Our Services

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental issues of our time, and First Environment has been active in international policy, standards development, and coordination regarding climate change science since 1995, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their Second Assessment Report. It was then that our specialties grew to include services that promoted climate mitigation efforts, such as greenhouse gas management and emission reductions, renewable fuels production and certification, and adaptation planning. We work closely with communities, corporations, and public and federal agencies to define sustainability and climate change mitigation goals and facilitate implementation of suitable programs. This may include implementation of resource recovery strategies such as composting; cogeneration facilities; and anaerobic digestion for renewable energy production; energy conservation plans; greenhouse gas emission reduction project planning; corporate sustainability and/or emission reporting; or integration of sustainable practices into existing management systems and procedures.

Climate Change Adaptation

First Environment is committed to encouraging adaptation and resiliency planning among public entities and sharing the latest updates from the climate science community to educate and empower our clients. As a pioneer in this ever-growing field, we’ve managed some of the first projects in the U.S. that tackle the most complex climate change challenges. We regularly guide federal agencies, public entities, and municipalities across the country to incorporate adaptation and resiliency planning into their day to day management procedures. We’ve led the development of climate action plans, integration of sustainability efforts with ISO 14001 environmental management systems, promotion of greenhouse gas inventory management plans, and preparation of vulnerability assessments and asset risk models. These products enable organizations to better understand the tangible risks climate change poses to their infrastructure and day to day procedures, and help decision-makers in long-term planning of investments. First Environment is also quickly becoming a leader in helping public and private entities take advantage of green bonds—one of the fastest growing classes of fixed-assets investment which focus on projects resulting in concrete environmental benefits. We assist organizations in identifying opportunities for funding from green bonds and ensure the necessary project requirements under recognized standards (i.e., Green Bond Principles) are addressed.

Climate Change Mitigation

First Environment supports our clients’ climate change mitigation goals related to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by providing technical assistance in support of offset project development as well as corporate inventory development and facility reporting. We help clients develop a full understanding of how a GHG inventory impacts the organization’s business strategy, risk management, operations improvements, positions on policy, and relationships with stakeholders. Our clients include both private and public entities and represent a variety of sectors, including oil and gas, power generation, mining and metals, transportation, forest products, waste management, and manufacturing. Our personnel are familiar with both voluntary and mandatory GHG programs and have been providing GHG services to the carbon market for more than 15 years. We have also been involved in the development process of domestic and international climate policy and regulation, as well as the ISO 14064 standard.

Environmental Resource Recovery

First Environment’s staff has extensive experience working collaboratively with municipal utility authorities and wastewater treatment plants to develop environmental programs that maximize resource use and recovery of derived waste and identify available public funding. We specialize in integrating sustainability objectives and solutions with existing systems to help agencies create new revenue streams, promote beneficial reuse, and realize significant cost savings over time. Our expertise across a broad range of environmental specialty disciplines enables us to design programs based on a variety of systems engineering applications. We also optimize and integrate sustainability solutions to make it easy for agencies to meet regulatory mandates and surpass their sustainability goals.