The Art of Negotiating Environmental Affairs

The Art of Negotiating^® Environmental Affairs is a program designed for both environmental regulatory agency personnel, and those representing their company before regulatory agencies or other companies. The seminar teaches the necessary skills to prevent and resolve conflict, settle existing disputes, negotiate simple and complex environmental matters, and many more invaluable skills that will produce lasting benefits and measurable results.


Environmental professionals will learn to enhance their skills in all aspects of negotiation with key stakeholders, natural resource managers, agency regulators, non-governmental organization representatives, planners and applied scientists.

Instructors create customized, from-scratch case studies for each client–using simulation exercises that give participants the opportunity to function as negotiators, mediators, and facilitators. Environmental issues include, but are not limited to: reconciling development and wetland protection, remediating toxic waste sites, framing dialogues on complex policy issues, and making decisions about regional infrastructure and industrial development. (Exercises are updated regularly to reflect evolving legislation.)

This seminar is customized to address the specific issues your organization is working to resolve.

In The Art of Negotiating^® Environmental Affairs, participants will learn to:

• Prepare effectively for negotiation, agree on procedures, jointly develop options, and implement once an agreement is reached
• Use strategies and tactics to negotiate effectively, aiming towards controlling costs and risks
• Respond with counters
• Use questions and practice effective listening
• Control the ‘climate’ of negotiations
• Understand and manage potential conflicts or disagreements
• Adapt to different social styles
• Recognize, practice, and respond to non-verbal communication
• Develop persuasion skills
• Use offensive/defensive strategies such as crossroads (intersect, entwine, entangle), bracketing (how to make and hit the mark), reversal (go forward or backward) and other effective techniques
• Reinforce and sustain a negotiating success once it’s achieved

Organizations around the globe have experienced the benefits and success of this program–gaining significant advantages that have proven to be crucial.  The Art of Negotiating^® Environmental Affairs will provide environmental professionals with the tools to minimize conflict and achieve maximum results through effective negotiation.