What is a pollutant? If you look at an insurance policy they will define a pollutant as smoke, soot, vapors, fumes, acids… I am not a scientist and so the definition of a pollutant we use at ERMI is “A material, substance or product that gets introduced into an environment for other than its intended [...]

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has recognized the need of good, practical tools to successfully put sustainable design theory into practice. Assembled to help designers and policy makers undertake and complete sustainable projects at regional, urban and local levels, ASLA’s Sustainability Toolkit provides an array of online resources: assessment tools, checklists, modeling software [...]

Risk, bacteria, and the tragedy of food-safety reform 1
by Tom Philpott
The Senate will likely vote on its food safety bill, S. 510, next week. Now that consumer groups and sustainable-ag advocates have settled their fight over the treatment of small-scale producers, the legislation looks set to pass — unless it falls victim to the absurd [...]

environmental strategist, between the lines: Nothing is conclusive here, just an FYI. Take a look at the attachment about the EPA and what they are looking into. Make sure your client’s know the EPA microscope is looking into their industry practices. Might be a good time to get some pollution insurance.
Jon Hurdle, Reuters
Published September 2, [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: This story is a perfect example of why any client you have the owns vacant property should give serious consideration to buying a pollution liability insurance policy. Illegally disposing of waste is a tens of billions of dollars a year industry in the United States.
Under Federal law if you own [...]

By WALT BOGDANICH and JO CRAVEN McGINTY
Because children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to radiation, doctors three years ago mounted a national campaign to protect them by reducing diagnostic radiation to only those levels seen as absolutely necessary.
It is a message that has resonated in many clinics and hospitals. Yet there is one busy place [...]

Jun 17 2010 Jeff Gillies
A recent study of parking lots by Purdue University came up with the following information on parking lots impact upon our environment.
Parking lots can soup up stream-bound rainwater with pollutants like oil and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, according to another Purdue parking lot study. Some pavement sealants have high levels [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: If you have participated in one of our environmental risk management and insurance seminars you know we tell you that ERMI’s research shows that roughly 50% of Phase I studies are inaccurate. To support this research, a few years ago ASTM (the group that developed the Phase I and Phase [...]

A growing number of livestock producers are discovering manure compost as a new cash crop. When Mark Meyer refers to the “magic” at New Day Farms, he isn’t referring to the liquid egg products generated by more than 2.5 million laying hens.
Rather, Meyer, the environmental manager at [...]

Making Concrete The Color Of Money
November 1, 2010
Boston, MA – Cement and concrete for decades have been regarded as the antithesis of all that’s green and growing, which is no surprise. The building and construction industry uses about 2.9 billion tonnes of cement and 30 billion tonnes of concrete every year, making them civilization’s most [...]

A federal jury in Utica, New York has found Syracuse-based Certified Environmental Services, Inc (CES), two of its managers, and one of its employees guilty of conspiracy and fraud relating to violations of the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act was put in place by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect citizens from [...]

We are currently working on an oil and gas distributor that is written with the direct writer Federated Insurance. As most of you know Federated has a special program for this class of business. What is interesting on the account we are working on is how poorly written the pollution coverage is that is placed [...]

Below is a list of Environmental Hot Topics we know impact a variety of your insured’s and prospects. I would like to schedule a time of about 20 minutes where I can call and review this with you. The purpose of the call is to point out areas of environmental opportunity we have identified in [...]

September 10, 2010
Information on hydraulic fracturing chemicals is key to agency study of potential impacts on drinking water
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that it has issued voluntary information requests to nine natural gas service companies regarding the process known as hydraulic fracturing. The data requested is integral to a broad scientific study [...]

Pretty soon companies’ toxic release data may be available to the public before the pollution is actually released into the environment. Unlikely, but the EPA is getting faster each year at making public the data it has collected from companies’ Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data sheets.
Issued the same month it was collected, the EPA has [...]

EPA Construction Stormwater Rule Takes Effect February 1, 2010
By Meline MacCurdy and Russell Prugh
EPA has issued a long-awaited final stormwater rule, impacting nearly every construction and development project in the United States. The rule, published in the Federal Register on December 1, 2009, for the first time imposes an enforceable numeric limit on stormwater discharges [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Share the following with any client’s you have than can be responsible for designing or maintaining storm water systems. The potential liability created through this court decision is probably not covered by your standard insurance program for your impacted client’s. Impacted businesses should take a proactive approach by making sure [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: I have been talking for years how storms water runoff is a big exposures for any insured you work with that owns property, performs construction, farms, etc.. Here is a simple example to share with your insured’s about a manufacturer that created a storm water problem through their air emissions.
Four [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Michigan alone has 9,000 leaking underground storage tanks that we know about but do not have the money to clean them up. This means in Michigan at a minimum, we have 9,000 locations that can cause vapor intrusion just from tanks. How many more don’t we know about?
The questions for [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Brownfields for insurance agents are like annuities. Let me expand on this, first you help them with the pollution insurance for financial assurance (refer to attached document) and once they complete the Brownfield, there is a need for P&C insurance products to protect the new development.
A majority of cities and [...]

Nearly 40 years after the first Earth Day, this is irony: The United States has reduced the manmade pollutants that left its waterways dead, discolored and occasionally flammable.
But now, it has managed to smother the same waters with the most natural stuff in the world.
Animal manure, a byproduct as old as agriculture, has become an [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: While the crime listed below is a common everyday occurrence, it is the un-suspecting that need to understand the horizontal and vertical environmental liabilities created by shady / reactive storage tank owners.
In the state of Michigan alone we have 9,000 known leaking underground Storage Tanks (UST’s) where there is no [...]

Courtesy of Intelex Technologies Inc.
Thinking of bringing your business to a more sustainable place?
The best starting place for any business leader to embrace sustainability is to shift away from looking at sustainability in terms of how much it will cost, and towards assessing the returns it will generate.
Consider the phenomenon known as the Cost of [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Do you have Agricultural client’s impacted by Risk Management Program Regulations (RMPR)? Are they aware they have to update their RMPR every five years to stay in compliance.
If you have agricultural clients that use, store, manufacture or handle the on-site movement of 10,000 pounds or more of anhydrous ammonia they [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Below is information on a sustainable
website that can assist your construction and real estate developers to increase sales
and reduce environmental liabilities, while better protecting human health and the
environment.
When you consider that sustainability has become a social value and therefore a business opportunity, this service can offer some advantages.
Environmental Risk Management [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Here is a common, everyday environmental exposure for contractors. What do you do with excess material from job sites?
Environmental Risk Management Thought: Storm water runoff from road ways contains contaminates such as petroleum products, anti freeze, lead, cadmium, asbestos, hydraulic fluids… I hope this construction company at least had the [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Every business is impacted by environmental exposures and 98% of the business in the United States do not have the financial strength to self insure their environmental liabilities.
Below is a random sampling of environmental losses experienced by contractors.
Concrete Contractor

Laid an undercoat of slag while creating a new runway for a [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: This is a mini BP, just $500,000,000 and counting, States. I wonder which contractors and sub-contractors are being sued?
Clean-up continues through winter as oil spill damage lingers
By CAROL THOMPSON
LANSING – Cleanup efforts are still underway more than six months after 819,000 gallons of heavy crude oil spilled [...]

A blowout at a Pennsylvania natural gas well late Tuesday could heighten concerns about the safety of a controversial process to extract gas from shale rock.
The accident comes at a sensitive time for energy drillers, exactly one year after an explosion that led to the massive BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and just as [...]

By CHARLES WILSON
Associated Press Writer
April 4, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS
Indiana’s methamphetamine epidemic is leaving property owners stuck with the cleanup bill long after the meth labs have been dismantled by police.
An Indiana law that took effect two years ago says the cost of cleanup falls to property owners even though they likely had nothing to do with cooking [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: While Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) offer energy savings there is an environmental offset to their use. CFL recycling laws will cross the country.
However the big picture here is what commercial clients do you have that use Fluorescent lamps? How about your business? Fluorescent lamps have mercury in them and when [...]

environmental Strategist, between the lines: I am often asked to give examples of natural resource damages that would be covered under a pollution policy. In the example below, if the manure was properly applied and then a storm caused for excessive levels of manure to runoff and cause the fish kill, the cost [...]

MARYSVILLE, Mich. (AP) – Authorities say multiple explosions have been reported and at least one person has been hospitalized after a fire broke out at a Michigan welding supply company.
Marysville Police Chief Tim Buelow tells the Times Herald of Port Huron that an employee was removing a valve from a settling tank Monday morning when [...]

Working to boost the economy while protecting human health and the environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) a $400,000 grant to help retrofit construction equipment that is leased to construction projects throughout the Northeast.
Placing on this equipment slashes harmful pollutants from diesel engines, [...]

November 9, 2009
Washington, DC – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new 2 information on EPA and state enforcement of hazardous waste and air regulations. In addition, the EPA posted data that allows the public, for the first time, to compare toxic releases with compliance data from facilities. This is part of EPA’s ongoing [...]

I was recently asked by a client if title companies disclose environmental liens or cover them on title insurance policies. I offer the following and this supports the need to include environmental liability insurance as part of your real estate purchasing strategy.
Title Companies provide Title Policies for Lender Liability for Environmental Liens per ALTA Policies [...]