Site Strategic Planning
Defender®
Environmental Decision Support Software
Defender is a proprietary software product which can be used to efficiently and accurately price environmental liabilities. Defender can be used for probabilistic cost estimating, reserve forecasting, decision analysis, and peer review. Defender is the nucleus of ERCI's consulting expertise.
The Defender software suite is comprised of three applications:
| RemedyDefender | Single site analysis |
| PortfolioDefender | Multi-site roll-up/analysis |
| Due Diligence Defender | Multi-site forecasting for M&A |
RemedyDefender
RemedyDefender provides analysis for single sites.
Summary Sheet: Highlight the candidate reserve estimate for the site; compare strategies on inflated and present value basis
"Flying Bar" Chart: See which cost drivers have the greatest impact on the project outcome
Strategy Comparison: Identify the tradeoffs between cost and risk, based on strategy selection
Decision Sequence: See what is the value at risk and timing for each major decision
- Comprehensive business plan for each site
- Site location, type, consultant, regulator
- Driving forces
- Site objectives
- Strategic alternatives
- Cost estimates (by years, as point estimates or ranges)
- Reserves
- Operating expenses (incl. capital gains/losses)
- Capital expenditures
- Depletion, depreciation and amortization
- Cost recovery calculations (multiple sources)
- Core business improvement or interruption calculations
- Net present value comparison of scenarios
- Electronic document management (history, maps, photos)
- Litigation risk information
Functions
- Standard background info and analysis for each site
- Share strategies and cost benchmarks between project managers
- Base recommendations on common financial reference points
- Net present value of cash flows
- Economic value added
- Cash expenditures
- Build strategies and assumptions with stakeholders
- Operating business unit
- Legal
- Real estate
- Corporate EH&S
- Capture costs, income, capital expenditures as “best currently-available data” - point estimates or ranges
- Calculate liabilities for display/disclosure and take/pay negotiations
- Maintain business plans for continuous updates
- Continuously compare budget with actual spending
Benefits of RemedyDefender
- Project managers think like business unit managers
- Sites are also contingent liabilities, not just projects
- Strategies have alternatives
- Internal management should create measurable value over outsourcing
- Strategic consistency among similar projects
- Similar liabilities managed in similar ways
- Cost benchmarks for similar statements of work
- Future liabilities managed like current liabilities
- Reproducible cost ranges
- Costs may be estimated for “unreserved” scenarios (FASB 5)
- Risks may be shared with contractors, property developers