The importance of inorganic testing

Hyde-based soil and chemical analysis laboratory Envirolab has its eyes firmly set on the future. Like most companies working in a property sector suspended in agonising vegetative stasis, its workload has suffered, but unlike many of its competitors it has no intentions of scaling back operations.

Already one of the most qualified and comprehensive companies of its kind, Envirolab is on the verge of completing a hefty £1m investment in a brand new inorganics laboratory. A full-blown media shindig and opening ceremony awaits in mid-July.

The opening ceremony will sync with an ongoing media push to raise Envirolab’s industry profile, including promotional gimmicks like vouchers and video documentaries; this is all clearly a big deal for Envirolab.

By expanding its analytical remit to include all common inorganic contaminants, it can handle all its clients’ testing needs in-house. The investment will virtually eliminate the need for subcontracting and, crucially, will put the company in a prime position when resurgent property developers come knocking with contaminated land conundrums. Potentially, there is a lot of work to be had.

The government’s ambitious target of three million new homes by 2020 will have to go somewhere, and the enduring challenge of recasting brownfield plots into usable land will become more pronounced than ever before in the coming years. There’s certainly plenty of it; according to the National Land Use Database of Previously Developed Land, England alone has 26,510 hectares of previously used land (43 percent of the total) suitable for build.

Given that making contaminated land habitable is so dependent on developer confidence – is it cost effective? Is it sustainable? Is it safe? – This puts a premium on high-tech, quick-turnaround testing.

Which is where Envirolab comes in and, augmented with its inorganics wing, there are hopes that it will acquire a market profile that finally matches what would appear to be a formidable, albeit relatively unsung, reputation. Arriving at Envirolab HQ, I’m met by John Gustafson, an effusive company director and the man charged with making the inorganics venture a success.

“The inorganics lab has been in planning for about 18 months,” he says excitedly, going on to explain how six staff have already been recruited, with another six to follow (putting Envirolab’s final number at 31).

By all accounts Gustafson’s appointment last May was something of a coup. With over 20 years’ experience of contaminated land analysis at some of the industry’s most prestigious laboratories and having transformed the fortunes of Regen-IQ by developing its contaminated land division from scratch, he seems the perfect candidate to take Envirolab into uncharted territory.

He duly offers to take me on a whistle-stop tour of the new laboratory, which is located across the yard from Envirolab’s existing offices in a 500sq m former warehouse. Our first stop is the sample reception.

“This is where all new samples are brought to get checked, sorted and labelled,” he announces. “The samples are delivered in cool boxes, which are then divided into the different soil types. By sorting the samples accurately early on, life is made a lot easier.”

Every sample is different, and variables like soil type (from straightforward loams to complex clays) and stone percentage, as well as a vast array of complex issues related to contamination, merit forensic consideration. Soil testing is governed by the Environment Agency’s Monitoring Certification Scheme (MCerts), with each sample requiring a different approach.

 “The presence of high levels of industrial by-products such as oil, cyanide and asbestos have to be established before testing begins,” Gustafson says. “Asbestos can be difficult to spot, but its presence affects the analysis we can do. An oily sample could contaminate expensive equipment so its fundamental oil is recognised.”

I am joined by Envirolab managing director Claire Knighton. “Envirolab is not a conveyor-belt laboratory fixated on churning out digits,” explains Knighton. “We focus on quality, accuracy and unrivalled client liaison to ensure our customers get the best possible service.”

This includes adhering to a set of almost 30 key performance indicators that include daily progress meetings, a host of transparency procedures, strict rules for turnaround times and numerous guidelines for client interaction and responsivity.

Alongside its testing portfolio, Envirolab prides itself on employing some of the most highly qualified staff in the industry, as well as operating an in-house courier, supplying clients with cool boxes, bottles and jars free of charge.
Envirolab was formed in 2001 after RSK Environment sold a minority stake to American company ENSR (now a part of Fortune 500 company, AECOM) and took over its UK-based, mainly geosciences-focused operation (ENSR International), which included a laboratory.

Once the deal had gone through, a decision was made to rebrand the laboratory into a stand-alone business. The inorganics laboratory is not the first ambitious move that Envirolab has taken in the interest of company growth and adaptation to client needs.

In 2006, it invested £200,000 in new instruments and became one of the few laboratories in the UK to achieve UKAS accredited for speciated total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) analysis. Then, a year later, it became a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week operation.

One crucial differentiator for Envirolab is its obsessive adherence to a demanding litany of key performance indicators and an assiduous, obsessive attention to detail.

From my personal point of view, the main difference to the way Envirolab approach the work is that there’s a much bigger emphasis on getting it right,” Gustafson claims.

“I know that’s a general statement that could apply to most labs, but we do place a huge amount of emphasis on quality control and assurance.

One of the ways Envirolab strives to stay a cut above the competition in this respect is through investing in the intellectual capital of its staff, which includes chartered chemists and PhD graduates.

“Surprisingly not all labs have as many technical experts in key client liaison roles as we do and often employ non technical administration staff, or sales people with purely commercial backgrounds,” Knighton asserts. “Our clients know when they call us whoever answers the phone will be able to assist with their technical query and they will not get passed around.”

Hazardous waste expert Dr Iain Haslock exemplifies Envirolab’s know how; he recently developed arguably the most comprehensive soil hazardous waste characterisation tool in the contaminated land sector. Cheekily titled ‘Haswaste’, the spreadsheet-based calculator enables the assessment of contaminated soils and their classification as either hazardous or non-hazardous waste, a regulatory requirement for waste producers, and even comes with an in-depth guidance document.

Elsewhere, Envirolab has applied its technical acumen to the twenty-first century, launching the ‘askenvirolab’ email account where clients can email questions and get a response within two hours. “This service has been very well received by our clients – we could be the laboratory Google,” laughs Knighton.

Gustafson reveals that although inorganics laboratory isn’t officially open for business it has been limbering up with a number of small-scale sampling jobs that do not affect the ongoing method validation process or have any accreditation requirements.

“It is good to see everything is working as it should to and it is good preparation for when the flood gates open in a few weeks time.”