EIA Community Debate - From concept to concrete: Bridging the gap between EIAs and construction

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Monday, 18 July 2022 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Online

Join us for the next EIA Community debate in which we will be exploring the link between EIAs and construction. Our EIA Community debates are a forum for thought-provoking, critical conversations around EIA from a science perspective. The Community aims to connect and support environmental scientists and practitioners working across a range of specialisms involved in the EIA process and to facilitate meaningful discussion on the key issues facing the sector.

Previous discussions at EIA debates have highlighted the need for better connection between EIA professionals and the design process. This event takes that thinking further, exploring how EIAs can play a role in supporting positive environmental outcomes at the construction stage. 

We will be joined by three expert speakers to explore this topic: 

  • Workshop - Bridging the gap between EIAs and construction, Eleni Antoniades 
  • The role of EIA professionals in supporting contractors in meeting biodiversity net gain requirements, Louise Fox
  • Case study of habitat creation opportunities on a major infrastructure project, Tim Snell

Register your place now to take advantage of the opportunity to network with fellow professionals and discuss how expertise can be utilised to lead to better project and environmental outcomes.  


Our speakers 

Eleni Antoniades, Vice Chair at the IES, is a Project Environmental Lead with more than 17 years’ experience in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Construction Environmental Management of infrastructure projects. In recent years, her focus has been on the delivery of aviation and defence infrastructure working on reducing the environmental impacts of the detail design and construction in highly sensitive environments. Eleni’s background is in environmental science and she has a technical and practical approach, helping to ensure projects go beyond legislative compliance and environmental requirements, into best practice, current methods and new technology, in order to avoid and prevent environmental impacts at every stage. At the IES she has an interest in advocating science based environmental practice. She founded, and continues to play a leading role, in the EIA community.

Louise Fox is a senior ecological consultant at Thomson Environmental Consultants and specialises in the fields of biodiversity net gain assessment, Habitat Regulations Assessments and ecological impact assessments. Louise has experience in ecological consultancy as well as local government, having worked as a LPA ecology officer in Oxfordshire.

Tim Snell is a Chartered Planning Consultant with over sixteen years’ experience in the planning and consenting of major infrastructure projects. He has accumulated significant experience of some of the most complex and challenging infrastructure projects in the UK including the Silvertown Tunnel, Thames Tideway Tunnel, the Lee Tunnel, Crossrail, and a number of on-shore windfarm projects. Tim has amassed experience of the complexities of the environmental assessment and consenting major infrastructure schemes in constrained urban environments, and developed expertise within multiple consent regimes, including under the Planning Acts, the Transport and Works Act, and the Hybrid Bill process.  Tim's particular area of expertise is in the planning, environmental assessment and consenting of major infrastructure projects. He has a forensic understanding of the planning system and ability to develop a robust planning strategy from the outset of a project, and is experienced in presenting the case for a project in planning terms. On the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, he made significant contributions to the planning process from project inception to delivery, culminating in his position as Consents Lead for the Project, where he managed a team of environmental and planning specialists across multiple contracts. He has experience across multiple sectors including renewable energy, waste and water, and transport projects.