Environmental Management

Understanding and managing environmental issues across land, property and the built environment

Environmental management is concerned with understanding, assessing and managing the relationship between human activity and the natural environment.

Across land, property and construction, this can involve a wide range of interconnected issues including climate change, biodiversity, natural resources, pollution, waste, water, energy, land use and environmental risk.

Effective environmental management helps organisations and decision-makers identify these issues, understand their implications and integrate environmental considerations into property, project and organisational decisions.

Environmental Management and Surveying

Environmental considerations can influence decisions throughout the lifecycle of land and property — from acquisition, planning and development through construction, occupation, management, investment, regeneration and reuse.

Surveyors therefore have an important role in identifying and interpreting environmental issues and helping clients understand their implications for land, property and the built environment.

Environmental management is an established area of professional surveying practice. RICS describes environmental surveyors as specialists in the management, monitoring and assessment of the environment in the context of real estate, land and construction. Environmental Management is also a core competency within the RICS Environmental Surveying pathway.

Explore the RICS Environmental Surveying pathway

A Changing Environmental Context

The environmental context within which land, property and organisations operate continues to change. Climate change, biodiversity loss, pressures on natural resources, changing regulation and increasing expectations around environmental performance are creating new risks and opportunities.

At the same time, approaches such as natural capital, climate-risk assessment, circular economy thinking and environmental reporting are changing how environmental impacts and dependencies are understood and incorporated into decision-making.

Environmental management can therefore involve consideration of:

climate change, adaptation and resilience
environmental risk and environmental performance
land use and development
biodiversity and ecosystem health
natural capital and ecosystem services
energy and carbon
water and flood risk
resource efficiency and the circular economy
waste and pollution
environmental policy, regulation and professional standards.

The relevance and significance of these issues will vary according to the property, project, organisation and decision being considered.

Environmental Management and Sustainability

Environmental management forms an important part of the wider transition towards sustainable development.

Environmental considerations cannot always be addressed in isolation. Decisions concerning land, property and development frequently involve interactions between environmental, social and economic objectives.

A sustainability perspective therefore requires environmental information to be considered alongside the wider purpose, context and consequences of a decision.

This is reflected in RICS's current approach to sustainability. Its 2026 Sustainability practice for surveyors describes sustainability as central to modern surveying practice and considers issues including climate change, resource use, circular economy approaches, biodiversity and ecosystem health across the built and natural environments.

RICS – Sustainability practice for surveyors

Environmental Management in Practice

The appropriate approach to environmental management depends upon the nature and scale of the property, project or activity.

It may involve identifying environmental risks and opportunities, interpreting environmental information, considering regulatory and policy requirements, assessing the implications of different courses of action and identifying where specialist investigation or assessment is required.

Increasingly, environmental management also involves understanding connections between environmental issues. Climate resilience, biodiversity, natural capital, carbon, energy, water and land use, for example, cannot always be considered independently of one another.

This broader perspective is particularly important when environmental considerations form part of wider sustainability, property or investment decisions.

Sustain Surveying and Environmental Management

Sustain Surveying provides independent professional analysis and advice on environmental and sustainability issues affecting land, property, development and organisations.

Our approach brings together surveying expertise, environmental and sustainability research, RICS standards and guidance, government policy and wider professional evidence to help clients identify and understand environmental issues relevant to a particular property, project or decision.

Advice may include identifying relevant environmental considerations; interpreting environmental and sustainability information; considering environmental risks and opportunities; reviewing the implications of policy, standards and emerging professional practice; and integrating environmental considerations within wider sustainability and property decision making.

Where an instruction requires specialist technical assessment such as an ecological survey, contaminated-land investigation, Environmental Impact Assessment or another specialist environmental service — the need for appropriately qualified specialist input will be identified.

Discuss an Environmental Management Issue

If you would like to discuss an environmental or sustainability issue affecting a property, area of land, development, project or organisation, please contact Sustain Surveying.

Professional advice can be provided for a defined project or instruction, with the scope and fee agreed in advance.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Understanding and managing environmental issues across land, property and the built environment​