Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC) services

CERC has been providing consultancy services to clients for over 25 years. We’re an independent company with expertise in atmospheric flows and dispersion, well established as an international leader in air quality consultancy. Our client portfolio includes industry, property developers, planners, regulators, law firms, central and local government, universities and consultancies. Whether the focus is human health, amenity or ecosystems, we are highly proficient in applying ADMS and other software tools for the assessment of impacts, or simply providing expert advice. As well as air quality, we apply our specialised knowledge to wind energy calculations and growing concerns relating to the urban environment. We’re adept at coming up with tailored solutions to more unusual challenges.

The UK government has published the principles for setting up new Clean Air Zones (CAZ) in England. A CAZ can limit entry by more polluting vehicles, for instance by road charging or traffic management. Local authorities who propose a CAZ need to consider how its introduction will impact on vehicle emissions and pollutant concentrations, in order to have confidence that their objectives will be achieved.

Air quality management refers to the assessment, analysis and mitigation of air quality issues. CERC provides air quality management services to city municipalities, local authorities, national government and agencies, the European Commission, developers and planners. We’ve assessed air quality across cities as diverse as London, Singapore, Tbilisi and Cape Town. CERC has been assisting UK local authorities with their Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) responsibilities since 1995.  We welcome opportunities to assist with any aspect of air quality Annual Status/Progress Reports, and we closely follow Review and Assessment Technical Guidance.

CERC carries out a huge variety of air quality assessments for permit applications, planning applications or risk assessments, for sites in the UK and overseas. CERC`s industrial clients have included Anglian Water, BP, British Sugar, The Carbon Trust, EDF Energy, Johnson Matthey, Mitsubishi Industries, Rolls-Royce, RWE NPower, Savills and Statoil. We use our ADMS industrial air pollution model for the majority of these assessments; as developers of the model, we have unrivalled expertise in its application.

CERC carries out air quality assessments to support planning applications for infrastructure, residential and commercial projects. The model used depends on the source types under consideration; as the developers of ADMS, ADMS-Roads and ADMS-Urban, we have unrivalled expertise in the application of these models.

The modelling of hazardous releases can be required for emergency situations, such as a liquid spill, catastrophic failure of a tank or rupture of a pipeline. Toxic or flammable substances, such as ammonia, chlorine and Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), are often considered.

The assessment of odour impacts due to industrial and agricultural processes is frequently required for planning and permitting.

With climate change and rapid urbanisation, the influence of the built environment on local temperature and humidity levels is of increasing interest. Policy makers and planners must consider mitigation strategies for urban heat islands that develop during the summer months and make life uncomfortable for residents of cities worldwide.

CERC has expertise in calculating, managing and manipulating emissions data from a wide spectrum of sources, including industrial processes, road traffic, aircraft, power stations and domestic and commercial heating.

CERC’s consultants are highly experienced in evaluating the performance of environmental models, at a range of spatial and temporal scales, against measured data. We have expertise in using a range of graphical and statistical methods to determine model performance for both long-term assessments and short-term forecasts.