Clean-or-Free: A Guarantee of Integrity
We know the difference between a mountain and a molehill — and we tell you which one you're looking at.
Clean or Free is an option you can choose on any EZ-Screen order. Choose it, and if our screen finds elevated risk and recommends a Phase I, the fee for the screen is waived — not credited toward something else you buy from us. Waived. What you do next is entirely up to you.
In this way, you can be 100% confident that the need for additional work is justified, and not just an upsell strategy. Only our "Clean-or-Free Guarantee" eliminates that conflict of interest on every job, regardless of whether it's real or perceived.
Why We Don't Upsell
Everyone knows the feeling. The shop says the transmission needs five thousand dollars of work, and maybe a ten-dollar part would have fixed it. You cannot know. That is exactly where a borrower stands when the firm recommending a Phase I is also the firm that sells Phase Is. That is not a criticism about the character of our competition. It is simply how the environmental business is built.
The EPA requires its own environmental contractors to disclose and manage conflicts of interest, because when a consultant profits from recommending more work, that incentive can quietly shape what gets reported. We hold ourselves to the same standard.
The same holds one level up. We no longer perform Phase II investigations or cleanups, so if a Phase I we wrote recommends more work, that work is not ours to sell either. At no point in the process does recommending more work earn us anything. It is impossible for you to be unnecessarily upsold, because we have eliminated any potential conflicts of interest. Other firms can't say that.
The point of the guarantee isn’t getting the money back. It’s 100% knowing that our recommendation was based on real risk instead of an upsell opportunity. We put our money where our mouth is. No other company does this.
What the Guarantee Is Worth to You
- If a Phase I is recommended because of an elevated risk finding, you can use any local firm of your choosing to do the work. The EZ-Screen fee waiver is not tied to a Phase I upsell. No more fear of being "double dipped" for additional investigations. Ever.
- It gives us a built-in incentive to investigate a potential concern properly rather than kick it up to a Phase I. Where another firm might see a question mark and escalate, we put the extra effort in now instead. Your deal reaps the benefit.
- We provide personalized, in-house expertise on every project. We never subcontract, and we do not refer to a "network of partner firms" eager to profit from the upsell. We start your project, and we finish it.
- Lenders use it as a first-level cut on every deal, as part of a tiered environmental risk screening approach. It relieves the lender of deciding which level of environmental reporting makes sense, and frees them to work on the parts of the deal where they are more effective. Where a legitimate concern is found, it can sometimes be investigated on its own merit — for example, Phase II sampling — potentially saving weeks and thousands in Phase I fees.
- The EZ-Screen meets or exceeds the US Small Business Administration's requirements for the Records Search with Risk Assessment (RSRA), but is not limited to SBA deals.
- We have been in business since 1993, and in that time our experience has taught us how to be the value leader. With pricing from $499 and typically 1-3 business days, no competitor offers the same combination with a guarantee behind it.
Where the Idea Came From
The 2018 survey below is what decided the mechanics. The reason the idea existed to test in the first place goes back further — read why Clean-or-Free exists.
In 2018 we sent an Environmental Risk Survey to lenders and Community Development Companies nationally. Two answers decided this program.
Asked whether it would help to avoid the costly, time-consuming step up to a Phase I ESA, about 90% said yes — "We're always looking for ways to speed our deals up and have them cost less." Asked whether waiving the screening fee in that exact situation would be advantageous, 100% of respondents said yes: "Eliminating this double dip would save time and money."
We suspected it, but we did not expect the survey to support it that strongly. So we introduced a new concept in the environmental risk industry. Here is the 40-second explanation.
This is not the first time we have rebuilt how a screen works. Sierra was the first firm in the United States to offer the Transaction Screen as a commercial report, in June of 1993 — and we are the ones now saying better data has made it obsolete.
Sierra Consultants has performed thousands of RSRAs since before the SBA codified the RSRA in 2009, and about nine out of ten find low risk. If your deal is going to get bad due diligence news, you want it as inexpensively and quickly as possible. Our RSRA EZ-Screen™ does that better than anything else on the market — and our Clean-or-Free Guarantee proves it.
To EZ-Screen your next deal, order here from our secure portal. To ask a question, email [email protected] or call (800) 769-SIERRA (7437).
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "Clean or Free" mean?
It is an option you can choose on any EZ-Screen order. Choose it, and if our screen finds elevated risk and recommends a Phase I, the fee for the screen is waived — not credited toward something else you buy from us. Waived. What you do next is entirely up to you.
If a Phase I is recommended, do I have to use Sierra for it?
No. You can use any local firm of your choosing to do the work. The EZ-Screen fee waiver is not tied to a Phase I upsell.
If a Phase I is recommended, could Sierra end up profiting from it anyway?
No. We do not perform the Phase I that our own screen recommends, and we no longer perform Phase II investigations or cleanups at all. There is no step above the EZ-Screen that earns us anything.
Does this eliminate the conflict of interest other firms have?
Yes. This program completely eliminates all real and perceived conflicts of interest. We do not outsource or refer to a "network of partner firms" eager to profit from the upsell.
Does the EZ-Screen meet SBA's requirements?
The EZ-Screen meets or exceeds the US Small Business Administration's requirements for the Records Search with Risk Assessment (RSRA), but is not limited to SBA deals when used as a sensible component of a tiered assessment approach.
How long has Sierra been doing this?
We have been in business since 1993, and in that time our experience has taught us how to be the value leader. With pricing from $499 and typically 1-3 business days, no competitor offers the same combination with a guarantee behind it.