“Traditionally the relationship of humans and nature in Japan was about protecting the humans from the forces of nature, not the other way around.” – what the love for a country can do good and why a construc-tion company can contribute.

Graham Lane, General Manager, Asia Environmental Group Bovis Lend Lease, Tokyo, Japan

“When I first came to Japan as a young English teacher, I was sent to a beautiful rural area that looked and felt like I had arrived in some Japanese wood-block print. How-ever, life wasn’t so simple; I couldn’t speak Japanese in a place where virtually nobody spoke English. Winters were cold and the tissue paper doors and thin walls of my tra-ditional Japanese home did little to keep it warm. None-theless, I fell in love with Japan from the day I arrived and so there was no question for me, but to learn the language as fast and as well as possible,” Graham told us when we visited him in his Tokyo office.

After this first two year experience, Graham wanted to return to Japan. He had to wait another few years before being offered a position to establish an office in Tokyo for a British engineering consultant. When the parent company was sold, he took the opportunity to combine his passion for the environment, for engineering and for Japan and moved his small team of environmental consultants into Bovis Lend Lease Japan, to establish their Asia environmental consulting division.

You can enjoy part of our discussion in the following statements and might read more about Graham Lane’s life and his work in the environmental sector in Japan in our book “MyImpact”.

Graham Lane’s selected quotations:
“As Japan is set upon by frequent earthquakes and tsu-namis, traditionally the relationship of humans and nature in Japan is much more about protecting humans from the forces of nature. To think about sustainability, is to look at the environment from another angle which is new for most people in Japan.”

“When I started we were as far as I know the first enter-prise in this area in Japan bringing a truly international approach. Today, environmental issues are much more prevalent, as a result of new and more stringent regula-tions, and there are many more environmental service providers in the country.”

“We focus on two kinds of projects within our team: we react to the market needs with pro-jects such as environmental assess-ments and contamination remediation etc., but on the other hand we are retained for out-of-the-ordinary projects that require a fresh, innova-tive approach to solving especially complex and emerging environmental and social problems such as risk pro-jection and sustainable design.”

“In the future, it is my vision to focus more on bringing consideration of social elements and impacts into our pro-jects. Where there are environmental issues, there are usually also social issues that are better solved through collaboration with the affected communities.”

“It’s a pleasure to work for people who have a good set of ethics.”

“The great thing about environmental consulting, is that at the same time as receiving challenging jobs you end up doing something sensible, something for the common good.”

“If you don't make a living doing what you are passionate about an enjoy, it is lot more difficult to be successful.”

Some background on Graham Lane:
Graham Lane was born in UK and studied geography in Southampton, UK and Bonn, Germany. After graduation, he went to Japan for two years, to work for the Ministry of Education as an English teacher and international relations representative to a small village. As he could not extend his stay in Japan, a country he loved, he returned to the UK and worked for an engineering consultancy in several European countries (UK, France, Germany, Poland…). Still dreaming of going back to Japan, he made efforts to involve himself in every project that his company did for Japan. When he was offered the position to open a Japa-nese office at the age of 27, after he had to abruptly stop an engagement in Indonesia due to political unrest in the country, he took the chance and successfully established a small branch office in Tokyo. When his parent company was sold and the new investors were not keen on conti-nuing the environmental business in Asia, Graham moved his whole team to Bovis Lend Lease and established an Asia focused environmental consulting group.

Today, Graham is happy to work in a small team of excel-lent specialists who try to solve difficult problems that challenge many in the environmental arena. With great pleasure, they specialize in risk management and solving complex environmental issues.

Some background on Bovis Land Lease Environmen-tal Consulting Services:
Bovis Lend Lease is one of the world’s leading project management and real estate consulting companies. With its 7.000 employees in 40 countries it offers a broad range of services from design and construction to specia-list consulting.

In this era of globalization, there is growing pressure for organizations to demonstrate that their activities world-wide are conducted in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. The environmental agenda for manu-facturers, investors and developers is not limited to pol-lution prevention and risk management but must take into consideration fast developing regulations as well as mar-ket pressures for performance transparency and extended responsibility.

The Bovis Lend Lease Environmental Consulting Group supports clients in keeping pace with these diverse chan-ges, in understanding and managing environmental risk and ultimately developing sustainable solutions. The services offered can roughly be grouped in six areas:
- Investments: environmental due diligence, property condition surveys, environmental, health and safety com-pliance assessment and pre-acquisition, divestment and merger support
- Planning: environmental impact assessment, stakeholder liaison, environmental permitting and compliance support, cost/benefit analysis and strategic environmental assess-ment
- Sustainable developments: design for environment, life cycle costing, energy efficiency and alternative techno-logies, water cycle planning, waste minimization and management, water and waste water management and carbon trading advice
- Contaminated land: environmental site assessment, soil and groundwater investigation, remediation design and project management and risk assessment
- Corporate strategy support: benchmarking, policy and strategy development, regulatory analysis and legislative forecasting, environmental trends and market analysis, green purchasing, corporate environmental & social repor-ting and institutional strengthening
- Environmental management systems: system develop-ment and implementation, environmental performance monitoring, environmental reporting, audit protocol deve-lopment and training.

If you would like to engage with the work of Graham Lane or get to know more about Bovis Lend Lease, Environmental Consulting Services please visit www.bll.jp or www.bovislendlease.com, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.