WHO WE ARE
Given the increasingly evolving landscape of South Africa’s environmental legal regime it is paramount for any entity to have a full and clear understanding of the various legalities applicable to the environmental inception of new projects, changes to existing projects and the closure phases of older projects.
ELG offers a complete suite of environmental legal expertise designed and tailored to specifically comply with the legal needs of any corporate or public entity.
From this vantage point, we work to empower businesses to develop and drive proactive interventions that make business sense in the short-term and which add real strategic value in the long-term. Further to this regard, ELG can offer your company not only specialised environmental legal advice, but also a logical approach to the practical application of environmental law in a variety of spheres.
ELG knows that saving on legal spend remains an important consideration in the legal service delivery industry and as such, a further value proposition lies in our ability to offer experienced expertise to deal with any legal matter in a short turnaround time by providing legal knowledge, skills and expertise in an ever-changing legal landscape to our clients.
VISION
ELG strives to be at the forefront of the ever-changing environmental legal sphere and we pride ourselves on the following guiding values:
Real change comes from expertise and understanding the legal environment
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We understand that real change and lasting improvement ultimately rests on the personal convictions and commitments of individuals. Through providing expert advice, we are able to engage with various stakeholders, in a language they understand, and demonstrate sound environmental practices that are key to your core business.
Compliance provide the critical feedback-loop necessary for ongoing learning & improvement
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We believe in the motto; “if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it”. Quantified metrics that measure multiple aspects of a business’s “compliance performance” are critical for any business embarking on an environmentally and legally sound journey.
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This feed-back loop is critical to support ongoing learning and improvement and to enable a business to successfully navigate a complex reality.
There is a big difference between “Strong” and “Weak” compliance
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The difference between a strong and weak perspective and the implications for business strategy, are diversely different in correlation to legal risk. ELG strongly advocates the “strong” compliance perspective. As such, we guide businesses in understanding the implications related to operating within a legally compliant environment.
PHILOSOPHY
Our philosophy is to establish a long term relationship with our clients, understanding fully the nature of each clients’ business and market needs, through which ELG can provide specific tailored legal advice.
ELG’s core services entails the application of laws and legal principles to any matter that has relating and associated impacts to the natural and human environment. Our expertise encompass environmental legislation associated with water, air, soil, sea, health and safety, natural resource utilisation (such as mining and/or power generation), waste and any other related emissions.
We also have unique experience in rendering environmental and mining law advice within the context of multi-disciplinary consultant teams relating the application of environmental and mining legal principles to technical and scientific scenarios. In this regard ELG can partner with your company, on a sub-consultancy and/or retainer basis tailored to your specific project needs.
LEGAL ANALYSIS & RESEARCH
The success of environmental legal compliance is often dependent on the degree to which entities buy into the strategy of compliance and collaborate in its implementation. We have extensive experience in the practical engagement with companies across complex industries and in supporting them through the step-by-step implementation of strategies within this context.
- Compiling and updating site-specific, user-friendly environmental legal registers.
- Reviewing and commenting on pending legislation and proposed regulations.
- Reviewing, interpreting and assisting in compliance with new laws and regulations.
- Understanding and applying new and existing regulatory policies and guidance documents.
- Specialised legal training on the latest environmental legislation in an applied and easy-to-understand manner.
- Providing specialist environmental legal opinions.
- Assessment of the environmental legislative framework for African countries.
COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENTS
ELG has extensive experience in the development and deployment of tools that enable quantitative assessments related to environmental legal compliance, qualitative self-assessments to evaluate the performance of the business strategically and the ongoing tracking of performance over time via objective metrics within performance evaluators.
- Coordinating, overseeing and conducting environmental legal compliance audit reports and performance assessments for the mining, industrial and agricultural industries.
- Developing and coordinating the submission of audit results and/or corrective action reports.
- Preparing, advising and drafting audit policy documents.
- Conducting internal investigations of potential environmental non-compliance issues.
- Providing advice and oversight for companies establishing internal environmental audit programs.
RISK ASSESSMENT
Related to understanding and effectively managing your risk we deploy our in-depth knowledge and experience to develop clear strategies that place environmental legal compliance at the heart of your business.
- Coordinating, overseeing and conducting due diligence investigations.
- Coordinating, overseeing and conducting environmental legal risk assessments.
- Coordinating, overseeing and conducting director’s liability reports.
ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL FEASIBILITY
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, many organisations battle to effectively manage their legal risk exposure. Failure to comply with an ever-expanding body of rules and regulations can have serious implications: from financial and reputational loss to the risk of crime prosecution.
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Assisting clients with the identification of environmental legal risks and liabilities during the planning and pre-feasibility, feasibility, operational and closure stages of projects.
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Working within a business team during the project pre-feasibility and inception phases identifying a the authorisation implications, potential project features that can affect authorisation applicability, and ensuring a project is designed in a way to facilitate easier legislative approval.
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Ensuring proper record keeping and administrative support, liaising and assisting with competent authority decisions and minimising the risk potential from third parties.
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Drafting strategies to address potential concerns of stakeholders, and negotiating resolutions with potential I&APs.
ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL REVIEW
By providing you with comprehensive legal services, we add value to your company, leaving you free to focus on the prosperity of your business.
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Analysing the applicability of environmental legal review requirements.
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Determining the environmental legislative triggers applicable to specific projects.
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Assisting responsible organisations respond to comments and develop proper records of decisions.
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Drafting of environmental reports, i.e. Appeals, Responding Statements and Objections in terms of relevant environmental legislation.
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Helping facilitate agreement and coordination among organizations, I&APs and various government jurisdictions to ensure the streamlining of environmental processes.
OUR CLIENTS
CLIENT’S GEOGRAPHIC FOOTPRINT
