With the growing amount of legislation both local and European there is an ever increasing responsibility on a business to ensure that it’s activities do not result in any impact in any way on the environment .

Under recent EU Directives in respect of Environmental Impairment Liability you could find your business responsible for not only your and your neighbours clean up costs following a pollution incident but you could also be held liable for the costs involved in reinstating the environment as it was before the incident.

Many people think – Hey I’m not in the petrochemical or pharceutical or heavy manufacturing business so I’m ok .. But this is not the case – Think about a logistics company with large storage tanks for their fuel , or a warehouse that stores plastics which could cause massive pollution in the event of a fire – Even business like these have exposures under this directive. Any company at the end of the day could be a potential polluter and the law doesn’t discriminate. It works on the basis that the ‘polluter pays’ and so not only would you be compensating your immediate neighbours following a pollution incident – but you are expected to Re-mediate the whole of the affected environment /area to it’s pre pollution state – Think of the costs associate with this ?!

Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL) Insurance coverage is now available in respect of the above exposures

In essence the policy provides cover for both gradual and sudden and accidental pollution, as well as remediation costs associate with the likes of the scenarios painted above.

Coverage for sudden and accidental and gradual pollution, Inclusion of both historical and ongoing operational exposures, Automatic coverage for biodiversity (natural resource) damage,

• Damage to third-party property including diminishment in value
• Ability to enhance risk management programmes through access to the top engineering consultants
• Proactive claims support provided by partner insurers to minimise losses and their impact on the business.

In summary the policy covers you will be looking for are :

• Clean-up costs incurred by you following your discovery of pollution on and /or off-site
• Costs incurred by you where a clean-up is imposed by regulators or required by third parties
• Liability for third-party bodily injury ,property damage and clean-up costs
• Third party claims for pollution caused by the transportation of the your products or waste

To find out more about Environmental Impairment Insurance and other covers please call us on 091 563518 for more details or email us with your enquiry on info@burkeins.ie – Sean , Paul or Paul or one our team will be glad to assist .