• What’s in your toolbox? Part 2: Groundwater Sampling

    Last month I discussed some of the common tools and equipment for soil sampling in a Phase Two Environmental Site Assessment. Many investigations will also require groundwater sampling, which will necessitate some additions and alterations to your sampling toolbox. Of course, you will still require

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    What’s in your toolbox? Part 1: Soil Sampling

    It must be January because I find myself out in the field conducting Phase Two Environmental Site Assessments, more than when the weather was nice and the ground was free of snow and ice. Loading up my gear got me thinking of all the equipment on my mental checklist for field sampling; which became

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    A Day in the Life, Part 2

    Further to last month’s blog about the day to day activities of an environmental consultant; here are a few more ‘day in the life’ summaries for various disciplines in the environmental field. Realistically, you likely wouldn’t (or couldn’t) do all this in a normal

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    A Day in the Life, Part 1

    Recently I have had several discussions with students and mentees who are interested in the activities of an environmental consultant. Understanding the daily tasks and business undertakings related to a potential career in environmental geoscience or engineering, is an important part of evaluating

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    October 2020 – Exploring Your Career Path

    As my regular readers may know, I am a big proponent of mentoring, and one of the common issues I talk about with new mentees (especially students and recent graduates) is trying to decide what career path to take in environmental geoscience. Some people know exactly what they want to do with their

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    So you want to start your own consulting business…. Part 2

    Last month I wrote about some of the important things to plan for if you want to start your own business. This moth I continue that discussion with more thoughts on the pitfalls and successes you may experience along the way. Build Your Team As a personal corporation or sole-proprietor you may

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    So you want to start your own consulting business…. Part 1

    I am sure there are many consultants out there who have been working from home for a few months, or they have been ‘Covid-ized’ and are looking for work; and are now seriously considering starting their own company and working for themselves. In fact, I have had several colleagues and mentees

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    Effective Communication

    I recently spent time dealing with the frustration of really poor communication from a variety of service providers. In contrast I also recently attended a post-report meeting with a new client, whose first comment was how pleased they were with the level of communication. From my viewpoint, I was

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    Tips For Working from Home

    Many people have been learning to work from home during this pandemic. For those of us who have been doing this for years, it’s no big change; but for new ‘WFH-ers’ this can be a challenge. For those just getting used to this (and it may continue for a while), or if you’re thinking of

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    Conducting ESA’s During a Pandemic

    There is so much information, and some disinformation regarding the current Covid-19 virus pandemic, I thought it would be timely to discuss a few suggestions for conducting Environmental Site Assessments in these crazy times. I won’t elaborate on hand-washing, social distancing, staying at

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