As 2024 draws to a close and Christmas lies ahead, we’re thinking about what’s really important over the festive season: family.
The last couple of years have seen the IES family grow – we’ve welcomed a number of established, committed and valued environmental organisations into the fold. It’s fair to say that the IES family is snowballing!
Together with the IES, these communities are now helping to drive the organisation forward in its vision of interdisciplinarity, connectivity, and expertise for environmental science, and the environmental professions. As part of our growth, we are strengthening our cross-community work with landmark events like the Dialogue between Disciplines conference, and building interdisciplinarity into our strategy. Bringing on a wealth of new members from different sectors, disciplines and professional backgrounds has already been transformative for the IES outlook and vision for the future, and we are excited to support our diverse new communities and members achieve their professional and environmental goals.
But wait – there’s myrrh (sorry)! As Christmas rolls around, we’re feeling nostalgic. Along with members of our newly expanded IES family, it’s time to look back on everything we have achieved at the IES this year, and celebrate the exciting developments for the organisational family that are just around the corner in 2025.
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| IES CEO Adam Donnan at the 2024 ESS Expo (Source: IES) |
The IES family is growing
This year, the Foundation for Water Research (FWR) got a striking new look: the new FWR branding and website were launched in September, marking an important milestone in the FWR’s history. We launched the new FWR Analysis article series, which hosts written contributions from across the community and beyond, covering cutting-edge topics in the water sector like how AI innovation can help manage flooding across the UK, and how groundwater PFAS pollution can be remediated with a game-changing in-situ method.
Our technical panels have been working tree-mendously hard, convening expert roundtable discussions exploring the challenges facing the water sector, how we can unlock a positive future for water resources management and enable nature-based solutions with multiple benefits for people and nature. They have also been dedicating their time to reviewing and updating FWR publications and publishing new ones – watch out for our latest publication on integrated water management and economic growth.
Next year is already looking like it’s going to be a (snow) ball, with plans in place for more roundtable discussions, webinars, publications and a focus on integrated and systems thinking approaches to the challenges facing the water environment.
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| The new FWR branding and website was launched in 2024 |
The new Environmental Policy Implementation Community (EPIC) was officially born in February this year, following the merger of Environmental Protection UK (EPUK), the UK’s oldest environmental charity, with the IES. While still young, EPIC has already achieved some impressive results: including its first conference, and the release of its Air Quality and Climate Change Guidance for local authorities. The guidance in particular has been a resounding success, with Air Quality Minister, Emma Hardy MP, describing the guidance as "a comprehensive and valuable resource which I am sure local authorities will welcome", and stating that she believes “the Environmental Policy Implementation Community to be a valuable programme".
EPIC will be cooking up a feast in 2025; with plans to publish a report on how mandatory biodiversity net gain is working in practice, produce environmental implementation guidance & tools, and continue to support environmental professionals on a range of delivery challenges.
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| Sarah Legge presenting the new AQCC Guidance at the 2024 Epic Conference |
NCLOG
The IES is very pleased to welcome the most recent addition to its family, just in time for the festive period: the National Contaminated Land Officers’ Group (NCLOG). Joining the IES as part of EPIC will bring NCLOG alongside the existing IES Land Condition Community, and welcome over 200 new members specialising in contamination, remediation, and land condition assessment. It’s safe to say that the “landscape” of the IES will be changing for the better in 2025 as a result!
Our family Christmas card newsletter
In June this year, preceding the election of a new Labour government in the UK, the IES delivered a discussion event series, leading to the publication of our message to the next UK Government: ‘How to transform the UK for sustainable wellbeing: priority actions for the next UK Government’. Informed by conversations steered by our members and communities, each of the seven discussions established a ‘top priority’ for an area of environmental science: among others, these included a call to commit to a ‘transformative change’ approach to climate change, championing local authorities to deliver for the environment, and embedding ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) into UK education.
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| Attendees at the Dialogue between Disciplines conference 2024 (Source: IES) |
This year has also seen the publication of the IES Strategy for 2024-2027, which reaffirms the two core IES purposes: 1) to unite science and people to resolve environmental challenges, and 2) to create and sustain a knowledgeable, skilled, diverse, and trusted environmental profession engaged in the transformation to a sustainable society. The range of our activities this year – including our regular webinars, analysis articles, training and events – all drive forward our vision for the IES’s role in the environmental sciences.
Finally, in November, we held our 22nd annual Burntwood Lecture, with Professor Carolyn Roberts speaking on the relationship between the environmental sciences and the law. Carolyn’s lecture covered the implications of environmental science for forensic science, the complexity of ‘wicked problems’, and the importance of interdisciplinary thinking. This was followed by some insightful discussion on the nature of legal action and the environment from three expert panellists, Dr Claire Holman, Professor Simon Spooner, and Kyle Lischak from ClientEarth.
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| Burntwood Lecture 2024: from L-R, IES Chair Bernard Devereux, speaker Professor Carolyn Roberts, and respondents Dr Claire Holman, Professor Simon Spooner, and Kyle Lischak |
A final note
That’s a wrap for 2024! We are delighted to be accelerating and mobilising our vision for the future of environmental science and the environmental professions, across the scope of the IES communities and family, and beyond – and it is the support, expertise, and passion of our members that allow us to pursue that vision. Stay tuned for an exciting 2025 – it’s going to be a cracker!
