environmental Strategist, between the lines: Educational institutions are one of the most at-risk businesses for environmental liabilities. We know for a fact that our youth are some of the most susceptible to environmental exposures, as they’re still developing.
I could strategize at length on the advantages for educational institutions to transfer their environmental liabilities to a third-party insurance carrier versus self-insuring. When we work with Fortune 500 companies on transferring their environmental liabilities, first and foremost they want to buy coverage for bodily injury.
Generally, however, “we do not have it in our budget” is often the response from an environmentally-uneducated insured. The following question can be an effective way to counter that objection. “When weighing the costs of obtaining this important coverage, it would be worthwhile to consider from what source would 100% of the funds come for legal fees, bodily injury to students or staff, clean-up costs, third party damages, third party business income, loss of state-matched funds during clean-up, etc. should an environmental loss occur?”
Now that you have their attention, use the attached environmental Risk Assessment (eRA) for Educational Institutions to educate your insureds on the advantages of transferring their environmental liabilities to a responsible insurer.
We’ve developed eRA’s for over 80+ classes of business to get you and your clients on the same page about the environmental exposures impacting their operations. We send our eRA’s in a Word format, so you can cut and paste them into a marketing presentation that compliments your agencies marketing program. Our partner agencies find utilizing the eRA’s is an excellent way to leverage their insurance sales through educating the client about the fiscal realities of pollution protection. It genuinely does have a measurable impact to their bottom line and strategic financial planning.
The eRA’s come in three parts:
Review of environmental exposure impacting your insured.
Environmental loss examples
Environmental insurance coverages that are appropriate for the insured to consider.
If your insured recognizes the value and elects to further pursue environmental insurance coverage, Environmental Risk Managers is here to make your job easier by utilizing our network and expertise to market your client’s submission and supply you with the best coverage options.
environmental Strategist®, between the lines: Illicit Abandonment is an environmental exposure, which most commercial real estate lessors don’t think about.
Let me digress, back in 2008 when the economy tanked, we received a call from an insurance agent who explained his client had a leased facility and the tenants went out of business. When the client went to inspect their property, they found raw materials stored in 55 gallon drums, totes and other storage containers, which were left behind by the bankrupt tenant. None of the containers were leaking or causing an environmental liability, but to rent the building out the owner had to get rid of the raw materials and it cost more than $80,000. That is a simple example of illicit abandonment and this exposure can be covered with pollution liability insurance.
The article below talks about refurbishing of containers, such as 55 gallon drums, and the environmental exposures it creates for workers and neighbors to business those refurbish containers. The article also talks about how most containers they receive have some residual product left in the containers.
Photo credit: www.jabat.com
When you see a facility like the one in this picture, which stores old containers outside over an unsealed surface, over time residuals will leak out and contaminate the ground and ground water. Under federal law the owner of the property is ultimately responsible for the environmental condition of their property. What if the contamination migrates onto a neighboring property?
What the article does not talk about is the huge environmental exposure storage and use of 55 gallon drums, totes, buckets… creates for businesses that use them. How does the business buy the raw materials; FOB point of shipment, or FOB point of delivery? Do they store them in a secure area with secondary containment?
As your client’s professional risk manager, do you go out and inspect their rental properties to make sure a tenant is not creating an environmental exposure for your insured? What is the tenant’s strategy to meet the environmental indemnification contained in the lease agreement they signed?
Is the tenant’s financial assurance strategy to go out of business if they create an environmental liability, and leave the property owner with an illicit abandonment exposure?
Working with Environmental Risk Managers we can coach you and your client’s on better managing and transferring their environmental exposures.
ERMI Sales Strategy: Every time you go out and inspect a client’s tenant, it creates a potential new sales opportunity for you with the tenant. While serving your client’s better, you are also creating a great opportunity to increase your sales. Win /Win!!!!!
environmental Strategist®, between the lines: Illicit Abandonment is an environmental exposure, which most commercial real estate lessors don’t think about.
Let me digress, back in 2008 when the economy tanked, we received a call from an insurance agent who explained his client had a leased facility and the tenants went out of business. When the client went to inspect their property, they found raw materials stored in 55 gallon drums, totes and other storage containers, which were left behind by the bankrupt tenant. None of the containers were leaking or causing an environmental liability, but to rent the building out the owner had to get rid of the raw materials and it cost more than $80,000. That is a simple example of illicit abandonment and this exposure can be covered with pollution liability insurance.
The article below talks about refurbishing of containers, such as 55 gallon drums, and the environmental exposures it creates for workers and neighbors to business those refurbish containers. The article also talks about how most containers they receive have some residual product left in the containers.
When you see a facility like the one in this picture, which stores old containers outside over an unsealed surface, over time residuals will leak out and contaminate the ground and ground water. Under federal law the owner of the property is ultimately responsible for the environmental condition of their property. What if the contamination migrates onto a neighboring property?
What the article does not talk about is the huge environmental exposure storage and use of 55 gallon drums, totes, buckets… creates for businesses that use them. How does the business buy the raw materials; FOB point of shipment, or FOB point of delivery? Do they store them in a secure area with secondary containment?
As your client’s professional risk manager, do you go out and inspect their rental properties to make sure a tenant is not creating an environmental exposure for your insured? What is the tenant’s strategy to meet the environmental indemnification contained in the lease agreement they signed?
Is the tenant’s financial assurance strategy to go out of business if they create an environmental liability, and leave the property owner with an illicit abandonment exposure?
Working with Environmental Risk Managers we can coach you and your client’s on better managing and transferring their environmental exposures.
ERMI Sales Strategy: Every time you go out and inspect a client’s tenant, it creates a potential new sales opportunity for you with the tenant. While serving your client’s better, you are also creating a great opportunity to increase your sales. Win /Win!!!!!
Merger, Acquisition & Pollution Protection (MAPP) insurance blends Representation & Warranties coverage with Pollution Insurance offering a financial assurance backstop for M&A’s. The benefits gained by making MAPP part of your M&A risk transfer strategy is why it has become part of “Best Practices”.
The amazing MAPP Math Quiz below gives you the correct answer every time to minimize risk, maximize value and optimize resources with your M&A’s.
MAPP Math Quiz:
Pick a number from 1-9.
Multiply by 3.
Add 3.
Multiply by 3 again.
Now add the two digits together to find your answer.
Now look up your number for the correct answer in the list below…
1. Assume your employees, attorneys and accountants did their job flawlessly.
2. No need to have any financial assurances because closing contracts contain Indemnification
clauses, i.e. environmental indemnification, taxes, litigation.
3. If something goes wrong with the M&A your strategy is to litigate with your own monies.
4. Environmental site assessments offer all the protection needed
5. Assume there are no R&W or environmental exposures with an M&A
6. Self-insure your R&W and environmental exposures for a M&A
7. Put your head in the sand
8. Let a competitor counsel on the benefits of investing in MAPP and take your M&A business
9. Team with the MAPP pioneer, Environmental Risk Managers to coach your clients on the value investing in MAPP will bring to their M&A’s
10. Convince yourself and your client’s they will never have an M&A defaul
11. Do nothing and when an M&A experiences a loss sue the attorneys, accountants, insuranceagents… Errors & Omission insurance
12. Assume an M&A would rather spend 100 cents on the dollar out of their own pocket paying for R&W / environmental losses, legal fees… versus transferring their risk to an insurance carrier for fractions of a cent on the dollar.
ERMI, your M&A strategic partner and trusted advisor for MAPP
environmental Risk Managers, between the lines: Environmental Risk Managers assists businesses to manage and transfer their environmental exposures so they are better able to compete in today’s business environment. What is “today’s business environment”?
Below is one example of “today’s business environment”. It involves life cycle analysis (cradle to grave) where manufacturers are not just responsible for manufacturing a product, but also responsible for the disposal of the product at the end of its useful life, all designed to better protect human health and the environment.
The auto industry is another example for life cycle analysis where some state laws mandate the auto manufacturer be responsible for the removal and disposal of mercury switches from their automobiles prior to demolition. Do any of your clients have potential life cycle exposures? Proactive engagement while addressing potential environmental exposures typically leads to the most favorable outcomes for all parties involved.
The life cycle analysis strategy has been growing for years and will only continue to do so as we transition from our current slash and trash economy to environmental economics with a emphasis on sustainability. Why is the transition to environmental economics taking place? Because it’s better for human health and the environment. How are your clients managing the life cycle of their waste and products?
Peggy McQuaid, of Albany, dumps prescriptions into a collection bin during a prescription drug drop-off day event at the Albany Senior Center in Albany on Oct. 29, 2011. (Dean Coppola/Bay Area News Group)
Supreme Court: Big Pharma must pay for prescription drug disposal in Alameda County
By Doug Oakley
OAKLAND — A groundbreaking law that forces the pharmaceutical industry to pay for collection and disposal of unused drugs passed its final court test Tuesday, and the Alameda County officials who originated the concept predicted it will now spread across the country.
Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the industry’s challenge of Alameda County’s law, which is intended to keep drugs out of the bay, the groundwater basin and the hands of abusers. A federal appeals court had earlier upheld the ordinance.
“This was the pharmaceutical industry really trying to put the genie back in the bottle,” said Art Shartsis, an outside attorney who defended a lawsuit filed by the pharmaceutical industry against Alameda County. “This is an innovative ordinance where a county required a particular industry to take responsibility of a post-consumer use that is dangerous to dispose of. I don’t think there was another program like this in the country.”
Shartsis and Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, who authored the law, said similar programs are expected soon in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties and in King County in Washington state. The pharmaceutical industry estimated it will have to pay $1.2 million a year in Alameda County alone to follow the law. The county estimated the cost at about $330,000 a year.
“But the cost is really insignificant,” Shartsis said. “It will cost one penny for every $10 in drugs they sell in the county. It’s about as minimal as you can get.”
The plaintiffs in the case, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association and the Biotechnology Industry Organization, argued that the law interfered with the free flow of goods guaranteed in the Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause.
But they weren’t able to find a court to go along. “We won at every stage,” said Alameda County Counsel Donna Ziegler, who added that legal fees were over $500,000. “We’re ecstatic, and we are looking forward as additional jurisdictions follow the lead of Alameda County.”
Ziegler said two plans already have been submitted by pharmaceutical industry groups to collect and destroy the drugs. Those plans are being reviewed by the county department of environmental health, which will oversee the program.
The program run by the pharmaceutical industry in Alameda County will be rolled out over three years, and officials estimate there will be 110 sites for drug collection at police stations, pharmacies and hospitals, funded by the pharmaceutical industry. There are currently 30 drug take-back sites run by the county. For a list of the existing sites, go to http://.
Miley said he wrote the law at the urging of a now defunct organization that focused on drug abuse. The law also is designed to prevent contamination of the environment when pills and elixirs are flushed down the drain or thrown into garbage cans whose contents end up in landfills. It was modeled on legislation governing the safe disposal of tires, batteries and other potentially harmful goods. It prohibits drug companies from charging fees to pass the costs to local consumers.
“People hold on to drugs and they don’t know what to do with them,” Miley said. The responsibility to dispose of them should be on business, he said. “Taxpayers should not have to pay for this.”
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said the need in the county is great. In September, her office participated in a drug take-back event and collected 799 pounds of pills in one day.
“I have talked to mothers and fathers of children who have become addicted to prescription drugs,” O’Malley said, “and when they run out, they turn to street drugs, and many of those children have died.”
The plaintiffs in the case issued a joint statement Tuesday that said the industry would “continue to actively work to educate consumers on the appropriate use of medicines, including providing information about safeguarding medicines in the home and promoting safe, secure and effective methods for disposal.”
