The Ethics of Scoping and Pricing

Although most clients are aware of the challenges faced by environmental consultants who have been asked to develop a scope of work for an environmental site characterization program or the remediation of a contaminated site, clients will often request, even their most favored consultants, to competitively bid on work. In most circumstances price becomes one of the primary factors driving the selection of the environmental consultant to perform the work. Therefore, to compete, consultants are faced with a decision to trim the scope of work below what may be necessary to achieve the client’s needs, or come up with an imaginative low-cost proposal, knowing that any loss of profit will be made up with subsequent changes in scope. Alternatively, some consultants will deliberately prepare a realistic scope of services and cost proposal for those services, believing that it is the consultant’s ethical obligation to provide the client with a program that has the best chance of achieving the client’s needs, without significant changes to the original proposed scope of service and price.

The issue of ethics in the environmental consulting field is subject to a range of opinions. While a code of professional ethics is generally inherent in the culture of any professional services firm, for the individual professional scientist and engineer, the ethical challenge of pricing and scoping becomes more complex. Frequently the individual must demonstrate his/her ability to bring in new project work, while at the same time address the question of whether to provide the client with the information and services they truly need versus a scope of work and price the client would find more palatable.

This presentation will illustrate the challenges faced by consultants, and the dilemmas faced by clients in selecting consultants, using several case studies based on the author’s observations and experience during 40 years of providing environmental and hydrogeologic services.