A chance to shape IEMA's election response.
Last month, UK prime minister Theresa May called a snap (some may say shock) general election, with a startling seven-week run-up. This is a chance not just to elect leadership, but also an opportunity for practitioners to take the temperature of how you think the current parliament has performed in terms of environment and sustainability.
What do you expect to see from the next government? We want to know your views. We’ll be sending you a short poll giving you the chance to air your thoughts. Last year we had almost 4,000 responses from a similar series of pre-EU referendum polls, and it’s time to ask you again what you feel should be the sustainability priorities for whoever is in power from 9 June.
So, when you receive your e-mail with links to take part, just click and let us know the strength of your feelings. We’ll take the results to the media within 48 hours, so you’ll see your views making headlines very quickly. Let’s make our voices heard in this tumultuous time. Your opinions do more than shape who you are, they also shape how the profession thinks, interacts and intersects on key issues.
Later this year, you’ll have another chance to shape consensus and affect government policy. We’ll be publishing a report on the ‘golden age of infrastructure’, exploring, examining and explaining to stakeholders how sustainability skills are key to developing and delivering major transport and utility projects. Each of these projects – whether individually or collectively – can boost productivity and jobs, but they can also have immense environmental impacts if our profession does not have the right input.
We’ll tell you more about it in the months ahead, but first we need your views to help to shape what the report says and how we say it. We’re about to invite you to take part in a survey on sustainability skills in infrastructure developments, so please spare 15 minutes to add your views before the poll closes later this month. The bigger the response rate, the more robust the report will be when we take it to the government, the media and other professions later this year.
Your time is valuable, I know that – but so is the direction the country takes to ensuring environment and sustainability is infused into infrastructure for a thriving post-Brexit landscape. I’m asking you to ensure our profession is seen and heard on crucial issues. We cannot miss these opportunities to influence and inform, and we do that best collectively. Our voice is more resonant when we call together.
Get involved, and let’s bring power to the profession.
