We are delighted to announce the launch of our new Steering Group for our Land Condition Early Career Network.

The Land Condition ECN is a community of professionals in the early stages of their careers, working in sectors and roles related to land condition. The Network provides a forum for IES members within this specialism to connect with fellow early careers professionals and support their career development through workshops, webinars and networking socials.

The Network was established in 2019 and over the last four years has delivered a number of successful events. Past events have focused on both soft skills, such as a workshop on managing others, as well as technical skills and knowledge such as a half-day event on handling big data. These events and meetups offer a friendly, supportive and accessible environment for members to build their skills, and provide an excellent CPD opportunity which can be used as evidence of development when upgrading from Associate to Full Member with the IES.

The Steering Group will support in delivering the activities of the ECN and play a leading role in shaping the work of the ECN. 

Meet the Steering Group: 

Sarah Poulton, Chair

Sarah is a Lead Specialist Advisor for Hydrogeology for Natural Resources Wales, and previously spent 8 years within remediation consultancy and contracting for a large environmental and engineering consultancy. She is a specialist in Controlled Water risk assessment, and is currently working alongside consultants and contractors in the nuclear and brownfield regeneration sectors. She is a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) with the IES, and recently worked within the SoBRA working group to deliver the guidance on how to implement the Climate Change within Controlled Waters risk assessment, which won two awards in the 2023 Brownfield Awards. She has a passion for helping the development of early careers professionals, and has led the RemSoc Early Career Practitioners sub-group for the Remediation Society (RemSoc) since its inception in 2017. She is looking forward to bringing her experience from this to the IES Land Condition Community in the role of Chair of the Early Career Network, and is excited to help re-establish and grow this group. 

Leanne Carr, Vice Chair

Leanne is a Senior Geo-environmental Consultant within the London Decommissioning and Restoration team at Worley Consulting, and has over 9 years’ experience working within the contaminated land field. During her career she has worked with various sectors including rail, commercial and residential, and has experienced a range of challenging sites, from large scale regeneration projects on infilled docklands to gasworks, landfills and petrol stations. Leanne became a Chartered Scientist through the IES in November 2023 and is a Registered Risk Assessor with SoBRA (human health and controlled waters), and she is hoping her experiences as a female engineer within the industry can help those starting out in their careers.  

Hannah Foster, Communications Officer

Hannah is a Senior Environmental Scientist at Jacobs with over eight years of consultancy experience across the environmental, petroleum and water sectors. Hannah graduated in 2012 with a MGeol Geology degree from the University of Leicester. Hannah currently specialises in providing environmental, land contamination and hydrogeological services to clients, supporting them from desk study stage through to completion and verification of site works. Hannah has been a full member of the IES since January 2022. Hannah enjoys walks in the countryside and gardening. 

Jessica Ho, Learning and Development Officer

Jess is a graduate environmental engineer at Neo Environmental. She graduated from University of Leeds and Newcastle University in 2021 and 2022. As an Early Career professional herself, she knows how tricky it can be to kickstart a career in environment, and she hopes that through her experiences, she can provide helpful advice and guidance to others in the Network.

Olivia Jackson, Events Officer

Olivia has been working in the industry for just over six years for both consultancy and remediation contracting firms. She is now the Remediation Manager for DB Remediation and focuses on the design and build of brownfield developments in the north-west.  

How to get involved

• Connect with other ECN members in our dedicated LinkedIn group and keep up to date with ECN activities
• Get in touch with topics you would like the ECN to explore.
• Join our Land Condition Community to attend bi-annual meetings to help shape our activities for the specialism and network with senior IES members.
• You can also catch up on previous webinars and workshops run for the Land Condition ECN on our dedicated YouTube playlist.