Helping Risk Managers Communicate the Value of Environmental Due Diligence

Despite the doomsday headlines about store closures, there is a great deal of excitement and energy in the retail sector. Demand is high for redeveloping older, obsolete sites in areas with promising demographics. Technology is playing an important role is helping retailers identify the most promising sites quickly and efficiently while proactively managing risk. This webinar brings together retail sector experts Gregg Katz from the Atlanta Shopping Center Group and Stephanie Cegielski from ICSC to address the latest trends impacting the retail sector and how technology and data play a key role in site selection. The session is moderated by Dan Welby from EDR.

EDR’s PARCEL platform provides property assessors and due diligence professionals with tools to make projects of any scope more efficient and complete. The benefits are significantly amplified for portfolio projects that cover multiple properties, whether the project consists of four sites side-by-side or 1,000 sites across the country. Join us for a webinar to see how PARCEL can help you achieve Portfolio Perfection on your next multisite project. During this 45-minute presentation Tom Adams, Senior Product Manager at EDR will cover:

+ How PARCEL creates consistency in look, feel and language across all your company’s reports
+ Quality control mechanisms that can save hours and ensure salient data is consistent across all reports with in a project
+ Project management tools to keep large projects on time and within budget
+ Making last minute changes across multiple sites or the entire portfolio from one place
+ Global oversight to ensure everything stays on track

The last 15 minutes will allow for Q&A.

We hope you’ll join us as we explore how your team can save hours per property using PARCEL for portfolio projects.

Business conditions for the environmental industry are currently strong, particularly in infrastructure, transportation and commercial development markets. Still, forecasters are predicting the market will begin to experience recessionary conditions in the next 18-24 months. What’s your strategic plan? Are you positioned to benefit from any market changes, and what will be the opportunities and challenges?

Join us for this timely webinar and come away armed with the tips you need to position your firm for growth. Al Spiers, 2020 Environmental Group Founder and CEO, will give attendees proven strategies for developing an effective strategic growth plan. Topics will include: what markets are hot and not; strategic growth plans for expanding into new markets and geographies; improving key performance metrics to support investment strategies; and opportunities for using M&A as a growth strategy. This includes companies that may be considering selling and merging with a new, larger strategic partner.

The updated SOP was released by the SBA last Friday.

EDR is pleased to host Part II of last week’s webcast where we’ll focus exclusively on changes to the environmental guidelines. This 20-minute webinar is a must attend for anyone originating SBA 504 or 7a loans.
Version J of SOP 50 10 5 represents the agency’s first update to its environmental guidance since 2014 (when it adopted the revised ASTM Phase I E 1527 standard). EDR’s James Haberlen will provide a timely update on what this round of changes mean to the environmental due diligence required on any loans seeking the SBA’s approval.

With commercial real estate prices leveling out—and even dropping in some areas—interest rates on the rise, and the likelihood of another cyclical market downturn in the next 18-24 months, what should lenders and investors be doing differently now to protect themselves from property environmental risk? What environmental risks are tripping up property deals? What are the risks of ignoring vapor migration risk? Two attorneys will share their observations on common mistakes in due diligence, drawing from real-world case studies and provide specifics on how underwriting should change at this stage of the commercial real estate cycle.

EDR will share the late-breaking changes to the SBA’s SOP 50 10 5—the agency’s first update to its environmental guidance since 2014 (when it adopted the revised ASTM Phase I E 1527 standard). Speakers will share details on the changes coming out October 1 and effective in January 2018. Don’t miss this timely update on what this round of changes mean to the environmental due diligence required on any loans seeking the agency’s approval. Benefits:
-what’s changing?
-latest statistics on SBA lending volumes
-a primer on SBA’s tiered process for environmental investigations

Join us for the latest!

This timely track will distill the headlines into real-world intel about how the priorities of the U.S. EPA are taking shape in a Trump Presidency. Overmeyer will share the U.S. EPA's latest budget forecast, the recently released regulatory agenda, and likely areas of policy focus for site assessment and cleanup.

The speakers will highlight what is likely to change, and where bipartisan support remains strong. Outside the Beltway, macro market forces are converging to drive more interest in redeveloping contaminated properties than ever before. Attendees will leave with an understanding of why the U.S. property market is heading into an exciting period of “redevelopment renaissance.”

The industry's only application to screen for vapor encroachment risk will soon be new and improved. We're moving the VEC App to Lightbox, saving you time. These updates will also include major improvements to key VEC App features like the ground water flow tool, filtering, report output and more. Join us for a preview of the new VEC App.

Points on a Map, But Where?

With every map EDR delivers to you, we've harnessed the power of tax parcels to locate property records. Rather than simply plotting sites along a street, we've matched them to actual properties.

Join us on as we present a brief history of georeferencing, why location accuracy matters, and how EDR has created significant improvements to location data with Tax Parcel Georeferencing.

EDR's CEO, Chris Aronson, and our product team will introduce product improvements that change the fundamentals of data review, empowering you to do you best work faster.

• Property Boundaries on your Historical Sources, to quickly locate your target property boundary on your aerial photos, topos, and Sanborn® Maps.
• Improved EDR Lightbox®, newly updated and streamlined, with superior content and an intuitive interface.
• Coming this Summer: Property-Based Geocoding

Join us as we present our most exciting products advancements ever. This 1-hour session will help ensure you and your team make the most of these exciting new features.

Whether you are new to the environmental due diligence field or a seasoned veteran, this webinar offers something for you. EDR Insight is honored to bring you the expertise of Grady Shields, an attorney with Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP. Shields brings over 30 years of experience practicing environmental law, assisting clients with environmental due diligence and transactions, and counseling lenders on environmental issues.

At this webinar, Shields will share his insights on seven important issues impacting environmental due diligence in commercial real estate lending. This timely event will cover some of the latest environmental risks, like vapor migration, being pushed to the forefront, new emphasis on risk management tools like environmental insurance, the intense pressure on lenders by regulators and more. Take advantage of this opportunity to get some free advice from a trusted voice in environmental risk management.

Who Should Attend:

-Risk managers and loan officers at community banks
-Risk managers at national banks, looking for a quick refresher and update
-Environmental due diligence professionals serving lenders
-Insurance professionals

Expected Takeaways

Those attending should come away with a better grasp of:
-the need for pre-loan diligence, including diligence beyond the real property at issue
-the use and appropriate terms of borrower environmental indemnification agreements
-using both Pollution Legal Liability and Lender Environmental Liability coverage to limit lender risk
-how to maximize value, while minimizing lender risk, in default situations
-trends being driven by the regulators.

Project Managers (PMs) are the key to a professional services firm's success. Yet many firms promote technical people into roles they are not prepared or ready for. As a result, project profitability suffers and there is frustration at every level of the organization. By enabling project managers, through financial and systems training, automation, and accountability measures, the firm's profit margins can increase substantially.

In this webinar, attendees will be able to:
-Evaluate the challenges that cause many Project Managers to struggle with project profitability
-Understand the reasons that projects go over budget
-Review the financial aspects of project management that Project Managers need to know to be successful
-Learn how technology can help Project Managers deliver more profitable projects
-Develop some best practices to help Project Managers succeed

Speaker
June R. Jewell, CPA, President AEC Business Solutions
Jewell, a thought leader and expert in AEC firm profitability. has more than 28 years of business management consulting experience, and unsurpassed knowledge of the AEC industry. In addition to this role, she is the original founder and current strategic advisor of Acuity Business Solutions, a Deltek Premier Partner and consulting firm that works with AEC firms to support business profitability through web-based enterprise management technology.

She is the Amazon best-selling author of the book “Find The Lost Dollars: 6 Steps to Increase Profits in Architecture, Engineering and Environmental Firms.” Jewell has built and run a successful consulting practice, and is a highly sought after speaker at industry events and conferences. Her past speaking engagements include AIA, ACEC, SMPS, Design and Construction Network (DCN), Society for Design Administration (SDA), Zweig Group (formerly ZweigWhite), PSMJ, ROG Growth and Ownership Conference, Project Management Institute (PMI), Deltek Insight and Business of Architecture (BOA).

The new Clean Water Rule has significant implications for the way property due diligence will be conducted throughout the U.S. by altering the definitions and categories of jurisdictional waters and wetlands relating to the discharge of dredged/fill material into Waters of the U.S. These changes have the potential to greatly affect anyone involved in property assessments, land use, planning, development or lending.

Attempts to block its implementation made for a dramatic late summer and early fall. Tune into this time-sensitive event to ensure that you don’t miss out on important updates, the timing of the new revisions, and more importantly, how these changes impact the work you do, particularly for properties on or adjacent to waterbodies and wetland areas.

Attendees will benefit from:

· A leading expert’s take on the “what?” and the “why?” behind the changes
· Gaining clarity on who will be impacted
· Learning the specifics on how the new rule redefines “Waters of the U.S.”
· A close look at what you can expect and what you should be telling your clients
· An understanding of the differences between the new rule and existing rule

Don’t be caught off-guard. The new Clean Water Rule impacts the work you are doing today and could drastically impact the work you do tomorrow. Tune in for the latest!

Do you know where the market for property due diligence is heading? How is your business performance this year compared to industry benchmarks? How confident are you in your business forecast for next year?

The fourth quarter of 2015 is almost upon us, and that means, of course, that 2016 is just around the corner. Join us for our final ScoreKeeper webinar of the year when EDR Insight’s principal analyst Dianne Crocker will share her unique perspective on the latest state of the property due diligence market. Her presentation will provide attendees with a deep dive into the underlying economic and commercial real estate trends impacting the environmental due diligence market, and an in-depth look at the latest trends. Attendees of this 30-minute webinar will get answers to the following types of questions:

• Is my business over- or under-performing the overall market?
• What story does ScoreKeeper’s output tell about the regions driving the strongest 3Q growth?
• Is my state among the top 10 fastest-growers this year?
• Are the hottest mid-year metros still hot or cooling? And if so, who are the new entries taking their place?
• What do the latest data on market indicators impacting demand for your services say about the future business climate you’ll have to contend with?
• How aggressive should your business forecast be for 2016? How about 2017?

Concentrations of credit, particularly those related to commercial real estate loans, have been a common factor in bank distress during economic downturns. Since the financial crisis, regulators have been laser focused on ensuring that the nation’s largest financial institutions – those with $10+ billion in assets – have sound stress testing and capital planning programs in place to ensure financial stability.

The focus is trickling down to the community bank level and examiners are now asking smaller institutions to have appropriate programs in place. For many community bankers, there is uncertainty as to what examiners expect, as well as a lack of resources and expertise to comply. There is also a misconception about the value of stress testing, with attitudes ranging from “it’s a necessary evil” to “it is an integral part of our strategic planning process.”

EDR, in partnership with sister company Trepp, is pleased to offer this complimentary webinar “Stress Testing 101 – Best Practices for the Community Banker.”

Attendees with get answers to some commonly asked questions, including:

-What is a stress test?
-What is capital adequacy stress testing?
-What are the regulators’ expectations?
-What are the larger banks doing?
-What is the current state of stress testing?
-What do stress testing results look like?
-What macroeconomic variables go into projections?

Recent enforcement actions by bank regulators are heightening the need to establish formal policies for third party vendor management. Financial institutions that use outside firms for all types of underwriting and other bank functions are ramping up their oversight of outside firms and for some, the data management burden is not insignificant. This timely event will focus specifically on how risk managers can develop effective policies for managing outside vendors for appraisals and environmental assessments.

EDR is pleased to host a webinar on this timely topic with Mitch Kreeger, a well-known subject matter expert on valuation, environmental and seismic risk, and regulatory compliance topics, will share his insights and advice on establishing an effective vendor management policy for appraisers and environmental professionals. Kreeger will explore the myriad ways that attendees can improve vendor management, from initial project bidding to vendor selection to monitoring vendors over time.

At this educational webinar, attendees will receive advice on managing relationships with appraisers and environmental consultants, including answers to the following:

• What should we consider in selecting the “right” vendor for the job?
• How do we find quality appraisers? EPs?
• What guidance should our institution be giving our appraisers and EPs?
• What criteria should we be using to grade vendors and monitor performance?
• How are banks facing today’s vendor management challenges?

Among the top challenges lenders face today is the need to meet higher expectations set by the OCC and the Federal Reserve governing the use of third-party vendors. While the guidelines were released over a year ago, there is still confusion about what institutions should be doing.

One thing, however, is certain. Effective vendor management takes resources, and many institutions are finding it necessary to add staff and/or technology to help with the cause, particularly smaller institutions. The regulators have made it clear, vendor management is not just a one-time assessment, but is an ongoing process, and monitoring vendors long term is as important as the initial due diligence.

EDR is pleased to host a webinar on this timely topic on Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. EST. Scott Roller, former head of vendor management at Citigroup, will provide clarity on the new regulations and help break down regulator expectations into easy-to-understand terms. Roller will explore key dimensions that attendees can use as the foundation for building out their own robust vendor management oversight program, from initial vendor risk classification all the way through ensuring adequate executive engagement in vendor management.

Attendees will learn best practices for satisfying regulators with this educational workshop, including answers to the following:
• What does the latest regulatory guidance on vendor management require?
• What are the biggest headaches banks are facing in complying with them?
• What advice is recommended for smaller banks struggling with limited manpower/resources?
• What are bank examiners looking for during audits?
• What are the latest best practices for policies and procedures?
• How are banks coping with the need to track and monitor vendors?
• What are the most common shortcomings that audits reveal?

Attendees will also receive a free copy of a white paper on vendor oversight and the cost of compliance.

Tune in for the industry’s only inside look at how the first half of the new year shaped up. In this complimentary web event, Dianne Crocker will share the latest stats from EDR’s ScoreKeeper service on how the property due diligence market looks at mid-year—as well as what your forecast for the second half will look like. Attendees of this 60-minute webinar will learn:

• The strength of commercial real estate investment and lending activity
• ScoreKeeper’s barometers of regional, state and metro hot spots for Phase I ESA volume
• Key forces driving demand for due diligence this year
• Changes in risk tolerance from the user community
• EDR Insight’s near-term forecast for environmental due diligence