20 October 2017
In partnership with Strategic Planning, Tughans Solicitors, and Chubb Insurance, WYG hosted an environmental breakfast seminar in Belfast’s iconic Titanic building on 19th October.
The event gave us a great opportunity to share our pragmatic and cost-effective expert guidance on managing environmental liability, project lifecycle costs, and risks faced by those involved with the sale or purchase of brownfield sites.
Conor Lydon, Associate Director, commented: “With post-recession development growth getting back to levels not seen for two decades, the need for reliable advisory services is paramount. The risks associated with brownfield re-development are numerous and can often include time delays, financial, legal and reputational.”
“However,” Conor added, “seeking early engagement with your specialists - be it your solicitor, environmental consultant or planning & public affairs consultant - is key to mitigating these risks and should put you in a strong position during the sale or acquisition of brownfield sites.”
Constructed on brownfield land associated with Belfast’s industrial heritage, the Titanic building itself hosted 130 delegates from various public and private backgrounds.
Among other speakers, Alan Dew, Principal Geo-Environmental Consultant, delivered a presentation on Environmental Due Diligence liability and how to realise a site’s economic potential through its commercial lifecycle, followed by several interesting studies.
Other speakers included Maria O’Loan, Partner at Tughans, and Daniel McLaughlin, Public Affairs Consultant at Strategic Planning, who spoke about minimising risk in contaminated land and the requirements and benefits of pre-acquisition engagement, pre-application engagement, as well as stakeholder consultation and engagement.
Glen O’Halloran, UK & Ireland Environmental Risk Manager at Chubb, concluded the talks with a presentation on environmental risk transfer, potential liability bounce-back and environmental insurance usage.
Finally, a short Q&A session was held to close out the event, with many delegates continuing discussions and networking afterwards.
Stuart Martin, Environment Associate at WYG, added: “Providing outlets like this event for industry experts to educate each other is an important step for the whole industry going forward. We were happy to have shared expert guidance and look forward to hosting similar events.”
