From the late 1990s Ian worked with contaminated land specialists in the NICOLE network across Europe to help develop risk-based land management approaches for brownfield regeneration. With precise and science-based site investigation, analysis and modelling techniques, soils contaminated with polluting substances, can safely be retained on the site of origin. This improves the economics of regeneration and helps unlock brownfield land. Ian saved significant costs for his company through early application of this approach, through remedial strategy changes and landfill avoidance. Risk Based Land Management is now, and has been for many years, standard good practice.

Ian has provided advice on hundreds of contaminated sites, their impact on human health and the environment, and solutions to make them safe and suitable for reuse. Some examples of these contaminated sites include air-bases, gasworks, military land, quarries, and open cast mines.

Ian was responsible for the Willenhall Part 2A public inquiry appeal against a contaminated land remediation notice served by Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council (WMBC) for a housing estate built on a former gasworks site. The inquiry, held in December 2015, was a significant test case for the UK's Part 2A contaminated land regime. The site was a residential development comprising 69 houses on the Stonegate and Trent Park housing estates in Willenhall, Walsall, which had been built on land formerly occupied by the Willenhall Town Gas Works. The land was contaminated with polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including benzo-a-pyrene (a carcinogen), a legacy of the site's previous use as a gasworks from the 19th century. Walsall Council had formally determined the land to be "contaminated land" under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in 2012 and subsequently served a remediation notice on the appellant company, Jim 2 Ltd, in March 2015. Jim 2 Ltd challenged this notice, arguing the contamination did not pose an "unacceptable risk to human health" when considered in light of statutory guidance, and thus should not be legally considered 'contaminated land'. The inquiry inspector and the Secretary of State ultimately agreed with the appellant's expert assessment, which concluded that the levels of contaminants were not high enough to pose a "significant possibility of significant harm" (SPOSH) to human health through normal domestic activities. This led to the land being officially declared safe and removed from the contaminated land list in early 2019. The case was one of only a few Part 2A appeals to reach the Secretary of State level and highlighted the complexities and challenges local authorities face when applying the contaminated land regulations. The final decision brought an end to a decade-long blight for residents who had faced difficulty selling their homes due to the contamination designation.

Ian supported innovative companies in their application of new soil and groundwater remediation technologies. Ian pioneered the use of bioremediation, a technique using microbes to clean up oil contaminated soil, on brownfield sites. Originating in the oil and gas industry, in the late 1990s Ian successfully made the case to apply the technology for the redevelopment of Taylor Woodrow’s headquarters in Southall. This enabled the soil to be cleaned and reused rather than disposed to landfill, resulting in a significant cost saving. In the years after, the bioremediation approach became common in brownfield remediation. Ian facilitated the early uptake of many other soil and groundwater remediation technologies including: - Chemical oxidation - Chemical reduction - Monitored natural attenuation - Soil vapour extraction - Soil stabilisation - Soil washing - Thermal desorption

In 2000 Ian, in collaboration with other industry specialists, identified and mitigated a significant threat to the construction industry, completing work which eventually resulted in the development of the CL:AIRE Code of Practice. Over-reach of the definition of waste threatened to make all materials on a construction site waste, including clean topsoil and subsoil. This would have created an untenable regulatory burden. Ian chaired the waste working group for NICOLE, the EU network for sustainable land use and contaminated land remediation. He led a delegation from NICOLE to meet the rapporteur for an update to the EU Waste Framework Directive and helped secure a concession for the construction industry on the reuse of clean and natural soils in construction, provided that those soils were reused on the site of origin. However, other materials such as made ground and contaminated soil, at the point of excavation, remained waste. Here the waste regulatory burden threatened the regeneration of brownfield sites and housing development on them across the UK. A process administered by the Cabinet office bought together industry and regulators. Ian together with colleagues from consultants, law firms and the HBF, made the case for an alternative approach, which would enable the sustainable reuse of soils. As part of this process the Environment Agency created a position statement called the “Definition of waste on greenfield and brownfield sites” which was published in 2006. This document outlined the opportunity to reuse various materials, by adopting the approach of land contamination management using site-specific risk assessment. This extended the scope of the Waste Framework Directive exclusion for the reuse of clean naturally occurring materials on the site of origin, to include suitable made-ground materials. The Environment Agency position statement became the basis for the development of the CL:AIRE Definition of Waste: Development Industry Code of Practice (DoW CoP) published in 2008. Since its introduction, the CL:AIRE DoW CoP framework has facilitated the reuse of over 100 million tonnes of materials across the UK. Ian set up a soil reuse and sharing process within his company called ReUSE which was recognised by two industry awards.