Your feedback from our 2026 Membership Survey

Every other year, our Membership Survey gives us the opportunity to hear directly from the people who shape the Institution. Whether you've been a member for decades or joined recently, your feedback helps us understand what's working well, where we can improve, and what matters most to you as professionals.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the 2026 survey. Over 270 members shared their views on our publications, Communities, events, professional development opportunities, and the future priorities of the Institution.

Every response has been read and discussed within the team, and whilst we can’t address each of them, we’d like to respond to some of the themes.

How can I connect with other IES members?

A lot of respondents said that they’d like to be more involved in helping to shape the work of the organisation and to interact more with other members. There are lots of opportunities to get involved, and it’s not just interdisciplinary conferences like Dialogue Between Disciplines that facilitate connection with other members. 

All six of our Communities bring professionals together around shared goals and interests: Air Quality, Climate Action, Education and Training, Environmental Impact Assessment, Land Condition, Marine and Coastal, Policy Implementation, and Water. Communities are member-led and develop their own workplan of projects to help steer the IES. There are also Early Careers Networks for air quality and land condition.

IES Members can join Communities through the Manage my Communities form in the Members' Portal – you’ll receive Community newsletters in which you’ll find activity updates, advertisements of committee vacancies, and more.

If you would like to join a Community but you’re unsure which Community suits your interests, the IES Team can help guide you based on your background and professional goals. If you are interested in joining any of the Communities or finding out more about how you can get involved, please get in touch with our Communities & Membership Engagement Officer.

Events

A common piece of feedback amongst members was a desire for our in-person events to be held in a range of places.

Our upcoming Routes to Clean Air conference will be held in Birmingham and the Land Condition Symposium will be held in Reading. In previous years, we have hosted these conferences in London, Leeds, Manchester, Wolverhampton, and Bristol. We appreciate that no location will suit everyone who wants to attend, and that traveling for events can be expensive or otherwise infeasible. And whilst we try to move our conferences around the country as much as possible, one of the reasons we host regular free online webinars, including on land condition and air quality, is that those with less access to in-person events will still have opportunities to interact with our services and network within their field.

Our YouTube channel is also a great place to catch up. Everything from report launch events and webinars through to forums can be found easily and re-watched at your leisure. It’s a great resource if you’re pushed for time in your working day and are unable to attend our live webinars, or would like to learn more about fascinating subjects outside of your specialism.

CPD

Many respondents told us that they would benefit from clearer guidance on CPD requirements: more examples of which professional activities count towards CPD, and regular reminders to log it in our CPD tool throughout the year. We will continue to review how we communicate CPD requirements, to make it easier for members to plan and record their professional development.

Several members also asked for more practical training opportunities and a broader range of topics supporting professional skills development. We are continuing to roll out our highly popular policy training sessions, which started in February this year, with plans to launch training on Ecology and Freshwater Biology, Ethics and around some of our Guidance later in the year.

Publications

Our journal remains one of our members’ favourite resources overall, and underwent a branding tweak over the last year to bring it in line with the wider IES look.

The most popular of last year’s journals was ‘Are we measuring what matters?’ – an edition that spanned disciplines to answer important questions about how and why we use indicators in environmental science. Survey respondents had many ideas for future journal editions, some of which we will be taking forward for future consideration. In the meantime, members are encouraged to share ideas for website analysis articles, water research, and their own projects, with the Publications team.

Each issue of our journal is printed on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper and the CO2 emissions generated by the production, storage and distribution of the paper are captured through the Woodland Trust’s Carbon Capture scheme. If you wish to receive a digital copy rather than a paper one, you can toggle this option on the Communications Preference form.

To finish

Thank you once again to everyone who completed the survey. Your feedback plays a vital role in helping us ensure that the Institution continues to evolve in response to the needs of our members and the environmental profession.

Read the Membership Survey report.
 

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