Certified Environmentally Responsible Contractor Certification Now Available
The Certified Environmentally Responsible Contractor (CERC) certification is a unique opportunity for contractors. It affirms that a contractor has been properly trained and properly insured to better protect project stakeholders from environmental issues. Obtaining the CERC Certification may open the door to winning more business by improving and highlighting your qualifications.
At UNICO, we have the ability to identify potential environmental and safety-related risks your company may face and provide best practices training to mitigate those risks. This training, along with obtaining the proper pollution liability coverage, could qualify your business for CERC Certification.
UNICO can help provide you with CERC Certification to demonstrate that your business and project owners are protected with adequate insurance and risk management resources. This certification includes marketing tools and a CERC Certificate to include with your Statement of Qualifications and bid documents.
Set Your Business Apart As a Certified Environmentally Responsible Contractor
Put yourself in the shoes of a project owner or general contractor looking to secure sub-contractors to complete a multimillion-dollar project. You are looking to hire qualified, responsible contractors that can perform the work within a desired budget. You prepare a detailed Request for Proposal (RFP) and put the job out to bid. Part of the procurement process is for the contractor to carry pollution liability insurance and provide a certificate of insurance with their bid.
These certificates are inadequate in identifying if the contractor’s insurance would respond to a true pollution incident. To verify their insurance, many project owners and general contractors have in-house attorneys that review insurance certificates and obtain copies of contractors’ insurance policies to confirm they have met the minimum requirements of the RFP. However, assuming the contractor had secured true pollution insurance, a pollution incident is something you would like to avoid altogether. Hiring a contractor that is both proactive and reactive to pollutions incidents would satisfy your requirement for a qualified, responsible contractor.
To position themselves as qualified and responsible, contractors advertise they are licensed, bonded and insured. In addition, they may seek various other certifications that are available to them, including but not limited to:
- Project Management Professional
- Certified Contractor (as opposed to a Registered Contractor)
- Green Business Certification
- Certified Construction Manager
- Certified Environmentally Responsible Contractor
Although the first four certifications listed above can set contractors apart from their competitors, none of them indicate if the contractor is equipped to prevent a pollution incident or respond to a pollution incident (with financial backing) if one should occur. Certified Environmentally Responsible Contractor (CERC) is a certification that provides contractors with Pollution Prevention Practices designed to assist contractors with identifying environmental risks and preventing pollution incidents. These practices, which have been prepared by an environmental consulting firm, provide an opportunity for contractors to train their employees on how to identify and mitigate environmental risks typically associated within their industry. As part of the certification process, the contractor is required to obtain true pollution insurance that is verified prior to the contractor receiving their certification.
Contractors who receive the CERC certification and include it with their bid proposals, reduce the time project owners and general contractors spend verifying insurance requirements and provide assurance they are trained to mitigate environmental risks on projects.
