Environmental and Planning Law

En­viron­men­tal and plan­ning law is­sues arise for com­pa­nies in a va­riety of ways. The plan­ning and con­struc­tion of in­dus­trial plants and fa­ci­li­ties, as well as the con­ver­sion and ex­pan­sion of ope­ra­ting fa­ci­li­ties, re­quire the ob­tai­ning of per­mits, e. g., un­der con­struc­tion, wa­ter or im­mis­sion con­trol laws. In ad­di­tion, the li­mits of con­struc­tion plan­ning law and na­ture con­ser­va­tion law must be ta­ken into ac­count. Du­ring ope­ra­tion, li­mits for emis­si­ons, the pro­per dis­po­sal of waste and was­te­wa­ter, and the ful­fill­ment of nu­me­rous no­ti­fi­ca­tion and in­for­ma­tion ob­li­ga­ti­ons vis-à-vis the aut­ho­ri­ties must be ob­ser­ved. In ad­di­tion, po­ten­tial lia­bi­lity risks, such as soil and ground­water con­ta­mi­na­tion, must al­ways be ex­ami­ned and any re­me­dia­tion mea­su­res must be coor­di­na­ted with the aut­ho­ri­ties.

De­pen­ding on the sec­tor, com­pa­nies may also have to com­ply with pro­duct-re­la­ted en­viron­men­tal le­gis­la­tion on the ma­nu­fac­ture, mar­ke­ting or re­turn of their pro­ducts (e. g. elec­tro­nic equip­ment, bat­te­ries, pa­cka­ging, etc.) or take ac­count of re­qui­re­ments un­der food law, ha­zar­dous sub­stan­ces law or che­mi­cals law.

To en­sure per­ma­nent com­pli­ance with en­viron­men­tal re­gu­la­ti­ons and re­duce the risk of re­gu­latory or even cri­mi­nal sanc­tions, it may also be us­eful to es­ta­blish an in­ter­nal com­pli­ance ma­nage­ment sys­tem.

Last but not least, the en­viron­men­tal le­gal si­tua­tion of a busi­ness lo­ca­tion and pos­si­ble lia­bi­lity risks can be si­gni­fi­cant fac­tors in the va­lua­tion of a com­pany and must be care­fully ex­ami­ned in prior to an ac­qui­si­tion or sale.

We keep track of the com­plex re­qui­re­ments of en­viron­men­tal and plan­ning law for you and as­sist you in their im­ple­men­ta­tion. Our la­wy­ers have many years of ex­pe­ri­ence in dea­ling with pu­blic aut­ho­ri­ties, spe­cia­list plan­ners and ex­perts, as well as the ne­cessary en­viron­men­tal and plan­ning law ex­per­tise in the con­text of cor­po­rate and real es­tate tran­sac­tions. De­pen­ding on your needs, we in­volve our ex­perts from other areas of law (par­ti­cu­larly real es­tate and tax law) and con­sul­ting di­sci­plines.

Our services at a glance

• Pre­pa­ra­tion of le­gal opi­ni­ons on en­viron­men­tal, con­struc­tion and plan­ning law is­sues
• Ad­vice on ap­pro­val and plan­ning pro­ce­du­res for con­struc­tion and in­fra­struc­ture pro­jects
• Ad­vice in ad­mi­nis­tra­tive pro­cee­dings and re­pre­sen­ta­tion be­fore the ad­mi­nis­tra­tive courts
• En­viron­men­tal due di­li­gence in con­nec­tion with M&A tran­sac­tions and re­struc­tu­ring of com­pa­nies (e. g. on va­li­dity/le­gal suc­ces­sion/trans­fer of ope­ra­ting per­mits, lia­bi­lity risks for con­ta­mi­na­ted sites on com­pany pre­mi­ses, waste and na­ture con­ser­va­tion law re­qui­re­ments, etc.), in­clu­ding coor­di­na­tion of en­viron­men­tal con­sul­tants and ex­perts
• Pre­pa­ra­tion of fea­si­bi­lity stu­dies in pre­pa­ra­tion for pro­ject plan­ning and in­vest­ment de­ci­si­ons
• Con­sul­ting on ope­ra­tio­nal com­pli­ance ma­nage­ment in the area of en­viron­men­tal law/ESG
• Con­sul­ting on re­qui­re­ments of pro­duct-re­la­ted en­viron­men­tal law (e. g. pa­cka­ging, bat­te­ries, elec­tri­cal ap­pli­an­ces) as well as food, ha­zar­dous sub­stan­ces and che­mi­cals law (e. g. RE­ACH Re­gu­la­tion)
• Sup­port in com­ply­ing with re­por­ting, do­cu­men­ta­tion, in­for­ma­tion and re­gis­tra­tion re­qui­re­ments un­der en­viron­men­tal law re­qui­re­ments (e. g. CBAM, Wald­schutzVO, Ein­weg­kunst­stoff-FondsG, Lie­fer­ket­ten­sorg­falts­pflich­ten­ge­setz)