Increased emphasis on member engagement is a key theme for IEMA
Members will be aware of the work the Institute does to gather views to develop consultation responses and reports on important policy and practice issues.
Most recently IEMA engaged members – through workshops held around the UK and Ireland – in revising its position statement on climate change, which was first published in 2012. It will set out the policy directions IEMA would support and work to address through engagement with the government and other organisations as well as help build urgency across society for tackling global warming.
IEMA’s efforts to collaborate with members and ensure that governments, industry and employers worldwide benefit from the knowledge of environment and sustainability practitioners are about to take a big step up with a series of workshops during the remainder of 2014.
There are four main themes IEMA will be exploring with members over the next few months. These are:
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Views on the ISO 14001 draft international standard – giving members the opportunity to feed into both IEMA’s and the UK’s response to the public consultation phase of the review of the EMS standard, which is due to take place in the autumn.
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Skills for a sustainable economy – discussing the themes of what a sustainable economy needs to deliver. IEMA wants member feedback on what this means for skills to drive and deliver this change.
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Sustainability – following feedback last year from members and its merger in April with GACSO, IEMA is developing a stronger focus on sustainability. These workshops are an opportunity for members to help IEMA develop its activity in this critical area and its work with GACSO – for example, on the professionalisation of corporate sustainability.
- Environmental impact assessment – with the communities department (Dclg) soon to launch a consultation on increasing schedule 2 thresholds – which will reduce the number of EIAs in England – and Dclg implying that EIA is unlikely to be required in most cases for “brownfield” redevelopment, IEMA will seek members’ views via webinars and workshops.
Attending one or all of these workshop sessions will not only give members the chance to influence emerging policies but also to develop their knowledge and provide opportunities to network with likeminded professionals as well as be updated on other areas of IEMA activity.
There are more ways to engage with the IEMA’s activities beyond the hugely popular webinars and the above workshops, including the new sustainable resource management network. This increased emphasis on member engagement is a key theme for IEMA and will develop over the coming months. IEMA looks forward to seeing members at these events.
