CHAPTER 9
Approvals and Permits
Every major project requires a comprehensive plan to manage the approvals process, a permitting plan and register to track permits, and an approvals schedule that is realistic and manageable. The approvals schedule should capture all of the milestones and tasks required to receive the necessary approvals and permits to build the project. The schedule should be integrated into the overall project schedule in order to ensure that timing of the approvals and permits are managed along with the rest of the project schedule.
Approvals are high-level permissions from governing bodies that allow the organization to proceed with the entire project. Permits are the detailed permissions for each component of the project that are typically provided by a variety of regulatory agencies. Examples include building permits, permits to take water, permits to dispose waste, and permits for air and water emissions.
Once high-level approvals are secured, continued permitting efforts will require continued stakeholder engagement with government regulatory bodies and local communities to ensure that stakeholder support continues during the permitting process. Engaging local communities and other key stakeholders during the approvals and permitting process is a critical component to receiving the required approvals and permits. Facilitating open and consistent dialogue between all the affected parties will help with this.
The preceding chapters have taken you through identifying the relevant sustainability topics for your major project to integrating them into its design. We now provide an overview of what is important to get the project approved and permitted, and to integrate the permitting process into project delivery.
9.1 Approvals
The primary approval for most major projects is the environmental impact statement (EIS), which documents the findings of a project's impact assessment (IA). The IA process starts with a comprehensive series of baseline studies to document the project's social and environmental setting before the project starts.
Baseline Studies
One of the first tasks of understanding a project's potential impacts is to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the physical, biological, chemical, environmental, and socioeconomic contexts of the proposed project site and area of impact (AOI). This applies to greenfield sites, brownfield sites, and project expansions. A thorough baseline study that is integrated with the principles of sustainable development will provide a solid foundation for the environmental and socioeconomic impact assessment, and ongoing reporting requirements.
Typically, an external consultancy is hired by the project for their specific experience and skills to execute specialized baseline studies, particularly in the environment and socioeconomic areas. For environment, these specialties might include air and water quality, biodiversity, aquatic life, flora and fauna, hydrology, hydrogeology, meteorology, and geochemistry. For social, specialties often include sociology, anthropology, economic analysis, geopolitical science, and indigenous studies.
To ensure that the project is taking an approach that prioritizes sustainability, the project team must ensure that the scope of work for any external consultant includes a plan to engage and to work alongside local communities. A baseline study is used as a starting point to forecasting possible project impacts on the local environmental and socioeconomic contexts. When the baseline study has incorporated local input (perspectives, knowledge, viewpoints), the impact assessment will be more accurate, contribute to a better forecast of future impacts, and provide improved information for project planning.
The results of the baseline study are primarily intended to support the development of the IA. However, their equally high value comes in establishing effective monitoring programs during project development and operations. With some regulations requiring ongoing monitoring programs, baseline studies can lead into sustainability monitoring programs.
As discussed in the previous chapter, it is important to review the baseline study results to ensure that the data collected will meet requirements of the approvals process and provide a starting point for ongoing sustainability monitoring that will be used during construction and operations. Understanding the current state prior to project development and measuring impact through carefully selected monitoring parameters are critical to successfully managing the project.
Impact Assessments
The standard objective for executing an IA is to anticipate the future consequences of project design and decisions. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) was the first and is still the most popular focus for impact assessments. The resulting environmental impact statement (EIS) that comes out of the assessment process is required for approval of a major project in most countries around the world. Depending on the project's jurisdiction, the IA process could be constrained to impacts on the biophysical environment, as was traditionally the case. However, most projects now require a broader IA process that includes social and economic studies.
IAs are now incorporating more sustainability aspects in the assessment process. This means the assessment has been expanded to include future expected positive and negative consequences that impact on the social, economic, and environmental aspects of the local community and environment. This is typically called a social and environmental impact assessment (SEIA) or an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA). The SEIA process expands on the traditional EIA and incorporates various techniques, such as the natural, social, physical, and health sciences as well as climate science, local economic development, gender relations, and poverty.
A major project will often hire an external consulting firm to execute the impact assessment. It is important that the project team maintain a high level of active engagement with consultants. The impact assessment process must incorporate all the plans for integrating sustainability into the project that has already been done by the project team. It is also important to communicate the IA results back to the broader project team so that they can use the information to understand risks and use the data to guide project design and execution planning. It is yet another opportunity to cross-pollinate ideas across the project team and create a better project.
Almost all IA processes will require input and collaboration from various local stakeholders. To be fully comprehensive, applicable, and effective, the IA will require participation from local experts, which might include local biodiversity, land usage, and animal migration patterns. The external consultants hired as subject-area specialists should be aware of, or, better yet, have a strategy to engage with, local stakeholders and incorporate local knowledge. Local stakeholders do not necessarily have to be officially recognized “experts” in their field. They are more often people who have been living with and/or relying on the local environmental and social environments. An IA scope of work for the consultant should include goals that go beyond regulatory compliance and incorporate the project's sustainability goals.
Project Commitments
The IA will identify socioeconomic and environmental commitments. These are obligations to fulfill, and not all of which will be regulated by jurisdictional law. These nonregulated obligations typically emerge through an impact assessment process, as well as stakeholder consultations or community agreements. And they are as critical to project development as regulatory obligations because they require the acceptance and ongoing support from the local communities. All commitments are then input into the project commitment register, as discussed in Chapter 8, which ensures that results of the IA are tracked and managed.
9.2 Permits
Once major project approvals are secured, the project will need to apply for a large number of individual permits that, once received, allow development of the project to proceed. The required permits can range from environmental permits for water taking and waste water treatment to building permits, communication permits, and permits for operating airports or railroads. Each project location and government jurisdiction will have regulations and guidelines that must be followed for the project to be constructed.
Because of the legal implications associated with not obtaining the required permits and the costly delays that accompany noncompliance, the project team must establish a system for identifying, tracking, and managing permits.
Tracking permits requires a logical process that includes:
- Researching and understanding the regulations, laws, and guidelines that might pertain to your project based on the project description and the jurisdiction in which it will be developed. Identify all appropriate government agencies and governing bodies that are applicable to your project. Start by consulting with government representatives, other industries in the area of similar scope, and consultants who operate in the area.
- Build a list of relevant permits that the project must secure and assemble a permit register. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet or it can be a more comprehensive database issued through a third-party vendor.
- For each item in the permit register, determine how the organization will be able to meet the permit requirements and document the information that will be required for the permit application.
- For each permit, identify which group or person will be responsible for preparing the permit materials and who will be responsible for submitting the permit.
- For all permits logged in the permit register, identify the milestones and dates by which the project must submit the permit application in order that the project can stay on schedule.
The project team should identify one person to develop and manage the permit register, and ensure that the project submits all required permits. This team member facilitates coordination between project areas, if needed, and can be a resource to help each department prepare their permit applications. The project team may also need additional support with local regulatory issues. The permit requirements can be open to interpretation and simply reading regulations does not always provide a good perception of what is actually required to obtain certain permits. Laws and regulations do tend to change, so the project team must also be aware of any potential changes that could impact your project.
Permitting Plan
A permitting plan should be used with your permit register to support the permit applications process. It should detail the process for identifying, tracking, and completing regulatory permits. Your permit register will help ensure that permitting occurs in a timely and orderly fashion and that no permit applications “fall through the cracks” or result in project delays. The permitting plan will also ensure that the change management process is followed and any change in engineering design or construction plans will require a regulatory review process to identify any permit changes required due to the change.
Beyond Regulatory Compliance
Most regulations are designed for projects to meet minimum environmental, social, or economic requirements and may not be sufficient to satisfy the local community or project commitments. Permit applications should be aligned with the organization's internal policies and the project's commitments to ensure that there is zero disconnect between the permit documents and other public documents.
9.3 Summary
Project approvals and permits is a significant phase in the life of a major project and can pose considerable risk to the project schedule. Getting the project approvals and permits in place should not be seen as the end goal for the project, but rather as a starting point for the management of permits and maintaining the overall legal compliance of the project. The project sustainability planning should be carried through into the engagement with the local community and the approvals process.
Approvals and permits provide valuable information for the project team. Permit requirements must be integrated into detailed design and included in procurement documents so that construction contractors are aware of the permit requirements before their work starts. The systems and tools required to track environmental performance and compliance with permits is outlined in more detail in Chapter 12, “Construction Management.”