We bring practical advice on best practice governance and management systems, underpinned by focussed technical studies and local “boot on the ground” to help ensure that our clients have the information they need, in a format they can use, on time.

Our team and global network of associates bring expertise in a wide range of sectors and business functions, including finance, risk, health and safety, supply chain and stakeholder engagement amongst many others.  This experience enables us to provide highly focused and detailed analysis of opportunities, threats, assets and processes and to work with you to develop pragmatic responses to emerging challenges and commercially-sound advice on managing risk.

We regularly act as the Independent Environmental and Social Consultant on major projects, providing regulatory advice, environmental assessment and due diligence to investor-approved standards throughout the duration of the project.

Our quality of life depends on diverse and complex ecosystems. As more evidence and global initiatives point to the severity of biodiversity loss and the implementation of reverse measures, it is increasingly important for companies to understand and minimise their impact on ecosystems and the many natural resources essential for human development including food, fibre, fuel, and medicinal plants. As such there is an imperative need to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem services into the sustainable management of human and business development.

At Earth Active our team understands the risks and rewards that biodiversity presents.  We work with companies, lenders, NGOs and governments around the world to integrate biodiversity considerations into decision-making and to develop and improve business opportunities. We combine on-the-ground application of conservation and risk management in ecologically sensitive landscapes with our intimate understanding of international best practice to support our clients in identifying the biodiversity risks and opportunities associated with their projects.  We bring particular understanding of PS6 ad the IFC performance standards and our services include:

• Biodiversity and Ecosystem service risk management / impact assessment
• Critical Habitat Assessment
• ESIA development
• Mitigation Hierarchy
• Action Plans and Management Plans
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Biodiversity Offsets
• PS6 expertise
• Policy and Strategy

For further details please contact tom.mcarthur@earth-active.com

The Earth-Active team includes a strong core team of social experts who have decades of experience in addressing issues such as resettlement, cultural heritage, indigenous peoples, discrimination and inclusion.  This includes expertise in:

• Human Rights
• Gender and Women’s Empowerment
• Humanitarian Assistance
• International Peace and Security
• Social Assessment
• Labour Rights and Standards
• Community Health and Safety

Our team brings a practical perspective on incorporating social considerations into the development of policy, policy-based lending and community based and participatory interventions.  Accountability and transparency, through disclosure of information, engagement, grievance and complaints mechanisms, are fundamental components of good governance. Key to this is an understanding that environmental issues and social issues are intimately entwined, and that people do not fit into simple pigeonholes. Particular competencies include the following:

• Gender:  Our specialists have experience in appraising projects through a gender lens. This involves looking at inclusion and discrimination aspects in all matters; such as diversity, labor rights, resettlement and project benefits. Gender informed stakeholder engagement is key to garnering the rich diversity of questions, views, concerns and suggestions that communities have to offer.
• Sexual and Gender based Violence:  Our team has experienced this in education, government, agriculture, transport, construction and in refugee camps. We are sensitized to the need to appraise whether this may be an issue in our work.
• Inclusion and Discrimination:  Robust social assessment and stakeholder engagement is critical for projects. Through our involvement in diverse projects across all sectors and continents, we have a profound understanding of social dynamics within countries and cultures. We keep abreast of the evolving landscape of social risks and impacts as they play out against a backdrop of evolving global trends and values.
• Indigenous Peoples:  The term and concept of ‘indigenous’ is both championed as a human right by many countries and scorned as a socially decisive concept by others. Our team has a profound understanding of the politics, policies and status of indigenous peoples affairs around the globe.
• Labor Rights/Standards:  The ILO Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work include the abolition of forced labour and child labour, the right of freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the principle of non-discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. We bring access to expertise in all of the above.
• Migrant Workers:  Although the arrival of a significant workforce to an area can be a welcome source of economic opportunities (through the provision of services for example), we have seen through our project work, that it can also be the cause of conflict, stress and exclusion that needs to be addressed.
• Community Health and Safety:  Often, the health and safety impacts of individuals and communities that live near projects is not taken into account adequately during project preparation. This can lead to adverse impacts arising; with much reduced scope for their mitigation.  Provisioning ecosystem services such as water, air quality, soils and vegetation may be impacted resulting in health impacts.
• Fragility, Conflict and Violence:  Increasingly, development finance is being directed to fragile, conflict and vulnerable countries as efforts to reach the SDGs are ramped up.  The challenges faced in these countries are enormous but need to be addressed in a way that’s appropriate to regional and national contexts, available resources and constraints.  We bring strong expertise and experience of appraising projects in a manner appropriate to prevailing conditions and context.
• Stakeholder Engagement:  We bring extensive experience in stakeholder engagement and disclosure of information at both the policy level and at the practical level in development and project scenarios.
• Accountability and Grievance Redress:  We are familiar with the accountability mechanisms of a wide range of International Financial Institutions and private sector financial institutions and can assist both the appellants well as the host institutions.

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) has typically been one of the poor relatives in the ESG safeguards family; inadequately referred to in many IFI policies, comparatively vague in procedures and poorly attended to (unless there are material incidents and accidents). Local OHS consulting markets that should be supporting corporate and IFI OHS requirements are also relatively young, poorly resourced and inexperienced to comprehensively meet lenders’ requirements. The lack of sufficient and competent OHS resources is creating a bottleneck in project development which potentially exposes workers and communities to unnecessary risks.

At Earth-Active we are actively filling these gaps.  Our team of highly experienced OHS specialists bring decades of experience working on both project development and at operational sites.  This includes extensive cross-sector capabilities covering oil and gas, construction, marine environment, heavy industry, manufacturing, built environment, power and energy, utilities, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and agriculture.   They combine senior executive experience with a ‘hands-on’ practical approach which helps set our services apart.  Our services include

• OHS Due Diligence
• OHS scoping and mitigation during project development
• Construction and Operational OHS Management Plans
• Assessment, assurance and monitoring audits and inspections
• Policy Statements and Management Systems
• Emergency Management and Response
• Leadership and behavioural change programs
• Mentoring, Training and Capacity Building
• Independent Incident Investigations and Root Cause analysis

For further details please contact michael.nates@earth-active.com