WHAT DOES AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT MANAGER DO?
Published: Feb 18, 2025 – The Environmental Project Manager develops and manages client accounts in the petrochemical and industrial chemical industries while identifying opportunities for new projects and expanded services. This position coordinates project delivery and proposal teams, ensuring clear communication of client requirements and differentiation strategies. The project manager also ensures high-quality outcomes by addressing client needs, solving problems, and implementing innovative strategies to maintain a competitive advantage.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Environmental Project Manager
1. Environmental Project Manager Essential Functions
- Client Relationship Management: Manage essential client relationships.
- Project Management: Manage project setup, project delivery, project controls, business development, client satisfaction, and contract management.
- Proposal Preparation: Initiate and prepare proposals.
- Meeting Representation: Serve as a representative at project meetings.
- Document Management: Prepare project deliverables and project-related correspondence.
- Contract Management: Manage client contracts, including fee estimation, project set-up, and execution of work under senior management guidance.
- Quality Assurance: Establish quality assurance plans and safety plans for assigned projects.
- Team Management: Prepare work plans, assemble project team, and delegate tasks.
- Compliance Assurance: Ensure compliance with the scope and completion of tasks.
- Staff Mentoring: Mentor staff to the project.
2. Environmental Project Manager Key Responsibilities
- Safety Leadership: Lead safety efforts for the team and ensure the team follows safety rules and guidelines.
- Workplace Safety Management: Responsible for creating and modeling a safe work environment, and demonstrating safety practices.
- Project Planning: Promote pre-task planning for all projects.
- Project Scope and Budgeting: Works with a client or Account Manager to define project scope, schedule, and budget.
- Project Design: Design, communicate, and implement a project plan for completing the project.
- Environmental Remediation: Soil/Groundwater contamination remediation and clean up as well as vapor sampling/mitigation efforts.
- Resource Management: Identify, develop, and gather the resources to complete the project.
- Project Documentation and Management: Prepare calculations, designs, reports, and work specifications, develop project schedules, budgets, and forecasts, and select materials, equipment, project staff, and external contractors.
- Cross-Department Collaboration: Partner with other departments or offices to secure specialized resources for the project.
- Project Reporting: Conduct meetings and prepare reports to communicate the status of the project.
- Task Coordination: Set priorities, assign tasks, and coordinate project staff to meet project targets and milestones.
- Senior Staff Coordination: Coordinates with Senior Staff to ensure appropriate oversight is in place and sufficient time is allowed for reviews of all critical junctures.
- Financial Coordination: Coordinates with accounting for the financial management of business intelligence, invoicing, and collections.
- Risk Management: Develop an understanding and be aware of project-related risk.
3. Environmental Project Manager Tasks
- Client Account Management: Responsible for developing and managing client accounts in the Petrochemical/Industrial Chemical industries.
- Opportunity Development: Identify and develop project opportunities for new work and/or expanded services for new and established clients.
- Project Coordination: Coordinate project delivery and proposal teams with clear and succinct communication as to the client requirements and differentiation strategy.
- Client Communication: Address client questions and requests, and communicate with clients.
- Problem-Solving: Follow procedures to solve client problems.
- Service Knowledge: Understand the full range of company services.
- Professional Image Maintenance: Maintain a pleasant and professional image.
- Negotiation Skills: Conduct positive negotiations with the ability to seek common ground, articulate your own and other's goals, and stay focused on positive outcomes.
- Strategy Development: Develop strategies that utilize the Company's strengths and innovative thinking to gain a competitive advantage.
- Quality Management: Attentive to detail and accuracy, committed to excellence, looks for improvements continuously, monitors quality levels, finds the root cause of quality problems, and owns/acts on quality problems.
- Leadership and Mentoring: Targets and achieves results, and provides leadership, motivation, and mentoring to staff.
4. Environmental Project Manager Roles
- Technical Scope Development: Develop, plan, schedule, and implement technical scopes of work related to environmental site assessments, risk-based corrective actions, and remediation designs/implementation with minimal oversight.
- Site Investigation: Prepare scopes of work for routine site investigations to assess soil, groundwater, soil vapor, and indoor air from a hydrogeological, geological, or environmental perspective.
- Project Assistance: Assist more senior-level project managers on large, more complex projects.
- Client and Team Collaboration: Collaborate with clients and colleagues to define project scope, schedule, and budget and develop proposals.
- Project Management: Manage all aspects of projects to ensure they are completed safely, on time, and within budget.
- Project Design: Design, communicate, and implement a project plan for completing the project.
- Task Coordination: Set priorities, assign tasks, and coordinate project staff to meet project targets and milestones.
- Resource Management: Work with senior project managers to identify, develop, and gather the resources to complete the project.
- Team Collaboration: Work as part of a local team in Omaha, as well as within regional and national teams for various national account clients.
- Project Reporting: Conduct meetings and prepare reports to communicate the status of the project.
5. Environmental Project Manager Functions
- Problem Solving: Troubleshoot and recommend or resolve operational problems and minimize delays.
- Financial Management: Manage financial aspects of project portfolio management of business intelligence, invoicing, and collections.
- Risk Management: Develop an understanding of and manage project-related risk.
- Safety Leadership: Lead safety efforts for the team and ensure the team follows safety rules and guidelines by creating and modeling a safe work environment and safety practices.
- Project Planning: Promote pre-task planning for all projects.
- Quality Monitoring and Improvement: Promote continuous quality monitoring and improvement on projects.
- Quality Management: Monitor quality standards and practices.
- Senior Staff Coordination: Coordinate efforts with senior staff to make sure they have the opportunity to engage throughout the project, particularly at critical junctures.
- Technical Reporting: Upon review of technical reports, articulate the conclusions, including compliance issues and/or non-compliance, both orally at meetings and in writing.
- Professional Development: Attend technical seminars and professional association meetings and actively contribute to the identification of new technical initiatives and opportunities.