practice areas can be counterbalanced by an organization of similar stature
    • the multiplicity of confusing "alphabet-soup" "certifications" of uncertain value and validity can be resolved into one or more, more defensible certifications that would result from objective criteria
    This effort was initiated by a couple of eminent environmental attorneys who have observed diminishing quality of environmental reports they see in property transaction and acquisition deals.  However, these attorneys (though they will remain available for consultation) do not wish to direct the process of forming such an organization.  An experienced trade-organization executive is involved also in the early days of planning, and this person will perhaps remain involved in a similar executive role if the effort reaches critical mass.
     
    I encourage anyone who believes their firm would possibly be interested in membership in such an organization to contact me through the email address listed in my user profile.  Thanks!

    Comment

     

    • Lauren617
      posted December 9, 2011 by Lauren617Elite Contributor

      Jeff, thanks for posting this summary. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Please continue to keep the community updated!

    • mkulka
      posted December 9, 2011 by mkulkaElite Contributor

       I like it.  I am a PE and not really active in NSPE but would be in one geared for EPs.

    • Brian Olin, PG
      posted December 9, 2011 by Brian Olin, PGSuper Contributor

      I am a PG but an environmental certification would be a good thing.  The most important part will be differentiating it from the many so called certifying organizations already out there, otherwise it will just be another organization in the crowd.  I think it will be difficult to really get it to stand out from the crowd and be accepted and looked for by people outside the industry with so many organizations already out there even though most of them do not really mean anything.

    • Bill Smith
      posted December 9, 2011 by Bill SmithMember

      It would be good to have a nationally recognized certification, but does herding cats come to mind?

    • cdc
      posted December 15, 2011 by cdcMember

       Take a look at the National Registry of Environmental Professionals(NREP). They have been around since the early 1990's and have a Certification called Registered Environmental Property Assessor(REPA), and many other broader technical certification areas. You need to take a test on conducting ESA's to get the REPA certification, and they have many training programs and conferences on broader issues like drilling and sampling. I have been a member for over 20 years, and have had several projects where the certification had value in winning a project.It's not something I use or reference every day.

       

    • Suzanne Maloney
      posted December 19, 2011 by Suzanne MaloneyMember

      Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Suzanne Maloney. I am currently voluntarily aiding the group below to meet and decide how best to meet the environmental professional’s market place needs. In answer to Lauren’s request please see below.

      This group met for the first time via conference call on December 7th, 2011. The purpose of the call was to allow environmental professional consultants to discuss their industries needs as they saw them. The discussion led to the development of a steering committee called Environmental Professional Exploration Steering Committee. This committee will be meeting once again via conference call on December 21st, 2011. If you are a consultant and are interested on participating in the research on how best to meet this industry’s needs please either log into LinkedIn and join the group at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4209578&trk=anet_ug_hm or email me at suzannemm@nycap.rr.com. There is also a survey on Survey Monkey to aid the steering committee. Please take the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BTSZXM5.