Corporate environmental officers have a fiduciary responsibility and duty of care to be aware of all material environmental liabilities of the corporation, to make knowledgeable decisions regarding the effective management of those liabilities and to assure that an appropriate financial reserve is allocated and accurately reported to shareholders.

Appropriate evaluation of liabilities and effective management of their mitigation can create millions of dollars of difference in annual spending, but more importantly can also prevent brand image problems, negative community relations in important markets, recruiting difficulties attracting socially responsible employees or regulatory barriers to working in sensitive locations. Much of the duty of care for environmental liability can appear to be intangible, but the impact to shareholder value can be very tangible.

Decision Strategies has an industry best practice for characterization of environmental risk and uncertainty that integrates legal, technical, property, public relations and financial issues into a transparent process. This enables teams to have confidence in their plan for the site, and for corporate officers to have clarity on meeting their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders. The clarity creates confidence in the plan, and minimizes management oversight time.