How are our choices about measurement affecting environmental decision?

Are we measuring what matters?

The choices we make about measuring the environment make a difference to how decisions are made, so we should make more informed decisions about how and what we measure.

When policy makers only measure the environment in terms of its economic value, much can be lost, and many values go unrecognised. If we want to support a systemic, joined-up approach to policy making, we also need a more holistic approach to measuring environmental outcomes.

This panel discussion will look at environmental measurement from three perspectives: 

• Jamie Gleave: Measuring environmental outcomes in practice from an EIA perspective
• Freya Roberts: What we learned from the process of building climate metrics for decision makers
• TBC: Measuring the water environment in the context of ongoing reforms

Following the presentations, there will be an opportunity for audience Q&A and cross-discussion on the panel.

This webinar is free and open to all.

Our speakers

Jamie Gleave: Senior EIA Technical Director, AECOM

With over 25 years' experience working in environmental consultancy, Jamie specialises in coordinating and reviewing Environmental Impact Assessments for major infrastructure schemes. His work spans the transportation, energy, waste, nuclear, and oil and gas sectors, with a strong technical focus on Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment.

Jamie has maintained the EIA Quality Mark for three multidisciplinary consultancies and frequently contributes to industry guidance, practitioner training and technical publications. He has represented projects as an expert witness at DCO examinations and currently serves on steering groups with both the IES and ISEP, helping guide and shape best practice across the profession.

Freya Roberts: Project Manager, UCL Climate Action Unit

Freya has a special interest in climate change communication. Following a BSc in Environmental Sciences at the University of Southampton, Freya gained experience across a range of roles in the climate sector including work in local authorities, non-profits and as a science writer for the website Carbon Brief. She joined UCL in 2016 to provide research support and became a founding member of the UCL Climate Action Unit at its inception in 2020. The Unit works to change how scientists, policymakers, businesses, media, civil society organisations and citizens engage with each other about climate change.

Her talk will introduce a project run by the UCL Climate Action Unit to design new climate metrics around the needs of policy makers. That project explored what policy makers want and need from a climate metric, plus how they might use it. It also looked more widely at the general traits of a metric that make it useful for its end user. The end result was a prototype dashboard containing three new climate metrics which communicate how the climate is changing and how we experience that change.

One more speaker to be announced

Our final speaker will present on the implications of measurement in the water environment, with a view to ongoing water reforms in England and Wales.

About our Environmental Policy Implementation Community

The Environmental Policy Implementation Community (EPIC) is a member-led, specialist interest group at the IES. The community works together to understand delivery challenges, support pracitioners and advocate for implementation-minded policy. Our members are local authority officers and others delivering action on air quality, climate change, nature recovery, contaminated land and noise pollution on the ground.

Membership of EPIC is free to all IES members, and all environmental professionals working in local authorities. You can register for membership here.

Header image credit: © Iryna | Adobe Stock