Environmental Specialist Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post presents detailed information on the environmental specialist job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may need to fulfill to be hired for the environmental specialist role.

What Does an Environmental Specialist Do?

The environmental specialist job description entails monitoring and maintaining the environment health of the workplace.

It also involves implementing and revising environmental policies in the workplace.

Environmental specialists research, develop, and implement environmental projects, with a view of improving environmental health for employees, customers and stakeholders.

They also advocate for adequate funding from top management towards environmental projects in the organization to ensure that its initiative are effective and sustainable.

This position educates workers on how to conduct their activities responsibly within the organization’s environmental protection framework.

It is the duty of the environmental specialist to prepare reports on environmental issues, performing environmental audits and studying environmental impact assessments (EIA).

Monitoring and ensuring compliance with legal enforcement of standards is a key part of their duties.

Environmental specialists also act as a liaison between the organization, regulators and the community in a bid to maintain good relationship between them.

They prepare reports and presentations on their findings in the organization’s Environmental Management System (EMS) program.

In addition, they also prepare quarterly and annual reports on their activities.

Training employees on environmental issues is another important task they do.

Another duty of the environmental specialist is maintaining records of past projects, studies, and evaluations of the environment to be able to track EPA recommendations and developments in the future.

Environmental specialists plan environmental surveys for their organization with a view of identifying potential threats to the environment and proactively take measures to do something about it.

They coordinate and monitor construction activities according to quality management system (QMS) regulations and implement quality assurance procedures.

More on Environmental Specialist Job Description

One of the main duties of the environmental specialist is to ensure that green building requirements are met and that they are implemented.

This position maintains a safe and healthy workplace by implementing safeguards, regulations and controls in the organization to ensure compliance with environmental laws.

The environmental specialist also acts as liaison between management, staff and the environment when it comes to conducting training sessions on environmental issues.

It is also their duty to ensure that classified information is not compromised through security measures thus maintaining effective information security in the organization’s environment.

They advise employees, clients, and customers on ways of improving their performance through reducing emissions, noise or other materials, which may affect their environment or health.

Environmental Specialist Job Description Sample/Example/Template

The environmental specialist job description involves the following duties, tasks, and responsibilities:

Monitors and inspects the site
Conducts surveys
Analyzes and reports data
Ensures compliance to environmental regulations
Researches and develops resource management plans
Provides technical support to environmental officers
Develops training goals and content for the environmental officer course
Conducts field projects such as site assessment, environmental impact assessment, and waste management plan
Reviews and implements environmental legislation in local government units/cities/municipalities/towns/barangays in accordance with the LGU Memorandum Order No. 2006-01 (Section 24) “National Environmental Management Act of 1991”
Reviews, updates, and maintains environmental information system
Drafts environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports and review EIA reports from other government agencies
Reviews and implements local government ordinances related to the environment
Develops and conducts training seminars/workshops on various topics on the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and other related laws
Provides technical support in the conduct of hearings related to environment matters at the municipal/city/provincial level.

Environmental Specialist Job Description for Resume

If you are writing a new resume or CV as someone with some work experience as an environmental specialist, you can make a compelling Professional Experience by applying the sample environmental specialist job description provided above.

You can highlight the above environmental specialist duties and responsibilities in your resume’s Professional Experience section.

This will show that you have been successful performing the environmental specialist role, which can significantly enhance your chances of being hired, especially if having some environmental specialist work experience is important for the new job.

Environmental Specialist Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

Here are major requirements that most employers/recruiters may want you to meet to be hired for the environmental specialist job:

Must have at least a Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, engineering or any related field
Holds a valid Environmental Management Certificate issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Experience as an environmental specialist for at least three (3) years and with specific knowledge, skills and capabilities in the field of environment protection, preservation, and management
Must have experience in conducting studies on the impact of industrial activities to the use/availability/quality and quantity of water resources from surface water, ground water or coastal zone waters
Possess experience as an environmental inspector / surveyor (program officer, senior assistant, and/or specialist) with specific knowledge, skills and capabilities in the field of environment protection, preservation and management
Possess a high school diploma or complete its equivalent educational program
Must not have been dismissed or convicted with dishonesty, lies or willful misrepresentation
Not have served as a public officer who has been dismissed or convicted with dishonesty, lies or willful misrepresentation within the last three years from the date of appointment
Must not be below the minimum prescribed by law for position applied for
Physically and mentally fit to perform environmental specialist duties
Must not have bad credit record
Not have a pending case or any other cases against the government
Must have no case pending with the office of the Ombudsman regarding any complaint on applicant’s behavior during the three years preceding his/her appointment on the position applied for
A clear explanation of each situation applying for and information sought to be used in screening applicants is required to be included in Letter 84-03v RE: Environmental Specialist Resources, etc.

Environmental Specialist Salary

The average salary for an environmental specialist is $55,309 (payscale.com) and $72,268 (indeed.com) annually.

Indeed published the best paying cities, they are: New York, NY, $87,247; Brooklyn, NY, $83,527; Philadelphia, PA, $77,458; Washington, DC, $77,032 and Chicago, IL, $75,678 per year.

Zippia.com reported that there are currently around 92,629 environmental professionals working in the United States.

Women make up 37.4% of all environmental professionals, while men make up 62.6%.

An employed environmental specialist is 39 years old on average.

White (86.8%) is the most frequent ethnicity among environmental professionals, followed by Hispanic or Latino (4.7%) and Asian (3.6%).