From the knowledge hub: January 2011

Keeping you up to date with IEMA services and events

What do you value?

As part of our dedication to placing the environmental practitioner at the heart of change, we are continuing to build our knowledge about what members want from their membership.

During February, we will be looking at our membership services to ensure that IEMA, as your chosen professional body, is providing relevant and useful features.

Because the structure of the membership changes as it grows, we are always seeking to match the provision of services and benefits to the body of members and to align them with the demands and expectations placed on the practitioner.

To ensure that any reviews of our services are driven by member needs rather than assumptions, IEMA members will soon be asked to take part in an online survey which will gauge how they value IEMA’s services.

To help us learn about what services would be best placed with certain types of members, the survey asks about membership levels, length of membership, professional seniority and reasons for joining before it goes on to ask each member to rate the various services and benefits we currently provide.

These are broken down into categories including the website, publications, events, training and qualifications, technical services and other less tangible elements such as the community and networking opportunities presented by being a member of such a large and vibrant institute.

The survey also allows members to inform IEMA HQ about the services, benefits or features they would ideally like us to provide in the future to assist with their career development and day-to-day role as well as add any free comments about their membership experience.

Taking part in IEMA surveys and other research is your opportunity to help shape the institute and its voice so if you see a survey from us in your inbox, please spare 10 minutes to give us your valued feedback.

IEMA Knowledge Exchange

IEMA’s first major event for 2011, the Knowledge Exchange, has just taken place in Manchester. Hosted in association with Envirolink North West and supported by the Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network, NISP, the Technology Strategy Board and the University of East Anglia, the Knowledge Exchange is an integral part of IEMA’s professional development programme, facilitating links between leading researchers and environmental practitioners.

The event was held on Wednesday 19 January at the King’s House Conference Centre in central Manchester, and explored the five themes of water, SMEs, environmental assessment, communications and engagement, and life-cycle analysis, via a range of workshop approaches.

The event bought together almost 200 researchers, academics, environmental practitioners and others with a shared interest to discuss and debate innovative environmental research and its application within organisations.

A full review of the event, along with outcomes from the sessions and details of the new knowledge generated during the day, will feature in the February issue of the environmentalist, but in the meantime IEMA would like to thank Envirolink NW, our other partner organisations, the Knowledge Exchange Steering Group and all those who contributed to the conference.

Those members who could not attend can read the abstracts of the papers that generated the sessions.

Are you LinkedIn to IEMA?

There are several interesting postings on the IEMA group’s page on the professional networking site LinkedIn; if you haven’t done so already why not join the group to see what is being discussed?

The IEMA group on LinkedIn has become something of a forum for members to post questions, stimulate debate and discuss membership issues with each other away from the main IEMA discussion forums.

There are more than 1,200 members within the group from around the globe and IEMA would like to see many more of its 15,000 members join the discussions.

IEMA director of policy, Martin Baxter, has recently posted the following question: How do we best communicate the importance of the natural environment to business?

He wants to pull together examples of what works well, and what to avoid.

Other recent postings on the IEMA group’s LinkedIn page include:

• Are any full members willing to share how to construct the short paper needed for full membership?
  
• I am looking for some advice on which environmental management system certification is best suited to a large organisation.

• Are health and safety qualifications attractive to employers rather than an environmental qualification alone, when recruiting for environmental management jobs?

Members of the group have commented on these and other posts offering different points of view and helpful advice.

All IEMA members are invited to join the IEMA group on LinkedIn; if you already have a profile click here and join the conversation.