Refreshing information sources
IEMA has relaunched, renamed and added to its e-briefing series to create an up-to-date set of useful, accessible and informative reference notes for environment practitioners
The series, which was launched in 2011, is now formed of factsheets and practitioner notes. A variety of in-depth and topic-specific business briefings will also be introduced in early 2013.
Factsheets
The factsheets are single-sheet notes, featuring introductory-level information on specific issues.
These sheets are now available covering the following topics:
- biodiversity offsetting; and
- effective non-technical summaries for environmental impact assessment (EIA).
Practitioner notes
The practitioner notes are four sides of A4 in length and are best viewed as a PDF (which can be downloaded from iema.net).
They include a greater level of detail and have been published under the following headings:
- environment management systems (EMS) and greenhouse-gas (GHG) reductions;
- green-tariff electricity;
- schemes and standards for GHG accounting and management;
- carbon neutrality;
- considering ecosystems services in EIA; and
- accredited third-party certification services.
The practitioner note examining the role of accredited third-party certification is the latest addition to the range. Written by IEMA’s Ed Barlow, with contributions from several members – Adrian Clamp (J Coffey Construction), Janet Gascoigne (UKAS), Chris Passmore (2sB), (Anuj Saush (EDF Energy), James Smith (Sustainability Consultants) and Ben Vivian (Vivian Partnership) – the document covers some of the main factors to be considered when using certification services, mainly from the perspective of ISO 14001.
New publications
New factsheets due to published in the coming months will cover:
- ecosystems services;
- environmental reporting and green claims;
- the environmental business case;
- value chains;
- implementing an EMS;
- an introduction to EIA;
- change management; and
- data management.
Meanwhile, new practitioner notes for 2013 will provide information on:
- environmentally enabled design;
- evaluating the significance of climate change in EIA; and
- delivering EIA’s promises post-consent.
Links to the factsheets and practitioner notes are available on the iema.net homepage or the online IEMA reading room – the home of all IEMA reference materials.