With the UK general election two months away, IEMA is seeking to learn members' views on what the next government should prioritise and create some discussion on emerging party policies on environmental issues.
UK members will find a postcard included with this month’s issue of the environmentalist and are encouraged to use it as a prompt to ask candidates seeking their votes on how they plan to:
- bridge the sustainability skills gap;
- create a society with opportunities for all;
- solve complex environmental problems (for example, urban air quality);
- give business the confidence to invest long-term in sustainability;
- drive green growth and jobs across the economy;
- balance new infrastructure demands with community and biodiversity interests; and
- address environmental matters that are important to the electrorate.
We are very interested to find out how candidates respond, so have created a special election 2015 Twitter hashtag, #SustainableMP, to gather all your tweets. Remember to use #SustainableMP and tag @iemanet when tweeting your experiences. This will help us to establish where each party and candidate stands on the issues that are important to the environment and sustainability profession.
UK members will have also been invited to take part in two quick polls, on climate change and energy and resources. We have been delighted by the response. The results from these polls not only enable us to create an IEMA membership consensus on where you think the opportunities lie for the next government, but also create some member-driven media stories at this critical time.