ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERED “ESSENTIAL BUSINESS” UNDER COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS

State and Federal Agencies, and Private Sector Clients Instruct Environmental Firms to Continue with Projects as Scheduled

In reviewing the rapidly changing climate amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 Environmental Group is hearing from our industry contacts across the U.S. that public agencies as well as certain private sector clients that support Critical Infrastructure, Energy, and Environmental Protection are considered “essential businesses” and that work must continue.  And by extension, the environmental consultants who support these critical projects are also deemed essential and their project work must continue.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has identified 16 Critical Infrastructure Sectors “whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety.”  By extension, many States have adopted similar Essential Business guidelines, and specifically naming Environment as one.