Environmental Compliance

The consideration of the ecosystem services provided by natural capital has the potential to support identification of creative and cost-effective approaches to achieve environmental compliance.  Whether a company is looking for possibilities to generate economies of scale, efficiencies in achieving corporate objectives, or opportunities to address non-compliance issues, natural capital and its associated ecosystem services could highlight projects previously unrecognized as solution providers within the compliance arena.  Examples of how natural capital could support a derivation of benefit within the compliance arena include:

• Utilizing green infrastructure rather than gray infrastructure to manage and treat storm water and non-point source pollution
• Designing a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) based on compensating impacted natural capital or reduction in ecosystem service levels rather than paying a penalty
• Designing a green roof to minimize energy use for facility cooling to achieve a sustainability metric

Joule Tree provides support with the following:

• Natural Capital Inventory
• Natural Capital Dependencies and Impacts
• Green Infrastructure Systems
• NPDES Permit Violation offsets
• Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs)
• Stakeholder Interface and Regulatory Negotiations