Waste Site Cleanup & Reuse in New England
What should a pilot look for when reviewing RFPs (Requests for Proposals) for environmental engineering services?
Experience conducting site assessments is often viewed as a minimum requirement for further discussion. In addition, there are other issues to consider when looking at prospective environmental engineering firms, including the following:
- Who is the designated project manager?
- Who comprises the project team and does it seem appropriate?
- What is the project team's experience with the community relations aspect of the project?
- Does the project team have experience with redevelopment projects?
- Is each proposal complete and responsive to your Request for Proposal?
Who is the designated project manager? This key person will be the point of contact with the consultant and their project team. There should be only one point-person, not several for different aspects of the project. He or she is usually not the most senior person in the company, rather, he is the person who will oversee the daily minutiae of the project team. The project manager should be technically competent, responsive, and approachable.
Who comprises the project team and does it seem appropriate? Many of the responses will propose a team of subcontractors in specialized areas being retained for their area of expertise. For example, some of the proposals may have a public relations/community outreach firm, an environmental law firm, a redevelopment expert, and others to support the prime contractor whose expertise is with environmental engineering and site assessments. You should ask if the proposed team has ever worked together before, if the team approach is appropriate for what you hope to accomplish with your pilot, whether the team approach is premature at the pilot's stage, and whether any of the areas of expertise are redundant.
What is the project team's experience with the community relations aspect of the project? Some of your targeted areas may be in mixed-use neighborhoods, and as you move forward with redeveloping the commercial parcels in each neighborhood, the local residents will want to be informed and listened to. Does the project team have experience in a public meeting setting describing what they are doing in layman's terms (compared to experience presenting at technical conferences)? Does the project team have experience preparing fact sheets and public notices that may be necessary as part of your outreach, etc?
Does the project team have experience with redevelopment projects? Redeveloping brownfields is more than simply conducting a site assessment. It requires being able to work with a range of stakeholders. You will be relying on your consultant to help you to identify which properties are the best candidates to move forward. Does the consultant have experience listening to the reuse needs and desires of various stakeholders? This experience includes working with the community, municipal governments (who are concerned with local planning, zoning, conservation commission, and economic development needs and requirements), state regulators (who are concerned with environmental issues), developers (who have liability concerns), and lenders and lawyers (who have due diligence requirements). In addition, the project team should have an understanding of basic real estate principals and the practical reuse options for a given site.
Is each proposal complete and responsive to your Request for Proposal? The RFP should include a set of evaluation criteria which should be adhered to. It may be inappropriate to ask about experience which was not asked for in the RFP. For example, if you have not asked for redevelopment experience in your RFP, it may be inappropriate to ask about it at the interview stage of your selection process. You might want to draft a standard set of questions or issues that can be posed at each interview. Feel free to ask additional questions as needed, however, gathering answers to the same set of questions will help to standardize your process. This will also help you determine which questions are appropriate or inappropriate to pose based on what was requested in your RFP.