IEMA's Impact 2022

In part one of this new series, Martin Baxter, deputy CEO, IEMA, reports back on IEMA’s growing influence and activity

It was another busy year for IEMA in 2022, with significant achievements in our policy and advocacy work and promotion of the profession.

A core focus has been green jobs and skills, building on our prior-year evidence session to the House of Commons Select Committee inquiry. We partnered with Deloitte to develop and publish insight and research on mainstreaming green skills across the economy, as well as developing a toolkit for organisations to be able to evaluate the workforce transformation needed in order to thrive in a green and sustainable economy.

Our ‘all jobs greener’ work underpinned our participation at COP27 in Egypt, with sessions in both the international ‘blue’ and national ‘green’ zones on green jobs, skills and careers. It was an opportunity to highlight the role of the sustainability profession in driving positive climate action, as well as raising our profile on a global stage. This is also reflected through our participation in the government’s Green Jobs Delivery Group, working with ministers and officials across four departments to support the creation of 480,000 green jobs by 2030.

Targets and principles

Implementation of the Environment Act 2021 was a crucial opportunity to help ensure the effectiveness of the new environmental governance framework. Our work with members, overseen by our new Policy and Practice Committee, informed our input on legally binding environmental targets and principles. Early in 2022, we published updated Environmental Investigation Agency guidance on assessing the significance of greenhouse gas emissions associated with new developments. Our methodology has been widely adopted and used as the reference point as an input to decision-making.

At the heart of IEMA

Providing continuing development opportunities and setting standards for professionals remained at the core of IEMA’s delivery in 2022, with our member conference, IEMA Connect, a highly attended webinar series, and an engaging events programme hosted by our regional networks. In forthcoming issues, we will take a closer look at the impacts of this work.