Who We Are
Project Navigator, Ltd. (PNL) is an environmental project management and consulting firm, and we excel at controlling the strategic direction of demanding environmental projects. Our corporate headquarters is located in Tustin, California. Other offices are in Houston, Texas and North Carolina. We are staffed with individuals of environmental, engineering, management and creative backgrounds, and are experts in our fields.
Since 1997, PNL has managed numerous multi-party projects through difficult environmental problems to green successes. Through strategic thinking, PNL stands out amid the landscape of basic engineering services. Our services cover all environmental project phases, and we can provide multi-disciplinary support at various levels of effort.
In addition to traditional engineering services offered, we are also known in the environmental industry for creative approaches in managing voluminous amounts of project information and presenting complex issues in simple, comprehensive ways.
Problem Solving Culture
We pride ourselves in creative, efficient problem solving, with the final results presented in a visually clear and concise fashion. The conclusions are practical, and in a format which the client can immediately put to use.
The PNL team is to propose global project solutions very early in the process, even after minimal data analysis. This is termed the hypothesis-driven approach and stands in stark contrast to much of the consulting world where a deductive approach is practiced…i.e., more data means more of the solution should be evident.
Our problem solving culture is formalized and used in all internal project meetings. The elements of the approach are listed below, and produce a proven methodology for leading to cost-effective solutions for our clients.
- Quickly manage the existing project knowledge and data, to extract optimal value for the task in hand. Resist collecting more data.
- Prove to ourselves that we are working with the right data.
- Propose an early “solution” to the problem, which becomes the hypothesis against which all succeeding efforts are benchmarked and tested (absolute precision is not required in this important early step).
- Continually apply the 80/20 rule, or more succinctly, know when to stop analyzing and make risk-weighted decisions.
- Rely on our experience, intuition and solutions from other projects.
History
Project Navigator, Ltd. was founded in 1997 by Ian Webster after having worked 15 years on the PRP project owner side of the environmental remediation business. PNL’s operating culture stems from its early years when Ian recognized a need to fill the gap between environmentally liable parties and the EPC consulting world. He has since led on many projects in the role of project coordinator and group logistical leader to facilitate solutions at large, complex remediation projects.