What is TALK Board?
The Transformative Action Local Knowledge Board (TALK Board) is a knowledge sharing resource for Local Authorities to exchange case studies to support climate action. TALK Board is managed by the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES), which is responsible for reviewing submitted case studies and including them on the platform.
TALK Board is hosted on Google Sheets, where links to case study overviews, the submission form for case studies, case study titles, and participant comments will be stored. The substantive details of case studies will be stored on the IES website as overviews constructed from submissions made by participants.
If you decide to participate, you will be given access to the TALK Board platform so that you can see and comment on case studies. If you decide to submit a case study, it will be sent to the IES through a Google Form. Submitted case studies will be reviewed at regular intervals throughout the year by a small panel including a representative of the IES and IES members.
How will you collect, process, store and delete data?
We are legally required to comply with the GDPR in the collection, processing and storage of data. In order to participate, we require you to confirm you are happy with our data protection policies and procedures, as well as those of third parties that are used in this process (namely Google Sheets and Google Forms in this instance), via the case study submission form.
Three types of data will be collected from participants: (1) initial contact details which are used to allow participation on the TALK Board; (2) further contact details collected from participants who submit case studies under Section 1 of the case study submission form; (3) case study details collected from participants who submit case studies under Section 2 of the case study submission form. Throughout this notice, data types 1 and 2 are referred to as “contact details” and data type 3 is referred to as “case study data”.
The TALK Board is hosted on Google Sheets, and the case study submission form is hosted on Google Forms. Google’s storage and processing of this data is subject to GDPR. Submissions via the form are only accessible by the IES and its representatives as described below. Google does not access or transfer data submitted via Google Forms except when for legitimate business purposes. Once data has been deleted by the IES as described below, it will not remain on the IES Google Drive and is expected to be safely and completely deleted from all Google backup systems following Google’s deletion process. For more information, please consult the terms and conditions for Google Forms, Google Drive terms of service, and Google’s Privacy Policy.
Submissions will be downloaded as soon as reasonably possible; no later than 28 days after the end date of each case study review, and stored on IES remote servers. Case study data will then be permanently deleted from Google Forms manually. At this time, contact details will be retained on IES servers for the duration of that contact’s participation in TALK Board.
Any data provided, including special category data, in any submissions associated with TALK Board, as well as any answers provided as part of the case study submission, will be stored securely on IES remote servers. These servers are not directly connected to the internet and can only be accessed by authorised individuals from the IES office using designated passwords, and documents within those servers can be additionally password protected. Servers are backed up every 30 days. Data pertaining to contact details for participating organisations will be stored on the IES servers in password protected documents for as long as the organisation is a TALK Board participant, after which they will be permanently deleted.
During the review process, case study data will be stored on the IES servers in password protected documents which will be accessible by authorised individuals from the IES office as well as IES members who have been selected to participate in the review process. Case study data relating to unsuccessful case studies will be stored on the IES servers for no more than 90 days after the end of the review in case there are further questions relating to the case study and why it was unsuccessful, or participants seek to resubmit the case study in the subsequent review round.
Case study data relating to successful case studies will be stored on the public IES website for consumption by participants in the TALK Board platform. The data will be stored on publicly accessible pages, though a direct link to either the case study overview or the TALK Board directory will be necessary to access the page. The directory and case study overviews will not be directly linked through other parts of the IES website, but please be aware that these direct links will be available on the TALK Board platform which other participating organisations will be able to access.
As a consequence, case study data submitted as part of successful case studies (including contact details and links to strategy documents submitted in response to the 6th question in Section 2) is likely to enter into the public domain (including on the IES website, TALK Board Google Sheets pages, social media accounts, and other platforms), and participating organisations should be aware of this when submitting such details via the case study submission form.
Please note, there will be no cross-referencing of organisations participating in TALK Board with accounts held by the IES in their online database CiviCRM. Data will be strictly kept separately from any existing records or accounts for participants, including IES members.
Will my participation be kept confidential?
Your participation on the TALK Board is likely to identify you to other participants, especially if you submit a case study which includes information about your organisation’s work or contact details. As a consequence, your participation and the participation of your organisation may enter into the public domain (including on the IES website, TALK Board Google Sheets pages, social media accounts, and other platforms). Participating organisations should be aware of this when submitting such details via the case study submission form.
Use of case studies on other platforms and social media
There is a possibility that a number of successful case studies will additionally be highlighted on other platforms and social media accounts. Separate consent for participant case studies to be highlighted on other platforms and social media is requested on the case study submission form. Choosing not to consent to this will not affect the success of the case study or the ability to participate in any other aspect of TALK Board.
If consent is given under the case study submission form for the participant case study to be highlighted on other platforms and social media, case study data may be included on those platforms in part or in its entirety. No additional data will be collected for this purpose without explicit consent being provided, and no data will be stored solely for these purposes.
As with case study overviews on TALK Board and the IES website, no contact details collected under section 1 of the case study submission form will be used in these highlights, though any case study data submitted under section 2 of the case study submission form may be used in part or in its entirety.
Can I withdraw from participating?
You may withdraw yourself, your organisation, and your data from TALK Board at any time while you are a participant, without giving a reason and without penalty, by advising the IES contact listed on TALK Board of this decision. At this point, you may also submit a request under your right to erasure. For more information, consult the Information Commissioner’s Office website.
A request to confirm withdrawal will be sent at the earliest opportunity, after which any details you wish to withdraw will be removed from IES servers, the IES website, TALK Board, and any additional IES platforms as appropriate. You can choose to remove any details you have shared in their entirety or in any part, without this affecting your future participation in TALK Board or other IES projects.
What if something goes wrong?
If for any reason you wish to make a complaint, please contact Joseph Lewis, Policy Officer, or Dan Ward, Data Protection Officer, on the contact details below. The TALK Board team are happy to arrange phone calls to discuss any informal concerns. However, you can inform either of these named individuals by email if you wish for a paper trail to be included as part of your concern or complaint. This will help the TALK Board team support you if something has gone wrong relating to your participation, or address any complaints you may have regarding the conduct in which the team have acted, in your experience as a participant, or if you have concerns regarding the information or data you have provided, how this is processed, stored or deleted, or for any other concern/complaint you have.
Contact details and further information
Name: Joseph Lewis
Title: Policy Officer
Email: joseph@the-ies.org
Name: Dan Ward (he/him)
Title: Data Protection Officer
Telephone: 0203 862 7484
Email: dan@the-ies.org
Name: Adam Donnan
Title: CEO
Telephone 0203 862 7484
Email: info@the-ies.org
For further information, please also read the general IES privacy statement.
