Environmental solutions by definition are designed to solve an environmental problem. The problem is one that you, as a professional or an entrepreneur, have been asked to address or that you simply see a better way to make progress on the issue. Under all circumstances the solution will need either approval or acceptance to be implemented. In many cases approval will come in the form of meeting existing regulatory requirements. In other cases it may require a more widespread economic or legal acceptance. In all cases public budgets, regulations, laws, or agreements will be involved.

In many respects what we are discussing here is the answer to: Who has to approve this? and What actions are necessary to implement the solution? Let’s look at some examples.

Permits, agency approvals, allocations of budgeted funds, and site requirements are all typical examples of actions necessary to implement a solution already approved by law. There may be debates and proofs involved to determine if the proposed solution meets the regulation or existing law, and there can be many detailed technical discussions, reports, and analyses to make these determinations. The format here is “meeting the existing laws and the regulations designed to implement them.” There might be a specific performance standard or numerical discharge or clean-up limit to meet. Here the goal is to demonstrate the ability of the solution to meet those established objectives. It is very important to note that any existing regulations or guidelines will likely have been determined by a past political process. Those political processes could be reignited if the solution proposed has never been tried before or if there is some degree of uncertainty around performance. Even if you are working on solutions within existing rules and regulations you can still have political implications.